In
the beginning of the story the narrator is convalescing in a hotel in London
and has been lounging in the parlor seated near the window. He remarks on the
scene unfolding in, “One of the principle thoroughfares of the city, and had
been very much crowded during the whole day. But, as the darkness came on, the
throng momently increased; and, by the time the lamps were well lighted, two
dense and continuous tides of population were rushing past the door”(102). In
this passage Poe uses the increasing speed of the crowd in front of the hotel
to illustrate the narrators growing interest in the scene. As the, “throng
momently increased,” the narrator is finished with the newspaper, beginning to look
around, and by the time the lamps are lit he is, “filled… with a delicious
novelty of emotion,” and cannot turn away from the window (102). We empathize
the narrator’s interest because the syntax emulates tension and creates rhythm.
The first sentence is smooth, a single comma creating a soft pause right in the
middle. The second sentence is broken up by several commas and a semicolon,
each strategically placed, so that the short pauses between segments create a
slow and steady rhythm like the beating of a heart. In this passage Poe illustrates
the bustling pedestrian traffic by breaking from conventional syntax using a
run-on sentence. It is common in 19th century literature to see a heavy
use of commas to separate sentence fragments creating what we refer to today as
a run-on; however, Poe’s use of commas urge the reader to continue. The short
and sudden pauses of the commas emulate the bustling traffic. Because there is
no period we as readers are not signaled to stop, instead we accept short
pauses illustrating pedestrians pausing abruptly as other pedestrians present
obstacles to the scene. The semicolon also represents the moment at which the
narrator’s interest in the scene is alight with the same energy as the traffic
flowing outside the hotel.
The
speed of the chase is not always quick, but Poe continues to use syntax and
language with dizzying effect. Upon entering a street, “densely filled with
people,” but, “not quite as thronged,” the stranger, “walked more slowly and
with less object than before – more hesitatingly... he crossed and re-crossed
the way repeatedly without apparent aim; and the press was still so thick,
that, at every such movement, I was obliged to follow him closely”(106). Though
the speed of the chase has slowed the narrator is forced to follow closely so
as not to lose the stranger. However, following closer arises a sense of
urgency in not getting caught. Poe creates urgency, again utilizing commas to
create a run-on sentence, illustrating the narrator’s engagement in the chase
and compelling the reader to feel tension without the narrator outright
claiming its presence. Shortly thereafter, their wandering brings them, “to a
large and busy bazaar, with localities of which the stranger appeared well
acquainted, and where his original demeanor again became apparent, as he forced
his way to and fro, without aim, among the host of buyers and sellers”(107).
Again the actual pace is slow, but urgency is maintained through syntax and the
actions of the stranger, which force the narrator’s and thereby the readers’
attentions. Not before long the stranger, “hurried into the street, looked
anxiously around him for an instant, and then ran with incredible swiftness
through many crooked and people-less lanes, until we emerged once more upon the
great thoroughfare whence we had started”(107). In these passages, Poe not only
uses syntax to create rhythm, but his careful use of language is also important
in interpreting the story. Instead of “to and fro” he could have written back
and forth, side to side, or hither and thither, but “to and fro” has a bouncing
quality to it. This coupled with syntax are what make it possible for the
reader to feel the chase as though they were alongside the narrator.
Throughout
the tale no description is as dizzying as the description of the stranger
getting caught up in a crowd exiting a large theater. The narrator is, “at a
loss to comprehend the waywardness,” of the stranger’s excitement in the crowd:
As
he proceeded, the company grew more scattered, and his old uneasiness and
vacillations were resumed. For some time he followed closely a part of some ten
or twelve roisterers; but from this number one by one dropped off, until three
only remained together, in a narrow and gloomy lane little frequented. The stranger
paused, and, for a moment, seemed lost in thought, then, with every mark of
agitation, pursued rapidly a route which brought us to the verge of the city,
amid regions very different from those we had hitherto traversed. (107-108)
In the first half of
this description we see the pace moving steadily, but slow as the stranger
becomes, “lost in thought,” then suddenly takes off again as the stranger makes
for more crowded avenues. Again we see Poe utilize syntax to generate pace and
at the end of this description he uses the very clever phrase, “hitherto traversed,”
which literally means until now traveled
across, but the connotation of those particular words evoke a sense of adventure
to the description because traversed
is commonly used in reference to seafaring and mountaineering.
In
Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities
he explains modernity in terms of print and the simultaneity of a nation moving
calendrically through time. In the second paragraph the narrator is reading a
newspaper and from the third paragraph onward the lighting of lamps, sunrise,
and shadows illustrate the changing hours. Chronology of events cannot be
argued here because the narrator and stranger are constantly moving forward
through a 24-hour period. Poe’s use of the epigraph and the detailed third
person explanation of the book that cannot be read place those ideas in the readers’
mind at the beginning of the tale. His juxtaposition of the stranger to the
epigraph and introduction at the end of the tale force a cyclical readability
by referring back to those ideas. In this sense Poe has reflected the modernity
as explained by Anderson through the narrators reading of the newspaper and
through the chronology of the tale. His extraordinary use of language and
syntax forcing the reader to empathize with the narrator coupled with the use
of linear time join the reader, narrator and stranger together, sharing in the
experience of the chase through London. However Poe’s use of cyclicality
suggests a break from linear time. Perhaps the dagger hidden under the
stranger’s cloak was used to stab the narrator and this is an event they relive
night after night?
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