Paradigms of reality in Poe's mad narrative
type: CreativeWork
description: This study focuses on an examination of madness in four short stories by American author Edgar Allan Poe: "Ligeia," "Eleonora," "The Black Cat," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Using Walter Fischer's theoretical communication framework, the Narrative Paradigm, the four stories are examined for narrative fidelity and narrative probability in an effort to more fully understand Poe's treatment of madness in first person narrators; "Ligeia" and "Eleonora" are compared as stories of a lost lover and the subsequent possibilities for madness due to guilt over marrying someone else. Next, "The Black Cat" is examined with a focus on the narrator's madness driving him to seek more and more severe forms of self-punishment due to guilt over violent abuse of his pet cat. Finally, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is examined as a look into the process of folie a deux, or shared madness.
abstract: This study focuses on an examination of madness in four short stories by American author Edgar Allan Poe: "Ligeia," "Eleonora," "The Black Cat," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Using Walter Fischer's theoretical communication framework, the Narrative Paradigm, the four stories are examined for narrative fidelity and narrative probability in an effort to more fully understand Poe's treatment of madness in first person narrators; "Ligeia" and "Eleonora" are compared as stories of a lost lover and the subsequent possibilities for madness due to guilt over marrying someone else. Next, "The Black Cat" is examined with a focus on the narrator's madness driving him to seek more and more severe forms of self-punishment due to guilt over violent abuse of his pet cat. Finally, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is examined as a look into the process of folie a deux, or shared madness.
author: Burnett, Tamy Lynn
language: English
date published: 2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:25:33Z
provider: University of Nevada - Las Vegas
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.25669/xk27-smvo