Audio Re-tellings of Poe
While you could use YouTube.com to find re-tellings of Poe's stories, you can also find free audio versions on Librivox, the audio equivalent to Project Gutenberg.
Check out Librivox's web site, by visiting http://librivox.org/
Check out Librivox's web site, by visiting http://librivox.org/
Poe at the Movies
Poe’s stories have inspired many reproductions in the form of films. However, Poe has inspired a variety of movies outside his stories. A majority of Poe’s stories cover three specific types of themes: love and hate, self versus alter ego, and the power of death over the living . While some films have been directly inspired from his stories, there are many others that share a connection with Poe’s aforementioned immortal themes.
Love and hate are universal emotions that inhabit stories just like the theme of good versus evil. Poe explores love and hate in many of his stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Black Cat.” In each of these tales, the narrator has suffered some offence. Though they were once at peace and had affection for those they perceived have offended, they take upon themselves to cross the moral line and murder the individuals. In the movie “Duplex” starring Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller, their characters are in search in of a new apartment in New York. They find an apartment that it is dreamy but it has an upstairs resident. She’s old and initially seems no harm. They believe that she will probably die soon, and they would inherit the top floor. However, they do not realize they have been duped. Soon they find themselves being harassed by the old woman, suffering issues like job loss, and eventually, they start to behave desperately, going as far as to try and kill the old woman. The rivalry continues until the couple evicts themselves. They sell the apartment and leave the next couple to deal with the woman. On the day, the new couple arrives, they find that the old lady has passed, but it is just part of the larger scheme, which is doomed to repeat with the next couple. This repetitive theme can especially be seen in the “The Black Cat.” The man repeatedly tries to deal with the cat, eventually taking its eye. However, this isn’t enough, and he turns on his wife, killing her and sealing her up the wall.
Duality can be found in everyone’s life. We maintain personas fit for the appropriate environment, which could be work, home, in the company of family, friends, or the public. We have our self and then our alter egos. However, sometimes, these alter egos separate completely, and they break with reality. Excellent examples of this in Poe’s short stories can be found in “William Wilson.” In “William Wilson,” the narrator’s alter ego takes the form of a doppelganger, who tracks him throughout Europe. This doppelganger threatens his self identity. The alter ego exists to separate himself from his insanity. In the movie, “The Secret Window,” starring Johnny Depp, a writer is suffering from writer’s block and a ongoing divorce, after having caught his wife cheating on him. He moves into a cabin to get away and write. While there, a man by the name of Shooter arrives. He claims that the writer has stolen his work.
The writer struggles to prove Shooter wrong. However, in the process, Shooter turns violent. He kills the writer’s dog and burns down the home he shared with his wife. The writer, Mort, turns to a private investigator and the Sheriff. Mort remembers a witness, but however, Shooter ends up killing the investigator and the man. Mort deals with the bodies fearing that he will be implicated for a crime he did not commit. Mort was able to secure a copy of the magazine that featured his story. However, upon opening the package, the pages are cut out. Mort comes to the realization that Shooter is himself. Mort is suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder which represents the dark side of Mort's personality and this personality commit acts that Mort himself feels he could not do in his true reality. Mort’s tale ends with him killing his wife and lover and lying to the police.
In Poe’s short story named “Ligeia,” the narrator is haunted by the memories of his dead wife, while married to his new wife Rowena. Rowena begins to suffer from a horrible illness as the narrator succumbs deeper to his desire to be near his first wife Ligeia. Over time, Rowena suffers death, and the narrator repeats the agony of losing his wife over again. During the course of the story, it is revealed that the narrator is a “bounden slave in the trammels of opium and labors and orders had taken a coloring from dreams (Poe 270).” At the end of this tale, Ligeia becomes resurrected from Rowena’s dead body. We are left wondering if something supernatural and mystifying occurred or is this revelation nothing but the ramblings of a opium addict.
Though the circumstances are not exact the same, this story bares resemblance to Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” This movie stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as lovers. However, Clementine (Winslet) decides to end things and have their memories as a couple erased. Joel (Carrey) goes to make up with Clementine and finds that she doesn’t know who he is. Just like the power of the narrator’s relationship with “Ligeia,” Joel is compelled by the power of the dead relationship to investigate. Upon investigating, he decides to have his memories erased. Both Joel and Clementine take an opiate to resolve issues related their relationship. However, they can’t stop being themselves and end up running into each other. Their mutual chemistry causes them to develop a relationship again. The relationship will not die. Unexpectedly, a female employee of the memory erasing company, in fit of anger over rediscovering her own erased memories, quits her job and steals the tapes of all the clients. She mails them back to the client. Clementine receives hers and tries to show it to Joel. It does nothing but upset him, and he runs away from her. However, he receives his tape and the mutually confront the death of their relationship again and proceed to resurrect it again.
