Analysis Of Richard Wilbur's Only In Dreams In The House Of Poe

Only in Dreams

In "The House of Poe", Richard Wilbur elucidates his criticisms of Poe 's work. He firstly comments on a critic 's purpose, then how Poe 's stories are all allegories. He then addresses the possible opposition to his argument, and then begins his discussion of the common themes in Poe 's writing and provides examples from his stories. This dissertation will analyze Wilbur 's criticism by cross referencing Poe 's work and how it exemplifies Wilbur 's assessment. There is a great deal of evidence to support Wilbur 's theories, but a close examination of each one will determine how legitimate his argument really is.

Wilbur opens his criticism with the introduction of the critic: "The business of the critic, after all, is to divine the intention of the work, and to interpret the work in the light of that intention" (Wilbur 808). If this is true, then Wilbur intends to find the purpose of Poe 's writing and explain it to the reader. In the same way, this analysis will serve to find the purpose in Wilbur 's criticism and

This opens up the discussion for how the buildings and rooms in Poe 's works represent parts of the mind. As Wilbur asserts, Poe 's "cellars or catacombs...stand for the irrational part of the mind", and as in the madhouse in "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether", "The keepers are the rational part of that mind, and the inmates are its irrational part" (Wilbur 821). The many rooms in Prospero 's palace could be construed as the different parts of his mind, and as he travels through them he goes further and further into the less sane reaches of his mind. The theory that the architecture in Poe 's work is a variant of his own mind or the mind of his characters, is well supported in both Usher and Prospero 's