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3. The Unique Qualities in Poe’s Humour
3.1 The Reasons behind Poe’s Distinctive Humour
Allan Poe’s works are mostly characterized with a strong feeling of melancholy and dread. But in fact, many of his novles actually are not devoid of humor and fun. If carefully perused, some of his stories will no doubt bring a lot of pleasure and laughter. Besides, different from others’ humor of his contemporaries, Poe’s humor is unique, distinctive, and of his own style. The reasons behind his unique humor can be categorized into the following three sections. 1) the cruel reality (leading a miserable life and living in a dark society): Poe is an unfortunate man. When he is young, his father leaves home forever and soon his mother dies, he then is adopted by a couple. With the gradual growth, the conflicts between him and his father Allan increase and intensify, leading to the final break-up of their relationship, which is one of causes of his vagrant life. Moreover, his beloved ones die one by one, breaking his fragile heart and disppointing him. What’s more, the society he lives in at that moment is terrible and derailed. In the first half of 19th in America, the capitalism gains its momentum yet also brings unsurmountable problems, for example, the serious disparity between the rich and the poor, the deteriorated environment and so on. Allan Poe dislikes the crazy cult of money, mutual suspicion and deception and even loathes flattening each other. Mr Cao Minglun ever points that the United States in the first half of 19th is not cute for Allan Poe, and it’s a society “that everything is going wrong”, a period “of dark and crazy”, an era “ that is most unfortunate in all unlucky ages” (Cao Minglun, 1997: 57) Therefore he cannot accept such a society and similarly this society cannot accept him. 2) the contradiction between ideal and reality. The literary writing theories Poe advocates are “arts for arts’ shake”, “effect of totality”, etc. Since the mainstream literature is school of transcentalism, pushing forward the idea of assuming a role of educating people through their writing, which is exactly the opposite of Poe’s idea. This is why Poe is deserted by his society and literary circles. Unlike Irving and Cooper, who are admitted as eminent men of letters by their contemporaries, Poe never during his short life reaches their level of eminence. He stands outside the main current of American literature. One of Poe’s works named The Man of The Crowd, which Patrick regards as Poe’s autobiography. (Quinn, 1957: 229) Poe is solitary, and no matter in his family or in the society, he is an outcast. In that story, there is neither depiction of death nor description of horror, but observation of a lonely old man in the crowds. The old man prefers to stay with people and refuses to stay alone, and whenever people dissipate, he will strive to join a new group, because people excites, relaxes him as well as injects energy into him. However, strangely, he never communicates with people. Another critics Ray Mazurek says: The Man of The Crowd, “to a large extent exposes Poe’s situation as an artist.” (Mazurek, 1979: 25) If Poe is that old man, then those crowds are the epitome of his society. Poe is desperate to get rid of loneliness and gain understanding, but real society is so dark and inter-relationship is so indifferent that Poe doesn’t dare to talk with others. 3) unique perspectives to view his society. Due to the above mentioned reasons, those all endow him with a unique perspective to treat things around him. He chooses humor as a way out of hardship and predicament, and his humor features some aburdity and ridicule. The perfect combination of the two generates the typical Poe’s humor. He employs humorous stories to express his true feelings towards the society.