Atmosphere,
Architecture, and Alienation.
Towards an Aesthetic of the `Palace of Art.'
© 2001 D. Jason Nolan, PhD
The `ivory tower' is a term usually applied in a derogatory manner. It is used with reference to the abode of an artist or thinker who wishes to contemplate art for its own sake. He does this in isolation from worldly considerations. He is like the monk who retires to a monastery to contemplate spiritual matters. The `palace of art' is one such manifestation of the `ivory tower' concept. Poe, Coleridge, and Tennyson each explore the ideas, advantages, and obstacles which exist in this `palace.' Although they reveal attributes they see to be inherent in such an artistic orientation all three arrive at similar pessimistic conclusions.
Outlining a clearly defined aesthetic of the `palace of art' is too great a task for a term paper. I intend to consider and evaluate some of the more important themes and characteristics which inform the aesthetic make-up presented in the three works studied in this paper: The Fall of the House of Usher, `Kubla Kahn' and `The Palace of Art.' The three sub-topics I will look at are: atmosphere, architecture, and alienation. These headings incorporate various themes and motifs and reveal the nature of the aesthetic structure represented in the three works under consideration.
The idea of art divorced from moral and ethical considerations grew out of social and cultural changes of the Eighteenth century. As M. H. Abrams wrote, the `art for art's sake' phenomenon was a reaction to "the indifference or hostility of a utilitarian society" towards art (328). It was a form of aestheticism divorced from moral and social considerations; it was autonomous (Princeton 6). This reaction was not restricted to England. The phrase itself comes from the French "l'art pour l'art" coined by Victor Cousin in lectures published in 1836 (6). The concept which the phrase describes had philosophical antecedents.
Mario Praz points us towards Edmund Burke's aesthetic which includes the ideas of pain and terror and their association with beauty (Praz 10). These ideas are related to all three of the sub-topics through Burke's theory of the sublime. Praz also states that De Sade's personal view was that the artist's
`appartness' from the feelings of his fellow man
was, in fact, not a shortcomming but a privilege;
he was of aware of the voice of Nature as nobody
else was around him, hence he was the barer of a
message... the whole history of civilized
humanity was a mistake, and one had to revert to holy Nature (12).
Our "artificial ethical state" must be abandoned in favour of a return to primitivism if we are to avoid destruction, according to De Sade (12). Neither Burke nor De Sade's ideas can be applied to the three works in any strict sense. They do, however, indicate that the aesthetic perspective, first published by Cousins, has precedents in both French and English thinking. Poe, Coleridge, and Tennyson all come to conclusions which differ from those of De Sade. They suggest that the artist's state of `apartness' is itself that which leads to destruction, madness, and despair.
All three writers deal with the `palace of art' on different levels. Written in 1797 Coleridge's poem pre- dates the term `l'art pour l'art' by many years. Tennyson's was first printed in 1833, while Poe's story came later in 1839. `Kubla Kahn' is not ostensibly about art. The poem is the least systematic in the representation of aesthetic themes related to the `palace of art.' Tennyson's poem `The Palace of Art' on the other hand has a protagonist who is the soul of an aesthete. This poem chronicles both the life of the aesthetic soul, and presents a scenario of the artist in her `ivory tower.' The Fall of the House of Usher's main character, Roderick Usher, is an artist who writes a lyric about art called `The Haunted Palace.' Usher lives in an artistic environment under the direct influence of the `palace of art' created by the race of Usher.
The first sub-topic I will examine is that of alienation. Alienation is a prime concern of the `ivory tower,' the `palace of art,' `l'art pour l'art,' or `art for art's sake' aesthetics. The names change but all these terms are essentially identical for my purpose. Synonyms for alienation include isolation, rejection, abandonment, or withdrawal. The multiplicity of terms does not disrupt its central idea of the intrinsic separation existing between mankind in general and the artist. The sense of alienation in Coleridge's poem is more ambiguous than is found in Poe or Tennyson. In `The Palace of Art,' `Kubla Kahn,' and The Fall of the House of Usher the separation which results from this abandonment or withdrawal is seen at different times as either positive or negative by the characters. The presentation of the stories, however, reveal a perspective which is ultimately negative. In each case the conclusion of the story depicts a character who is destroyed, driven mad, or inflicted with despair.
