11.4 Mysteries, the Macabre, the Supernatural, and the Uncanny

Metropolitan Museum of Art Note

“This is the best known image from Goya’s series of 80 aquatint etchings published in 1799 known as ‘Los Caprichos’ that are generally understood as the artist’s criticism of the society in which he lived. Goya worked on the series from around 1796-98 and many drawings for the prints survive. The inscription on the preparatory drawing for this print, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, indicates that it was originally intended as the title page to the series. In the published edition, this print became plate 43, the number we can see in the top right corner. Nevertheless, it has come to symbolise the overall meaning of the series, what happens when reason is absent. Various animals including bats and owls fly above the sleeping artist, and at the lower right a lynx watches vigilantly alerting us to the rise of monstrous forces that we are able to control when sleep descends.”

Excerpt from “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe:

“True!—nervous—-very, very, dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—-not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the snese of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceive, it haunted me day ad night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye f a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (p.290).

From.  Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” in Van Doren Stern, P. (Ed.). The portable Poe. Penguin Books (290-296).

The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe can be found here. 

For teaching resources from the Poe Museum (Richmond, Virginia) please open the link here

and here. 

Exploring Setting (Excerpt from “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs (1863-1943)) 

“Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

“Hark at the wind,” said Mr. White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it.

“I’m listening,” said the latter, grimly surveying the board as he stretched out his hand. “Check.”

“I should hardly think that he’d come to-night,” said his father, with his hand poised over the board.

“Mate,” replied the son.

“That’s the worst of living so far out,” bawled Mr. White, with sudden and unlooked-for violence; “of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst. Pathway’s a bog, and the road’s a torrent. I don’t know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses in the road are let, they think it doesn’t matter.”

“Never mind, dear,” said his wife, soothingly; “perhaps you’ll win the next one.”

Retrieved Project Gutenberg “The Monkey’s Paw” from  The Lady of the Barge and other Stories. The link can be found here 

Appearance Contrasts with Reality
In D. H. Lawrence’s story of the uncanny and supernatural, a beautiful woman and her husband are living beyond their means to “keep up appearances” of being affluent.  In reality, the woman is overwhelmed by insecurity, failure, an unspoken anxiety that she “has no luck.” Her son Paul senses this anxiety and desperately tries to  help his mother. The house seemed haunted with a whispering of “there must be more money.”   Paul develops an uncanny ability to predict the winning horses at the local race track; his “luck” is tied to a rocking horse that seems to be possessed.

“The Rockinghorse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) Excerpt

“There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her. And hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself. Yet what it was that she must cover up she never knew. Nevertheless, when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard. This troubled her, and in her manner she was all the more gentle and anxious for her children, as if she loved them very much. Only she herself knew that at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody. Everybody else said of her: “She is such a good mother. She adores her children.” Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other’s eyes.

There were a boy and two little girls. They lived in a pleasant house, with a garden, and they had discreet servants, and felt themselves superior to anyone in the neighbourhood.

Although they lived in style, they felt always an anxiety in the house. There was never enough money. The mother had a small income, and the father had a small income, but not nearly enough for the social position which they had to keep up. The father went into town to some office. But though he had good prospects, these prospects never materialised. There was always the grinding sense of the shortage of money, though the style was always kept up. …”

At last the mother said: “I will see if I can’t make something.” But she did not know where to begin. She racked her brains, and tried this thing and the other, but could not find anything successful. The failure made deep lines come into her face. Her children were growing up, they would have to go to school. There must be more money, there must be more money. The father, who was always very handsome and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do anything worth doing. And the mother, who had a great belief in herself, did not succeed any better, and her tastes were just as expensive.

And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud.” (p.1)

To read the complete story, please open the link here. 

For more information about the story please open the link here.

Project Gutenberg eBook of Collected Works by D. H. Lawrence can be found here. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art Notes:

“ Böcklin’s patron Marie Berna commissioned this painting in 1880 as a memorial to her late husband. It is based on an unfinished canvas that she saw in the artist’s studio in Florence; at her request, he added the draped coffin and the shrouded figure to the rowboat in the foreground. Böcklin later wrote to her, “you will be able to dream yourself into the world of dark shadows.” Between 1883 and 1886, he painted three additional versions of the subject, each slightly different. The scene was widely reproduced and inspired numerous artists, including the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.”

Excerpt from “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

“It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my want, to smile at his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.

He had a weak point —this Fortunato—although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity, to practice imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect, I did not differ from him materially;—I was skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and brought largely whenever I could.

It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting, parti-striped dress, and his head was surrounded by the conical cap and ells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.

I said to him—“My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkable well you are looking today. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado and I have my doubts.”

“How?” said he. “Amontillado? A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!”

“Amontillado!”

“I have my doubts.”

“Amontillado!”

“And I must satisfy them….”

“Come, let us go.’

“Whither?”

“To your vaults…” (pp.309-310)

From: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” in Van Doren Stern, P. The Portable Poe. (1983). Viking (pp. 309-316).

To read “The Cask of Amontillado” and other stories by Edgar Allen Poe please open the link here.