Poe’s stories contain themes that are present in many movies. By analyzing their plots, similarities can be drawn. Movies such as “Duplex,” The Secret Window,” and “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” separated by genres yet they intrinsically share characteristics with the themes of love and hate, self versus alter ego, and the power of death over the living. These themes continue to be reborn in film ensuring that Poe’s rich legacy will continue to survive for future generations.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Ligeia.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America, 1996. 262-277.
Of Price and Poe
One person who seemed destined to become the unofficial friend of Poe was an actor by the name of Vincent Price. During his lifetime, Vincent performed many of Poe’s work for the public. Vincent Price began his career as a character actor, but he discovered that he could secure leading roles in performances that required madness and understanding of the macabre. Price’s trademark voice, mischievous good looks, and penchant for dark humor brought Poe to life in Roger Corman’s Poe-centered films of the 1960s, which include “The House of Usher”, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Raven.”
Vincent made a point to read Edgar Allan Poe’s stories to have a better understanding of the characters, the themes of the stories, and their overall meaning. Vincent found Poe easy to relate to, and he was quoted as a saying,
When they decided to use me for a series of Poe pictures, I sat down
and I read Edgar Allan Poe, and I found out something which I suppose in the
back of my mind I´d been told at some time, but I really didn´t
realize: that about 70 percent of Poe´s work is satiric ... there are a
great many of Poe´s poems that involve horror, but which also have a comic
twist at the end ...
And this, I decided, should be added to Poe. If I am going to do a Poe
picture, I must add that essential twist of Poe´s character (Plath).
It cannot be denied that Vincent brought charm and a devilish sinister edgy humor to his re-enactment of Poe's tales. Vincent would continue to act in other pictures that required his snarky charm. However, his last artistic accomplishments can be found in a voiceover for the hugely successful Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and a cameo as a charming, subdued-yet-doomed gothic romanticist inventor in Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands.”
Just like Poe, Vincent enjoyed making fun of himself. It is for this precise reason he agreed to do “Thriller (Plath).” Poe poked fun at his characters such as in “Metzengerstein.” The reason behind the feud that took place between the Metzengerstein and the Berlifitzing families was a prophetic message. The message said that the Metzengerstein family would trump the immortality of the Berlifitzing family, but the opposite occurred (Poe 135). Another comical Poe work is “A Predicament.” The author is to report back to her colleague with a story that tells of a fantastic death. However, the death ends up being her own and due to her own inattention and foolish behavior, her head is slowly decapitated. As she is being decapitated, her eyeball pops out, rolls across the floor and mocks her (Poe 294-95).
Vincent’s work continues to be enjoyed today by young and old. His ability to get into the head of his characters has made new fans of Edgar Allan Poe’s imaginative and macabre stories. Like Poe, given the numerous celebrations this year for his 200th Anniversary, Vincent still enjoys success since shedding his mortal coil, in the legacy of his movies and as presently as a comic series produced by Bluewater Productions called, “Vincent Price Presents.” Lastly, Vincent had keen insight into the future, even though it seems like he was joking at the time. When he was asked about how American Horror films made a resurgence every 10 years, Vincent said, “Every ten minutes (Plath).” Today, fans are making their own movies and videos faster than movie makers can issue theirs in a theater. To think, Vincent only passed away 16 years ago and he had this foresight back in 1985 (Plath). Although it has been 200 years, Poe has contributed to the acceptance of the short story and the popularity of the detective story, which predominant in television shows such as “Law and Order,” “CSI,” “Bones,” and the “Mentalist”. Price and Poe are both a gift that keeps giving.
Plath, James. "From the Vault: An Interview with Vincent Price." DVDTown.com. 2007. 21 June 2009 < http://www.dvdtown.com/news/from-the-vault-an-interview-with-vincent-price/4784 >.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Metzengerstein.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America, 1996. 134-142.
Symbolism & Poe: "Metzengerstein"
Rivalries are commonplace in humankind. Shakespeare wrote about the Capulets versus the Montagues. Archetypal feuds have been depicted in popular culture such as feuds between Bugs Bunny versus Elmer Fudd and Ren versus Stimpy. Real-life feuds have been represented in allegorical stories, such as the feud between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, which is the basis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. However, in many cases, these feuds end poorly for all participants, such like the case of Romeo of Montague and Juliet of Capulet. Intertwined in the fate of those involved in the feud are the symbols that represent their misfortune and the consequences of their choices. For the families of Berliftizing and Metzengerstein, their feud was no different. “Never before,” claimed Poe, “were two houses so illustrious, mutually embittered by hostility so deadly (Poe 134).” The story of these two families is tragic and brought to life by a fiery-steed of maelstrom, whose teeth bore oblivion.