The opening lines of `Kubla Kahn' contain obscure names and places: "In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn" (Coleridge 1). The intention of the poem is not made clear. The poem is a fragment and said to have resulted from a dream. The poem contains motifs of orientalism and obscurity related to those popularized by such Eighteenth century poets as Edward Young and William Collins. The incompleteness allows the poem to avoid any explicit meaning. It communicates by means of mood and setting. The building and environs are both aristocratic and holy, "A stately pleasure-dome... 5
Where Alph, the sacred river ran" (2-3). Few things could be more alien to nineteenth century utilitarian thinking than such obscure palaces and sacred places. Other aspects of Xanadu such as "caverns measureless to man" and a "sunless sea" are also distant from all but the most secluded reader (4-5). But this new world is the world of the poem. The use of foreign and unusual images in the poem serves to distance the poem from contemporary nineteenth century society. They create the sense of an unconnected `sphere' of activity. The landscape of the first two parts of the poem is part of a territory which is separated by the physical barrier which is the "dome," or skull. The physical description of the structure allows the "dome" to be associated with the image of a human skull. This interpretation leads to a psychological reading of the poem (See the section on architecture below).
The part of the narrative which takes place inside the "dome" is isolated from external contact by "walls and towers" (7). The concept of a barrier and the distance it implies are compounded by the Gothic tone of the following quote:
that deep romantic chasm...
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waining moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover! (12-16).
The type of alienation illustrated in the last ten lines of `Kubla Kahn' is different from what is described above. At 6
this point the protagonist is not physically separated from society but he is ostracized:
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread... (49-52).
The character causes a social disturbance by his actions and appearance; "His flashing eye, his floating hair!" The actions of the people who surround him indicate that they consider him mad. The spells they attempt to "weave" are a form of incarceration. These spells represent an attempt to keep the man who has "drunk the milk of Paradise" at a `safe' distance (54).
The two types of alienation at work in the poem work in combination. The protagonist "would build that dome in air, / That sunny dome! those caves of ice!" and retire to his private paradise (43). He is apparently unable to do so without the "symphony and song" of the "Abyssinian maid" (39). The populace wishes to help him on in his quest. To them he is merely a madman who "hath fed" "on honey-dew... And drunk the milk of Paradise" and has no place in their society (53-54). In `Kubla Kahn' each party wishs to remain isolated from the other.
Alienation in `The Palace of Art' also changes during the progress of the poem. The beginning of the poem is remarkably similar to that of `Kubla Kahn.' Compare Tennyson's line: "I built my soul a lordly pleasure- 7
house..." with Coleridge's opening statement: "In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn / A stately pleasure-dome decree" (Coleridge 1-2 Tennyson 1 [1]). Tennyson's lines read like a psychological gloss in verse of the earlier work. The only sense of isolation contained in those lines comes from the echos of `Kubla Kahn.' The first explicit statement of isolation comes in the third stanza: "My soul would live alone unto herself / In her high palace there." A tone of disinterest in the affairs of mankind develops in the next two lines: "And `while the world runs round and round,' I said, / `Reign thou apart, a quiet king...'" (Tennyson 4). This sense of self-imposed exile continues throughout a major portion of the poem. It `appears' as if the poem advocates `art for art's sake' in these stanzas.
Tennyson describes the `Palace' in a monastic manner; "round the cool green courts there ran a row / Of cloisters..." (7). And the tone of the proud Soul's thoughts indicates that this isolation is prompted by a sense of the Soul's own superiority: "she thougth, `And who shall gaze upon / My palace with unblinded eyes..." (11). What is portrayed in tapestries and paintings is a substitution of art for life. This retreat is completely artificial. Only copies of reality are present in this retreat. The `Palace,' therefore, contains representations of
every landscape fair...
Not less than truth design'd...
every legend fair
Which the supreme Caucasian mind
Carved out of Nature for itself...
Not less than life, design'd (23 32).
and "choice paintings of wise men" among its treasures (33). There are no other `persons' residing within the walls of the soul's home.
