Edgar Allen Poe Is One

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most revered American authors. He is most famously known for his dark satires and poems. Few would characterize him as a humorist however, yet this is exactly what he aims to achieve in much of his literature. Poe's goal is not the traditional definition of American humor made popular by the likes of Mark Twain. Satire is not his particular strong suit; however Poe problematizes humor through some of his work. This is especially evident in a trio of writings that features the theme of apes. Poe uses humor in the context of hoaxes to craftily challenge but also ridicule the reader. The following analysis will examine "The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether," one of his most successful "comedies." Poe uses the imagery of an ape to develop a strong theme throughout his work and manipulate the reader's understanding through interplay of hoaxes.

Tarr and Fether" is viewed by many Poe scholars as his best comic creation. It has a complex but manageably digestive plot along with richly developed characters that range from the insane to the highly intellectual. At the core level the strength of "Tarr and Fether" lies in the development of a hoax drive narrative strategy. The central theme of "Tarr and Fether" surrounds the motif of inmates ruling the asylum, a motif that that strongly figures into why Poe consistently uses the ape analogy as he develops his narrative. The story surrounds the central figure of Maillard, a French mastermind. Unlike his previous works where Poe attempts to confuse the reader as much as possible, he uses straight narrative to explain Maillard's "diseased intelligence." He is an asylum director who has gone made and is now locked up by his own staff. The plot circles around Maillard's attempt to organize his former and current patients to recapture the asylum and lock up the staff after they have been tarred and feathered. The strength of this particular work is that Poe combines the genius of Maillard with a dim-witted narrator, which allows the interplay of hoaxes to occur because we can only see the story from the perspective of the constantly duped narrator.

The problematization of humor occurs through the text in a series of hoaxes. The chief strategy of Poe is to hide the individual, who is being duped, principally the readers themselves. He describes Maillard as "a portly, fine-looking gentleman with a certain air of gravity, dignity and authority" (p. 1003). The audience is left to guess at the subtle twists within the plot since Poe only hints at the real state of affairs at the asylum. The use of apes within this narrative is the driver of his humor. When the staff of the asylum first surfaces, the narrator misperceives them to be Ourang-Outangs. The use of apes as an allusion is extremely important to the overall narrative; Poe uses them as a characterization of the dimwitted nature of the narrator as well as the genius of Maillard. For the majority of the story, until the actual denouement the reader never realizes that Maillard is crazy. Since the narrator is so reliable from the outset, the principle nature of Poe's hoax is that we do not realize the unreliability of the narrator until we have been "duped." The appearance of the apes within this narrative is a symbol of the narrator's unreliability and the dimwitted nature of the narration.

The complex interplay of truth vs. insanity is part of the problematization of humor that Poe engages in. The reader is left to ponder at who the humor is directed towards, whether the narrator is the recipient of the hoax or in fact it is the reader themselves. The dimwitted nature of the narrator often forces the reader to draw their own conclusions, such as when the narrator accepts on face value that Maillard's new "Tarr and Fether" system is a new and rational way of insanity therapy. Through this perspective, it would seem that Poe attempts to identify an affinity with the reader and uses foreshadowing to strongly caste the reader into the "know," rather than keep us in the dark of the hoax. The ape in this case is a classic symbol used by Poe to show us as the ultimate "dupes." He uses them to develop the idea of the narrator as simple minded and Maillard as the genius; the contrast between them forces the reader to gravitate towards the insane doctor, believing that he has the credibility behind the entire narrative. Thus when we finally learn that Maillard is in fact the insane individual all along, we are left with the magnitude of the hoax through its subtle interplay of respectability and trust. The apes themselves are a representation of the narrator's Id. When he first hears of the tarred and feathered staff he envisions them to be the sexual arousal of Mlle. Salsafette. Thus when they finally break in, the narrator is sexually distracted and can't help but think of them as the representation of apes. The narrator's interpretation of these men as apes reveals his own inner guilt and plays upon Poe's wish to mock the narrator for his dimwitted nature.

Poe uses the imagery of ape as well as the theme of hoaxing the reader in another one of his narratives "Rue Morgue." In this narrative he similarly uses the interplay of madness and sanity in order to create an illusion for the reader who is involved in a complicated hoax. Unlike "Tarred and Fethered" however, "Rue Morgue" is a much more obscure hoax in that the connection between irrationality and sexuality are blended together into the figure of one individual, Dupin. While "Tarred and Fethered" creates a clear dichotomy between the mastermind and the dunce, this distinction is encompassed within one individual in "Rue Morgue." In similar fashion, Poe uses the imagery of ape once again as a powerful driver and thematic element within his narrative. This time, the ape is the one has committed a murder, but everyone is left in the darkness until they ultimately realize they are duped. "Rue Morgue" is similar to "Tarred and Fethered" in their purpose, which is to provide an elaborate hoax for the reader, but "Rue Morgue" is much more complex, the reader does not have the advantage of jumping ahead of the narrator to create conclusions of the story, but rather must ride along with Dupin as he attempts to solve a murder.