The heads of both families were opposites. Count Metzengerstein was young and had the character of Herod, surpassing “[…] the expectations of his most enthusiastic admirers […] (Poe Poe 135).” He was treacherous. Count Berliftizing, was “[…] an infirm and doting old man […] (Poe 135).” He was “[…] remarkable for nothing […] (Poe 135).” However, he had antipathy for the Metzengersteins, a love of horses and hunting, which even infirmity could not prevent him from taking part in. However, it happened upon one evening that Count Metzengerstein was intently viewing a tapestry within a room in his home. This tapestry was rich but faded. However, his eyes intently became focused on “[…] an enormous and unnaturally colored horse, represented in the tapestry. The horse itself, in the fore-ground of the design , stood motionless and statue-like, while, father, back, its discomfited rider perished by the dagger of a Metzengerstein […] (Poe 136).” During his time with the tapestry, he witnesses the horse’s head had altered its position, it’s neck “[…] arched, as if in compassion, over the prostrate body of its lord […] (Poe137).” The eyes of the animal were “[…] energetic and human […];” they glowed red and fiery and its lips were parted giving the count full view of its “[…] sepulchral and disgusting teeth (Poe 137).”
Just like “Berenice” and “Hop Frog,” Poe uses the image of teeth to foreshadow events and the destruction of a character. The symbolism of teeth as grave and disgusting imitates the image of death. Taking a literary leap, it could be suggested that the horse itself represents death, coming to bear the living to their demise. Perhaps this is why, the young count becomes fixed with the horse that shows up after the fire that kills his rival and destroys his estate. This horse symbolizes his fear of his own mortality. Also, it embodies the doctrines of Metempsychosis or rather Berlifitzing's consciousness has been transferred to this fiery steed as evidenced by its “earnest and human-looking eye” and “peculiar intelligence in […] demeanor (Poe 141).” The horse is Poe’s symbol of sentient revenge.
Poe’s choice of the motif of teeth in “Metzengerstein” coincides with two other tales. The recurrence of it sheds light on its importance as a metaphor for the breaking down of things, be they emotion, flesh, or relationships. Poe explores his characters through symbols such as teeth and the horse and in doing so creates a brief but tantalizing history which turns into a common thread and leads to further interest in the drama of the macabre and vices of sinfulness.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Metzengerstein.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America, 1996. 134-142.
Symbolism & Poe: "Hop Frog"
“Hop Frog” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published 1849. The title of the story is also the title of the lead character, a dwarf taken from his homeland who becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. The story places Hop Frog, the king and his cabinet at the scene of a party. The king cruelly sets to task to intoxicate the dwarf. The effects of the alcohol initially dull his senses and place him in the scorn of the king. A fellow dwarf named Trippetta tries to placate the king in order to save Hop Frog from abuse. However, the king becomes irate over her behavior and strikes her. Hop Frog, at this time, becomes motivated to take revenge for the striking of his dear Trippetta. To entertain, Hop Frog dresses the king and his council up as orangutans for the masquerade. However, in front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog readjusts the scene and murders them all by hanging them out of reach and setting their costumes afire before escaping with Trippetta. As in “Berenice,” Poe uses again the symbolism of teeth in “Hop Frog” to demonstrate the characters emotions, motivations, and behavior.
The noise and bearing of teeth can be a seen as a sign of aggression. Hop Frog becomes incensed when the king violently pushes Tripetta aside and throws the “[…] brimming goblet […]” of wine in her face (Poe 902). During the silence that follows, everyone hears “[…] a low, but harsh and protracted grating sound which seemed to come at once from every corner of the room […] (Poe 903).” The magnification of the grating sound represents a surge of energy that is aggressive and acutely poignant. The king accuses Hop Frog of making the noise but the dwarf denies the action. The king’s attention is deflected by a courtier. Although relieved by the suggestion, the king takes the opportunity to remark his initial doubt and insult Hop Frog, calling him a vagabond. At first, it would seem Hop Frog has become dismissive, but in the midst of the king’s overtures, Hop Frog takes on his drinking challenge and reveals “[…] a set of large, powerful, and very repulsive teeth […] (Poe 903).” This would foreshadow the events to unfurl.
At the end of this cautionary tale, the sound and visage of Hop Frog’s fangs become emblematic of power, strength, imprisonment, death, and fury. Poe describes the scene of Hop Frog’s with the phrase “[…] dead silence […] (Poe 907).” This silence is broken by the “low, harsh, grating sound, as had before attracted the attention of the king and his councillors, when the former threw the wine in the face of Trippetta. This sound imprisons everyone at the masquerade and subjects them to horrific event – the death of the king and his council. The dwarf’s “[…] maniacal rage […]” emanates from an expression of “[…] fang-like teeth […]” that ground and gnash as foam issues forth from his mouth (Poe 907). Hop Frog’s emotional display is similar to that of the Maori, when they perform the Haka. The Maori people display strong body language, contort their faces, and issue their tongue to create a moving, powerful, and furious display of strength (New Zealand Tourism). Hop Frog’s own facial expressions produce a strength which precipitates revenge upon the people who enslaved him and his fellow dwarf, Trippetta.
