"The Masque of Red Death" and Freud

[groovintransit]

I am trying to understand Poe's short story through a Freudian analysis. Can anyone tell me if they think that the ebony clock is representative of the female hymen?

[Tis]

groov...

Clearly, any serious consideration, as regards this question, must also assume there is some cause and effect that would prompt such a question in the first instance. Perhaps, if you truly are serious, you might share, with some measurable specificity, more precisely what thought processes this Freudian analysis employed to arrive at such a curious conclusion.

Regards

[Woland]

groov...

Clearly, any serious consideration, as regards this question, must also assume there is some cause and effect that would prompt such a question in the first instance. Perhaps, if you truly are serious, you might share, with some measurable specificity, more precisely what thought processes this Freudian analysis employed to arrive at such a curious conclusion.

Regards

That quite sensible line of thinking never stopped Harold Bloom :lol:

[groovintransit]

I have only recently began a study of Freud, and the reason I ask this question is that I am writing a brief freudian analysis on Poes "The Masque of Red Death", as speciefied by my lecturer. Hence, although usually I would not see a hymen sybolised in the ivory clock...I am searching for any phallic symbology which could be present in the story. Where I am heading with this is - I am guessing that the intruder is representing Poe's father...and the chase into the black room could be the penetration into the mother. ie relating to the Oedipus Complex

[Tis]

groov

You must forgive me if my previous question appeared somewhat incredulous, but then, I am confident you can understand my curiosity. I will readily confess that I have never studied Freud beyond what routine biographical information may be of interest. However, I have maintained an avid and abiding interest in Mr. Poe, his life and his works for more than 45 years. Consequently, while I have only a rudimentary understanding of the fundamentals of Freud’s work, specifically his Oedipus theory, my understanding of Mr. Poe goes much deeper.

In my studies, which includes much of Mr. Poe’s personal correspondence with his contemporaries, it has been my experience that history, that is to say, the biographers of Mr. Poe, are almost universally predisposed to apply 20th century psychoanalysis to this 19th century literary genius. Strangely, almost without exception, attempts at analysis by the vast majority of biographer’s falls far short of studying Mr. Poe himself and tend to apply this psycho-scrutiny to his works of fiction. Again, almost without exception, these biographers seem to dismiss the Law of Parsimony and habitually ignore the many paradoxes they provoke in their conclusions.

Of one thing, I am absolutely certain and I am confident that no literary scholar of Poe’s work could or would deny it. This is the principle of “unity of effect”, a literary rationale of Mr. Poe himself. This is a fundamental tenet of the short story form that Mr. Poe routinely went to great exertions to avoid violating. This principle simply states that every word or phrase, action or event, setting, timing, tone... everything must support the author’s singular predetermined effect. The Masque of the Red Death, unlike many of Poe’s stories, is not written in the first person, but rather, as a third party might relate the tale. This is consistent with the tale because there were no survivors, thus upholding the singular effect. There is nothing in this tale that I can see to suggest a psychosexual effect and if there were, Poe would have established this in the very first paragraph. Neither the setting, tone, the action, nothing seems to support this effect.

This singular effect, in my view, was the inevitability of death, regardless of wealth or status or privilege. I have written a summary of this tale in another thread here below titled Masque of the Red Death started by Dei. Certainly, the ebony clock that rested on the western most wall of the seventh and final chamber was symbolic for, if you recall, it tolled ominously every hour and in that final hours it ticked off the minutes. It simply represented the inevitable, unstoppable, unalterable passing of time until the conclusion of the final day and the final hour, in the final chamber at midnight...

“And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay.. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” (Edgar A. Poe 1809-1849)

[groovintransit]

Thanks Tis, I appreciate your feedback. I am having a hard time finding a sexual conontation to the story, as I also see the main idea being the inevitability of death. But I will have to keep looking for freudian ideas as that is the criteria of my essay. regards