The Soul revels in the artificiality of her realm and also in its dissociation from the outer world:
Singing and murmuring in her feastful mirth,
Joying to feel herself alive,
Lord over Nature, Lord of the visible earth,Lord of the senses five;
Communing with herself: `All these are mine,And let the world have peace or wars,
The tone of the two stanza's is that of happiness and contentment. But it is also one of amorality and irresponsibility. The stanza illustrates a stereo-typical aristocratic advocation of power without responsibility. The Soul is presented as a being disassociated from the social sphere of suffering and struggle. Stanza 50 even hints at hubris: "O God-like isolation which art mine" and disdain for the common existence of mankind: "In filthy sloughs they roll a prurient skin, / They graze and wallow, breed and sleep" (51). This last quote ostensibly refers to swine. 9
The self-exalting tone of stanza 53, where the Soul states how she sees herself, makes a most explicit statement of contempt for the social sphere of man:
I take possession of man's mind and deed.
I care not what the sects may brawl.
I sit as God holding no form of creed,
But contemplating all.
These lines are important in considering the dialectic in the poem between the Soul's isolation and the outer world. They represent the pinnacle of self-created alienation found in `The Palace of Art.' They denote the last confident statement the Soul makes as she topples from her lofty throne. After this point the narrator reveals that the `unsolved' "riddle of the painful earth" plagued the Soul (54). The result of her actions and sentiments in the first 53 stanzas of the poem is that, for "three years / She prosper'd: on the fourth she fell... Struck thro' with pangs of hell" (55). The consequence of this "despair" is to drive the Soul from her `Palace' into the outside world. There she can reconcile the conflict between the isolated aesthetic of her `palace' and the world.
Before her departure the Soul spends a year experiencing the full force of a new type of isolation and alienation from the fellow beings she had earlier condemned:
Back on herself her serpent pride had curl'd.
`No voice,' she shriek'd in that lone hall,
`No voice breaks thro' the stillness of this world:
One deep, deep silence all!'She...
Lay there exiled from eternal God,
Lost to her place and name...
And death and life she hated equally...
And all alone in crime...
Shut up as in a crumbling tomb... (65-69).
The Soul suffers from her feelings of "apartness" which the diversions of the palace had previously allowed her to ignore. According to `The Palace of Art,' there is only one solution, one cure for despair. Tennyson does, in his infinite compassion, that which neither of the other two writers attempt to do. He illustrates both the solution and an avenue for the Soul to return to the palace in the future without having to experience its negative aspects (i. e. the isolation of the `palace'). The Soul asks, "What is it that will take away my sin, / and save me lest I die?" (72). She then provides her own answer when she says, "Make me a cottage in the vale,... Where I may mourn and pray" (72- 73). The life she intends to live is religious but not in the manner of a recluse or cloistered nun. Her movement from the cliffs to the "vale" represents a movement towards the people she once disdained. Almost as an after-thought, she decides to keep her palace and convert it into a public gallery for all mankind;
Yet pull not down my towers, that are
So lightly, beautifully built:
Perchance I may return with others there
When I have purged my guilt (74).
The Soul hopes for a new `Palace' that is separate from the alienating attributes of the `ivory tower' type of `palace.' Tennyson leads the poem towards a feeling of hope or cautious optimism by this conclusion.
The alienation that is experienced in Tennyson's `palace of art' causes despair and allows for the development into madness and self-destruction. The intercession of divine benevolence can, in the end, buffer the Soul from the worst affects of the isolation of the Soul from her own kind. The most important point, however, made in the poem is the presentation of the state of `apartness,' along with the isolation and alienation as negative elements in the aesthetic of the `palace of art.' The principles of aesthetic isolation lead to despair. Tennyson presents a soul that is not inherently different from others. This fact is illustrated by the Soul's conjecture that it "may return with others" at some time in the future.
Alienation in Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher is found in the artist's moral indifference, and his `artistic sensibility,' and the withdrawal of the artist into his artwork, a world of his own creation. Each of these factors indicate an inherent state of the artist's existence. The artist under observation is Roderick Usher. Roderick is ill. It is not clear if his illness is entirely mental or physical, since Usher "spoke of acute bodily illness -- of a mental disorder which oppressed him..." (139). He describes the psychological side as "a constitutional and family evil... a mere nervous affliction... It displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations" (143). He goes on to say, "I must perish in this deplorable folly" (143). Roderick is presented as a victim of some unknown and horrible fate, which is later associated with the temperment of the artist and aestheticism of the `ivory tower' artist.
