Date of Award
6-1974
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Robert Coard
Second Advisor
John Bovee
Third Advisor
Eugene Perkins
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Keywords and Subject Headings
This thesis illustrates Poe's knowledge of phrenology and possible uses of it in his literature.
Abstract
Edgar Allan Poe used terms and concepts of phrenology in his tales. This paper has a two-fold purpose: (1) to analyze these phrenological elements in several of Poe's tales and draw conclusions about the influence of phrenology on Poe's writing, (2) to impart some background in phrenology to the reader of Poe who knows nothing about phrenology.
Included in the background discussion of phrenological terms and concepts is a replica of George Combe's phrenological chart which gives the locations of the phrenological faculties discussed in relationship to Poe's characters.
The popularity of phrenology in the United States during the 1830's and later is reflected by the large number of books and magazine articles written on phrenology during this time. The fifth edition of George Combe's The Constitution of Man was printed in 1835, and Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (Volume I, 1802-1881) lists over one hundred and twenty articles on crainiology and phrenology.
Poe's acquaintance with phrenology can be traced after 1836, but definite indications in "Berenice," "Morella," and "King Pest"-- all written in 1835—suggest that Poe may have known about phrenology before 1836. The physical descriptions of Poe's characters in these tales hint of phrenological motivation.
Edward Hungerford, in "Poe and Phrenology," American Literature, March 1931, has indicated that Poe first became familiar with phrenology in 1836 when he reviewed forThe Southern Literary Messenger a phrenology text written by Mrs. L. Miles. After this review, more varied uses of phrenological concepts appeared in Poe's writings, including his phrenologizing of several contemporaries in "The Literati of New York City;" his humorous uses of phrenology in "The Business Man," "The Imp of the Perverse," and "The Man That Was Used Up;" and his use of the depression on Dirk Peters' head in The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym.
Many critics have noted that Poe's buildings and characters often bear a striking resemblance to each other. The possibility to be explored here is that the buildings in certain Poe short stories may be symbolic descriptions in phrenological terms and concepts of the character's mental condition. Tales which reflect this building-mind relationship are "Ligeia," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Masque of the Red Death."
It is hoped that this study may be a corrective influence on interpretations of Poe made by the twentieth century reader who is unacquainted with phrenology.
Recommended Citation
Engelhart, Michael D., "Phrenology in Selected Stories of Edgar Allan Poe" (1974). Culminating Projects in English. 52.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/eng_etds/52