Tales of revenge often reveal symbols that detail the intentions of its instigators. Poe, through his use of symbolism, imbues his characters with emotionality and character. Hop Frog’s teeth reiterate his frustration and growing intolerance of the idea of captivity and abuse. His teeth are used to foreshadow key events in the story, which propel Hop Frog’s towards his desire to be free. Overall, without the use of symbolism, Poe stories might not reveal the intensity and grim world in which his characters exist nor provide his readers with an entertaining tale.
Tourism New Zealand. “Haka: A New Zealand Icon.” Video. New Zealand.com. 21 June 2009 < http://www.newzealand.com/travel/app_templates/haka/index_content.html>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Hop Frog.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America, 1996. 899-908.
Symbolism & Poe: "Berenice"
The importance of symbols can be traced back to the cave drawings in France during the beginning of humankind. Symbols are emblematic of ideas, reasoning, and memories. They have complex meanings and literal meanings. Also, symbols can have narrow or wide range of meanings. Symbols can change over time and their meaning can take on new dimensions in relation to setting, individuals, and age. Symbols can be found everywhere. They are important to literature because they make the story come alive and hold meaning for us. Edgar Allan Poe’s works of fiction draw on the strength of symbolism found in various symbols referenced in his writings. In “Berenice,” Poe used teeth to provide symbolic meaning of his character’s motivations and behaviors.
In “Berenice,” the story centers on a young man and a young woman, his cousin, named Berenice. Berenice was “[…] agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy […]” while the narrator was “[…] ill of health and buried in gloom […] (Poe 226).” The narrator possesses no affection for his young cousin yet he proposes marriage to her. His interest is not with her but with her teeth. This fascination is an expression of his monomania, a pathological obsession with one person, thing or idea (Monomania). In the beginning, the narrator has no interest in his cousin. She was his opposite, and this plunged him deeper into his solemnity. However, when her condition changed, he took notice. Suddenly, his cousin succumbs to her condition and is buried. Entirely obsessed, the narrator, in a trance, digs up his cousin and extracts her teeth.
While Berenice’s teeth are the object of the narrator’s obsession, they are symbolic of her “[…] brightest days […]” but they represented narrator’s “[…] passions of the mind […] (Poe 229).” The narrator’s feelings for Berenice “[…] had never been of the heart […] (Poe 229).” Instead, his “[…] passions always were of the mind […] (Poe 229).” She was not a “[…] thing to admire, but to analyze […] (Poe 229).” The narrator described her teeth as “[…] excessively white, with […] pale lips writhing about them […] (Poe 230).” However, why obsess about teeth? The purpose of teeth is break down food that is consumption. Relating this back to the narrator’s obsession, they represent the narrator’s obsessive desire to analyze, explore, and consume knowledge. By dismantling Berenice, he can figure out more about his dual condition; upon discovery, he might be able cure himself of his affliction.
Berenice’s teeth symbolize the duality that is found within the story. The teeth represent the last visage of Berenice’s health. Her body changes drastically and the narrator notes with concern that is has altered Berenice “[…] in the singular and most appalling distortion of her personal identity […] (Poe 229).” The teeth represent life and death. According to Sigmund Freud, the teeth falling out and extraction of teeth are symbols of castration as a punishment for masturbating (Kanner). In Berenice, we are not privy to any concrete information regarding the sexuality of the characters. However, the narrator tells us that his obsession is in the mind and not of the flesh. Instead of castration, the teeth could be a symbol of his divorce from sanity (i.e. punishment for his selfish obsessions and the neglect of his cousin), or according to Linda Dryden (2003), this symbolism of duality brings to our attention to explore “[…] the horror of what we may be capable of […].”
Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbolism in his stories provides the reader with a deeper understanding of his characters’ motivations. “Berenice” is a story that explores life, obsession, mental illness, self-awareness, and the quest for knowledge. The symbol of exploration in “Berenice” is a set of teeth possessed by the young woman named Berenice. They represent duality and the narrator’s obsessive nature. Through symbolism, we find the inner dialogue of the characters, and the realization of how this literary device connects, controls, and maintains the structure of a tale.
Dryden, Linda. The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles: Stevenson, Wilde and Wells. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 38.
Kanner, Leo. “The Tooth as a Folkloristic Symbol.” The Psychoanalytic Review 15 (1928): 37-52. Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing. 21 June 2009
"monomania." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 21 June 2009
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Berenice.” Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America, 1996. 225-233.
Poe Museum - Richmond, VA