This revelation of Roderick's illness also points towards `incest' if we connect it to a moral folly. Many critics, including D.H. Lawrence, have focused on this point. The socially deviant situation is alluded to on page 140 and then described as "collateral issue." Lawrence does make one good point when he says, "Incest desire is... one of the modes by which men strive to get their gratification of the intensest [sic] vibration of the spiritual nerves, without any resistance" (685).
The physical aspect of sexuality is, therefore, not as important as the spiritual one in The Fall of the House of Usher. Incest in the `palace of art' if it must stand for anything, refers to a desertion of external influence. It shows the artist looking into himself, consuming his own nervous energy rather than utilizing influences and inspirations from society. Roderick and his sister can be seen as identical manifestations of the `artist' concept. They live together in the `House of Usher' which is a form of the `palace of art'. They are identical twins with similar sensibilities and they die at the same time from a wasting disease, in a state of madness or extreme shock (Poe 157). Their fate is presented as the inevitable fate of the `artist.' Their moral deviance is not a new and particular event according to the narrator. This point indicates the subordinate role of the individual Usher characters to the family of Usher and to the ideal of the `ivory tower' artist. In the story, "the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was" existed primarily through incestuous relationships (140).
There are further indications of moral ambiguity in the text. Roderick's chin is described as "a finely moulded chin, speaking, in want of prominence, of a want of moral energy" (142). And Roderick's clear moral failure is revealed just moments before his death. He realizes that his sister is alive after he has interred her in the family crypt, yet he does not exhibit the strength of moral courage to free her:
Not hear it? -- yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long -- long -- long -- many minutes, many hours, many days, I have heard it -- yet I dared not -- oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! -- I dared not -- I dared not speak! We have put her living into the tomb!(156).
Roderick Usher's habits and characteristics are not socially acceptable. He is also not the type of person commonly found in society. The way he senses and perceives things is presented as unusual since "He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses... and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror" (143). This condition makes the most common aspects of life odious to Usher. He is still a victim of aestheticism. This sensitivity is characteristic of the race of Usher. It can be identified as an inverse condition of Madeline's "partially cataleptic" condition (145). These unusual infirmities are closely related to the fame of the `race of Usher.' Their fame is marked by "many works of exalted art" and is realized in the "passionate devotion to the intricacies... of musical science" exemplified in the virtuosity of Roderick's performances (139). Roderick is part of a tradition of artists. The refinement of the artistic sensibilities ("capacity to feel" OED) in isolation from worldly influences has left Usher in a state of physical and psychological degeneracy.
Usher's association with his ancestral mansion reveals the level of alienation existent in Poe's story. It shows the withdrawal of the artist from society into his artwork. Roderick is a prisoner: "He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth..." (144). Roderick is also represented as part of the fabric of the `palace of art' by the way the narrator describes both the man and the building (See the section on architecture below.). Roderick and the mansion are two halves of the flesh and stone entity called the `House of Usher' although the "physique of the grey walls and turrets" is in control (144). Roderick considers the narrator, "his best and indeed only personal friend" capable of attempting "some alleviation of his malady" (139)[2]. Usher tells his friend of "an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance... obtained over his spirit..."(144).
A "hallucinatory ambiance" is created in the `palace of art' through the association of atmosphere with alienation (Princeton 6). By using the term `atmosphere' I include ideas of mood and tone in descriptive narrative and the presentation of conversation. These are intended to influence the readers emotions. The mood in the `palace' is described in terms of states of decay, stasis, terror, disillusionment, despair, obsession, madness, and alienation. The peculiarities exhibited by the master of the `House of Usher' are anti-social eccentricities. The narrator notices an air of isolation when he arrives at the `House of Usher' [?]. This `air' is related to the state of isolation recognized previously in Roderick's moral make-up and his `perverse' association with his ancestral home.
In the first few pages of Poe's story the tone is primarily that of decay and terror accompanied by a feeling of obsessive madness. One of the first things noted in the story is the `atmosphere' of the atmosphere surrounding the mansion. The mood is set by the way the air and wind and clouds are detailed. It is stagnant and decaying:
about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity -- and atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn -- a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued ( Poe 140).
This mood is maintained and intensified until the final storm at the end of the tale. The narrator's explanation conjures up an atmosphere for this `palace of art' that is particular to the `House of Usher.'
