Abstract
Edgar Allan Poe argues in his Marginalia column that “indefiniteness is an element … of the true musical expression.” Music is a powerful device for expression because of its intangible yet deeply rooted connection to human emotion; it captures ideas that cannot always be put into words. In a similar way, we can never truly “hear” music if it is only described on a page. Poe used this phenomenon on a literary level to illustrate a character’s deep, almost indescribable longing for something that they would rarely reveal to the other people in their stories. The references to instrumental music and song in two of Poe’s most iconic short stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Ligeia,” reflect the inner emotional and psychological workings of the stories’ mysterious titular characters. In turn, the fixations of Roderick Usher and Lady Ligeia, given voice through their songs (metaphorical poems interpolated into the drama by Poe after the stories were already finished), inform the larger themes of each narrative. However, neither the song nor the message exists only on the page. Poe's utilization of both “indefinite” music and textual detail encourages us to take part in deciphering the greater emotional complexity of the work — to take part in finishing the song.
Recommended Citation
O'Conor, Sadie
(2020)
"Song: The Emotional Storyteller in the Tales of Edgar Allan Poe,"
The Criterion: Vol. 2020, Article 10.
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/criterion/vol2020/iss1/10
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons