Part Two: Symbolism
Elements are the building blocks of a piece of literature. Without them, the work ceases to hold meaning, emotion, and intrigue. In regard to Poe, the lack of elements results in the absence of the Unity of Effect, which would therefore make the work pointless and the intent not original to Poe. However, Poe masterfully pieces together elements, specifically symbols, in his works in order to gain the strongest possible reaction from his readers. Symbols create mystery, meaning, and intrigue, which add to the emotions the reader experiences. In The Oval Portrait, Poe symbolizes illusion and reality in the form of light and dark. The speaker goes back and forth between the two: “The rays of numerous candles (for there were …show more content…
In this short story, there is a rich, yet faded, tapestry in the castle of the Metzengerstein’s. The tapestry depicts an “enormous and unnaturally colored horse” (28) that belonged to one of the ancestors of the Berlifitzing family. The horse stands “motionless and statue-like” (28) in the foreground of the image while a Metzengerstein kills a Berlifitzing in the background. The description location of the horse alone draws negative feelings and images. First, it is enormous and positioned in the front of the tapestry, which will draw one’s eye to it immediately, where one would then see that it is “unnaturally colored”. This implants the idea that the horse itself isn’t just an average horse – that perhaps something is wrong with it and that it is unnatural. The young Frederick Metzengerstein is gazing at the tapestry, but looks away for a moment, as he begins to feels intensely and overwhelmingly anxious. These feelings are put upon the character from staring at the horse in the tapestry, which furthers the unnatural and uncomfortable sense surrounding the horse. However, for the brief moment that the character looks away, when he looks back, the image has changed. Previously, the horse’s neck had been arched away and the face was previously unable to be seen. The horse’s head had moved so that it was looking out of the tapestry, the most noticeable parts being the eyes and the teeth: “The neck of the animal, before arched, as if in compassion, over the prostrate body of its lord, was now extended at full length, in the direction of the Baron [Frederick Metzengerstein]. The eyes, before invisible, now wore an energetic, and human expression; while they gleamed with a fiery, and unusual red, and the distended lips of the apparently enraged horse left in full view his sepulchral and disgusting teeth.”
Elements are the building blocks of a piece of literature. Without them, the work ceases to hold meaning, emotion, and intrigue. In regard to Poe, the lack of elements results in the absence of the Unity of Effect, which would therefore make the work pointless and the intent not original to Poe. However, Poe masterfully pieces together elements, specifically symbols, in his works in order to gain the strongest possible reaction from his readers. Symbols create mystery, meaning, and intrigue, which add to the emotions the reader experiences. In The Oval Portrait, Poe symbolizes illusion and reality in the form of light and dark. The speaker goes back and forth between the two: “The rays of numerous candles (for there were …show more content…
In this short story, there is a rich, yet faded, tapestry in the castle of the Metzengerstein’s. The tapestry depicts an “enormous and unnaturally colored horse” (28) that belonged to one of the ancestors of the Berlifitzing family. The horse stands “motionless and statue-like” (28) in the foreground of the image while a Metzengerstein kills a Berlifitzing in the background. The description location of the horse alone draws negative feelings and images. First, it is enormous and positioned in the front of the tapestry, which will draw one’s eye to it immediately, where one would then see that it is “unnaturally colored”. This implants the idea that the horse itself isn’t just an average horse – that perhaps something is wrong with it and that it is unnatural. The young Frederick Metzengerstein is gazing at the tapestry, but looks away for a moment, as he begins to feels intensely and overwhelmingly anxious. These feelings are put upon the character from staring at the horse in the tapestry, which furthers the unnatural and uncomfortable sense surrounding the horse. However, for the brief moment that the character looks away, when he looks back, the image has changed. Previously, the horse’s neck had been arched away and the face was previously unable to be seen. The horse’s head had moved so that it was looking out of the tapestry, the most noticeable parts being the eyes and the teeth: “The neck of the animal, before arched, as if in compassion, over the prostrate body of its lord, was now extended at full length, in the direction of the Baron [Frederick Metzengerstein]. The eyes, before invisible, now wore an energetic, and human expression; while they gleamed with a fiery, and unusual red, and the distended lips of the apparently enraged horse left in full view his sepulchral and disgusting teeth.”