The house itself infuses the entire story with the same aura of decay: "with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit" (138). Usher is, of course, the focal point of this description. The atmosphere of the story is to be perceived as infesting the entire scene, rather than just a singler object or character. As a result when we meet Usher himself we see him as a victim rather than the cause of this decay. Maurice Beebe notes that Usher's acceptance of the animism of the mansion (quoted above) represents his first step toward destructive insanity (124). His acquiescence destroys a balance existing between the artist and the `palace.' This imbalance places Roderick at the mercy of the `House of Usher' (124). Roderick, the artist, has lost his control over the `palace of art.' His relinquishment of social intercourse has now become a loss of control over his own life.
The precarious state of decay of this `palace of art' is depicted as a kind of fragility. The narrator says that the house reminds him "of the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air" (141). This passage conjures ideas similar to the description of the environs of the `House of Usher' mentioned above. Undisturbed and isolated, the house has consumed itself but the decay has not been accompanied by the total destruction of the structure. The exhalations of this decay forms part of the gaseous atmosphere mentioned on page 140. This contribution connotes another aspect of the mansion's influence on the mood of the story and the fate of Roderick.
The words "terribly altered" take on an additional meaning of `altered by terror' when the narrator says, "man had never been so terribly altered... as had Roderick Usher (142). Terror and fear are Roderick's constant companions. We are also told that "To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave" (143). Usher himself admits:
I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in
its absolute effect -- in terror... the period
will come when I must abandon life and reason
together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm,
FEAR (144).
These are not literal descriptions. The repetition of similar passages throughout the story to describe the oppression and decay of the `House of Usher, however, creates a climate of impending dissolution into madness. This tension is part of the atmosphere of Poe's `palace of art.' Poe's story is fulled with a sense of terror and despair. The narrator's own sensations describe the impression accurately: "I felt that I breathed and atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep and irredeemable gloom hung over and prevaded all" (142). He feels a heavy air which is oppressive, and this feeling does not lift during the story.
The atmosphere Coleridge creates in `Kubla Kahn' is much more hallucinatory and exhilarating than terrifying or depressing. Kenneth Burke, however, feels that repeated exposure to `Kubla Kahn' reveals "how many of the forms have sinister connotations..." (218). Coleridge creates visions of paradise which are `sublime' in their aura of terror. The "sinister connotation" become exhilaration through sublimity. The mad visionary character is definitely not mad with fear but mad because "he on honey-dew hath fed / And drunk the milk of paradise." We are aware, however, of the influence of opium on the poem's genesis, because of the inclusion of the account of the dream with the poem in 1816 [3]. In this way the mood of the poem has a dream element, a sense of reverie indicated by both the manner of its composition and by factors in the text of the poem. Jorge Luis Borges notes that the dream aspect of `Kubla Kahn' is of prime importance in the poem. It infuses the story with a sense that the historical "pleasure-dome," a lost architectural monument, is recreated within the text of the poem (15 17). This is one aspect of the mood of the poem which is informed by the `manner of composition' and the inclusion of the preambulatory note.
The four shifts of narrative in the three stanzas address different moods [4]. The first part consists of visual description: "there were gardens bright with sinuous rills" (Coleridge 8). The setting is that of a pre- lapsarian paradise. The scene is beautiful and serene even though it is exotic. This section is similar to the section of Tennyson's poem before the fall of the Soul. In the second, the narrator includes judgements and comparisons which are Gothic (12-16) and apocalyptic: "with ceaseless turmoil seething... Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail" (17-21). The paradise is falling apart and the mood is one of destruction of the beautiful scene depicted in the first stanza. The religious tone of stanza one combines with the violent disruption of the second in this prophetic statement: "And war!" (29-30). This statement creates a sense of future destruction emanating from the present. The first part of the third stanza is a vision of the abyss, as Kenneth Burke notes in the name of the "Abyssinian maid" (Burke 214 Coleridge 39 (emphasis added)). The final segment is a lament for all that has been lost during the poem. The poet is aware of both his loss and the fact that he is perceived as being mad. He sighs,
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song...
I would build that dome in air...
And all should cry, Beware! Beware! (42-49).
