Edgar Allen Poe and Behind a Mask

Edgar Allen Poe is one of my favorite authors.  Ever since I read his stories for the first time in sixth grade, I became engrossed by his vivid, rich detail and grotesque, but intriguing stories.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia" were the two short stories we read.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" is about how the narrator visits his old friend Usher, and stays with him because he is very sick.  Usher ends up burying his sister, Madeline alive.  Madeline escapes to fall into Usher's arms where he dies and the house begins to split in two and crumble as the narrator escapes.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" has many Gothic elements.  First, the house can be considered a doppelganger.  The house is mirrored in the water, so there are two houses, and when the house splits, the "blood-red" moon shines through, demonstrating how death prevails over life.  Edgar Allen Poe vividly personifies the furniture in the room, giving it lifelike qualities.  The House itself is almost described as a person, and is very spiritual.  Where traditional Gothic has supernatural elements, Poe concentrates on the psychology of the mind, and Usher's begins to whither away at the beginning and is totally destroyed by the end.  The Fall of the family, or the death of Usher and his sister at the end, signify the fall of the family because there is no one left to carry the line.

Ligeia is a longer story that is centered around Edgar Allen Poe's love interest, who dies.  Ligeia dies in the book, and the narrator continues his fantasies about her even though he remarries.  His addiction to opium makes him an unreliable narrator.  For example, when his second wife is poisoned, he believes that the poison appeared magically in the wine he served her, but in reality, he most likely poured it in himself.  His obsession of Ligeia mirrors Poe's obsession over his lover in real life.  Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott is so far the most interesting book we have read in my opinion.  The character development of Jean Muir is extraordinary and she is cunning, deceitful, but so clever that she is instantly likable.  Her performance to the family in order to gain their trust and manipulate them is very entertaining and I cannot wait to finish the book.