Meaning Of Uncanniness In Poe's The Spectacles

Poe’s The Spectacles exists in stark contrast to Freud’s explanation of the meaning of uncanniness in The Uncanny. Freud attempts to illustrate the meaning of the word ‘uncanny’ through several methods. If, he reasons, he is able to come to the same conclusion as to what the word means in both instances, he has found the meaning. He describes the word as something that is both familiar and unfamiliar instantaneously. That an object to one seems so familiar but is slightly different evokes a sentiment of fear from the person the object is having an effect on. Whereas The Spectacles contains the elements necessary to qualify as uncanny using Freud’s definition, the product of that uncanniness in Poe’s story is missing—a sentiment of fear or …show more content…
Considering that the protagonist’s eyes are “weak [to] a very inconvenient degree,” and that he still fell for a woman whom he could only see from afar at the theater, one can infer that he could not possibly know how the woman truly looks, only how he perceives her. From the protagonist’s point of view—in The Spectacles—he believes himself to be engaged to a woman who is of extreme beauty and who is only slightly older than himself. He becomes familiarized with seeing this woman’s face through the lens of his poor eyesight. When he sees the woman’s true face—for the first time without impaired vision—he is horrified to see an old woman. Additionally, this shock is absorbed by the reader as well; as, throughout the previous writing in the novella, the narrator—who is also the protagonist—never mentions that the woman he falls for is an elderly woman, leaving the audience in a state of unknowing as to who is the woman. Her face was slightly different than he was acclimated to, therefore he was horrified because—in addition to believing he is about to marry an old woman—the face he sees is uncanny to him in relation to the woman he believes he initially sees. Some may claim that the story does not contain the necessary requirements to be considered uncanny in that the reader can extrapolate that the protagonist is engaged with his relative, and in this the reader is unsurprised during the climax; however, regardless of what the reader is able to extrapolate, the narrator never mentions to them the true identity of the woman until the protagonist finds