He wishes to recreate the paradise that is now only a memory. He does not show any fear that the paradise will be destroyed despite the prophecy of destruction. The atmosphere of the last stanza is influenced by a mood of recollection and longing for what has been lost. The `palace of art' has been destroyed and the `artist' has been thrust oft of paradise into the world. Unfortunately, people of the world, the "utilitarian society," do not want the `artist' among them.
The presentation of the atmosphere of Tennyson's poem is clear and linear. In `The Palace of Art' the poem is split in to two parts. The first in concerned with the triumphant Soul ascending to her lofty throne. The second deals with her decline and fall. The poem begins with the creation of an atmosphere of ease and optimism:
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,
Where-in at ease for aye to dwell.
I said, O Soul, make merry and carouse,
Dear soul, for all is well (Tennyson 1).
The first five stanzas compliment this setting through a whole series of confident and progressive phrases: "I chose," "I will build it firm," "Trust me, in bliss I shall abide" (2 3 5). The stanzas have a tone of self-confidence and a lack of self-consciousness.
This positive environment continues through the description of the `Palace' and the objects it houses (6- 44). The sense of self-confidence in the poem accumulates and increases with the repetitions of descriptive passages containing a positive tone. This accumulation culminates in the arrogant hubristic atmosphere of stanzas 45-53 which show disdain worldly interests, revelry in isolation, and place the Soul among the gods:
O silent faces of the Great and Wise,
My Gods, with whom I dwell!
`O God-like isolation which art mine,
I can but count the perfect gain,
What time I watch the darkening droves of swine
That range on yonder plain (49-50).
The Soul falls from this pinnacle of triumph. This fall is revealed in the images of alienation mentioned earlier in this paper. The prevailing mood after stanza 53 is of "sore despair," "Deep dread and loathing" (56 58). The beautiful descriptions have changed to descriptions which invoke terror and fear. The Soul becomes an image of a Pandora who has opened her box containing all the horrors and fears born of her new self-consciousness:
...from which mood was born
Scorn of herself...
But in dark corners of her palace stood
Uncertain shapes; and unawares
On white-eyed phantasms weeping tears of blood,
And horrible nightmares...
On corpses three-months-old at noon... (58 60 61).
Tennyson has set up a two part progression of moods in the poem. This movement serves to intensify the atmosphere of failure and despair which comes in the second part of the poem. The first half of the poem raises the expectation of the Soul to the highest possible point. The Soul aspires to become one with the gods. The second half plunges the Soul into the darkest pits of negative emotions. These two parts serve to set the scene or atmosphere for Tennyson's unique contribution to the aesthetics of the `palace of art.' The character of the final two stanzas is informed by the extremes of the rest of the poem. The poem contains a synthesis between the `palace of art' and "the darkening droves of swine," the people of the world. The tone is now humble and repentant. It reveals an awareness of the high excesses as well as the deep pits of emotion experienced by the Soul. Tennyson creates a mood of hope. This hope, however, contains all the extremes of the poem and therefore creates an atmospheric conclusion of cautious optimism for "The Palace of Art."
The conclusions which the three works present are not identical; they do not need to be. They do, however, agree in the illustration of a failure of the `ivory tower' tradition. The atmosphere of each work, as well as the more specific elements mentioned above, contribute to the pervading mood of failure. The aestheticism of the `palace of art' is unable to sustain itself. This forces either a self-destruction or a destruction of the artist/protagonist. Poe, Tennyson, and Coleridge all show that this destruction is more thorough than any attack which could be mounted by a "utilitarian society." The destruction comes from within the `palace of art' and is made complete by disillusionment, despair, and madness.
The central concept of the `palace of art' is the architecture of the `palace' itself. What is its influence on both the atmosphere and the sense of alienation in the three works under consideration? Any attempt to describe some of the elements of the `palace of art' must consider the parameters of the architecture and the way it is manifest in literature.
The `ivory tower' tradition has its roots in the medievalism of Gothic fiction. The buildings found in this genre of literature are instrumental in the development of the story and the mood. The Gothic ambiance of the buildings in `The Palace of Art,' `Kubla Kahn,' and The Fall of the House of Usher echo the palaces and halls of William Beckford's story Vatheck (1786) as well as Horace Walpole's Castle of Ortranto (1765). The tradition is older than that of the Gothic novel. Andy Antippas notes that "The castle and the palace are... a medieval commonplace allegorically representing the human body..." (117). This trope is inverted in the Gothic and `ivory tower' traditions to the point that rather than keeping vice out "it is walled within" (117).
The Gothic and `ivory tower' depiction of the castle can also be seen as an inversion of the rational formality of neo-classical styles. The formal gardens and palaces such as Verseilles are inverted or perverted in the later traditions. Coleridge, Poe, and Tennyson present the `palace of art' as a prison rather than a true place of joy and pleasure. It becomes a gilded cage, and even a new temple. The `palace' is a temple for the worship of the creations of the artist, the new god. Beebe mentions that in the `ivory tower' "Life is replaced by art, and art becomes a sacred ritual" (114). The artist, "Dissatisfied with the way in which he was made... tries to create himself anew... thus becoming... and esthete" (114).
This idea of the recreation of the self combines with the medieval allegorical association of the castle with the body which results in the identification of the palace with the artist. What affects one side also affects the other. The physical structure of the `palace' is a world unto itself and is, therefore, isolated. It also contains a gaseous atmosphere. The analogue of this fact is that the atmosphere (i.e. mood, tone, setting) of the `palace of art' is also contained by the structure.
The architecture present in Tennyson's poem represents a inversion of the neo-classical style. Initially the palace is bright, elevated, and described as having a formal European garden:
Four courts I made, East, West, South and North,
In each a squared lawn, wherefrom
The golden gorge of dragons spouted forth
A flood of fountain foam (Tennyson 6).
The rooms of the `palace' are depicted as containing tapestries, paintings, and mosaics. All the artworks are mimetic in their style:
For some were hung with arras of green and blue
Showing a gaudy summer-morn,
Where with puffed cheek the belted hunter blewHis wreathed bugle-horn.
And... choice paintings of wise men I hung...
Below was all mosaic choicely plann'dWith cycles of the human tale... (16 33 37).
During the fall of the Soul, the `palace' comes to be seen in a different light. It becomes a place filled with darkness and terror: "But in dark corners of her palace stood / Uncertain shapes... And hollow shades enclosing hearts of flame... (60-61). Tennyson does not admit the subservience of the "supreme Caucasian mind" to any element in the poem aside from God (32). The Soul's home is not meant to be the malignant and animated figure which the `House of Usher' finally becomes. The changes in the Soul's perception of her home are projections of the Soul's feelings rather than the other way around.
The physical appearance of the building never changes in `The Palace of Art' but the way it is perceived alters. The Soul's aesthetic perception mutates under the pressure of the "riddle of the painful earth" (54). The place which was once a palace of freedom introverts. It becomes its opposite -- a cage: "A still salt pool, lock'd in with bars of sand, left on the shore..." (62). The architecture is static form the beginning of the poem to the end. The Soul herself notes this when she says, "Yet pull not down my palace towers, that are / So lightly, beautifully built" (74). These lines, in the last stanza of the poem, indicate that the building has not altered since its construction. As soon as the sinful Soul has left her home it has lost its sinister connotations and returns to its former glory. It is not dark and uncertain now but rather "beautifully built." These observations imply that Tennyson's aesthetic of the `palace of art' places the blame for failure on the individual artist (in this case, the Soul). This perspective does not find any evil or disruptive tendencies in the `ivory tower.'
According to `The Palace of Art,' the `ivory tower is apparently the proper place for the artist to "make merry and carouse" (1). In placing the fault with the Soul Tennyson is condemning the idea of the "artist hero [who is] superior.. because he lives more intensely, feels more deeply, and is more aware..." (Beebe 114). The Soul must return to society and rejoin mankind if it wishes remain sane. The failure of the isolated "artist hero" is not clear unless Tennyson's theme of "immoral artistic isolation" is noted (Antippas 115):
Perchance I may return with others there
When I have purged my guilt (74).
Tennyson's final statement in the poem makes this point explicit. The destructive element in his `ivory tower' not due to the structure but due to isolation itself. All other problems rise from this sin of omission of ones fellow man. The `palace' may be re-entered, but not alone.
The architecture of the "pleasure-dome" `Kubla Kahn' is mutable in one sense and static in another. It follows or influences the condition of the protagonist, and is also present as a type or unchanging ideal. This last point is related to the ideal "pleasure-dome," a lost architectural monument which Borges says is recreated in the poem. The ideal then exists outside of the narrative of the poem and is therefore not affected by the events within the text. At the beginning of the poem the structure is presented as being identical with the historical building. It was built at the express command of Kubla Kahn himself. The form of the building is a dome, and the grounds are described with images of an earthy paradise:
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree
And here were forests as ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery (Coleridge 6-11).
This is the first of three forms which the palace takes in `Kubla Kahn.' It is the ideal and historical "pleasure- dome" and `palace of art.'
The poem moves on to the depiction of the fall of this Eden after the appearance of a sacred paradise which is neo-classical and only slightly unusual (cf. "sunless sea" (5)). The sylvan scene is redescribed in a Gothic manner as a scene of chaos and destruction:
...this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething.
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced...
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail... (17-21).
There is no direct connection between this scene and the condition of the protagonist except through analogy. The idea of a fall, however, is present in both The Fall of the House of Usher, and `The Palace of Art.'
The foundations of the building and gardens change between the first and second stanzas. In the first, "Alph the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man..." (3-4). Though the scene is unusual the "sacred river" image preserves a sense of paradise and religion. The structure is, however, erected on unknown ground, on "caverns measureless to man." There is an appearance of calm but it is accompanied by a sense of something hidden underneath. The "caverns" become "that deep romantic chasm... A savage place!," and the "sacred river" changes into "a mighty fountain" (12-14 19). This violent redescription is different from what has been presented in the first stanza which is itself related to sources external to the text (see Coleridge's preface to `Kubla Kahn'). The building is being destroyed from below. There are earthquakes: "As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing...," and violent fountains. The dome hias been reduced to "Huge fragments... these dancing rocks" (20-22). There is nothing left except a description which may be part of the prophecy mentioned in line 30; only the "shadow of the dome of pleasure" and some sounds or music (31-33). The memory or recollection of the "pleasure-dome" is all that remains.
The relationship between the architecture of the building and the protagonist remains obscure. If we consider the role of opium in the genesis of the poem a correlation becomes visible. Burke notes "that the fountain of productivity had also become interwoven with the instabilities of drug addiction" (121). This idea supports the conjecture that the disruptive and destructive fountains of stanza two expose a negative aspect of this `palace.' Using Burke's perspective the first stanza comes to represent the positive aspects of the opium induced dream. The second stanza recounts the nightmare visions of the addict [5]. As an extension of this progression I conjecture that the longing and `madness' of the final stanza relates to withdrawal symptoms. The protagonist is searching for a state of bliss he has lost. He longs for the music of the "Abyssinian Maid." She could easily be a slang reference to opium or to the place of its origin. "His flashing eyes, his floating hair" are both indicative of some state of madness or possession which is related to the protagonist's loss of paradise. The reading of the poem presented above is intended to relate the changes in the architecture of the scene with some analogous state in the character. The association between the opium eater and the artist can be seen in the character of Coleridge himself. Even Roderick Usher is describes as having the characteristics of "the irreclaimable eater of opium" (Poe 143).
There is a false calm during the redescription of the dome in lines 31-34. Burke remarks how this description is different from the first: "When the lines that revert to the first theme add the shadow and the ice, the stage of `innocence' has been radically modified" (220). Another major change to the architecture is that the garden is now conspicuously absent; it was the garden which was associated with the paradisial images. These changes support the idea that they are part of recollections or memories: "some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision..." (Coleridge (preface) 156).
The historical manifestation of the `palace' remains just as it is described in the preface to the poem. Inside the poem, however, the building is gone. The protagonist says, "I would build that dome..." but it is only an idea, a dream. The relationship between the architecture and the character is at this point startling. The man and the dome are described in an almost identical manner: "The shadow of the dome of pleasure / Floated midway on the waves,..." while in the next stanza the man is described with "His flashing eyes, his floating hair!" The two are identified with each other through the imagery, and the attributes of the `palace of art' are conferred on him by this association. He carries the `palace' within him at all times. It is his companion, his dream and nightmare that leaves him alienated from his fellow man and insane. He is finally a prisoner of the `palace of art' and his chains are the unbreakable chains of addiction. An addiction to opium is not necessary. The drug associations serve as an analogy for his true addiction. He would not trade his aestheticism for society and sanity. There was a real structure once but that was far back in time, but this architecture is only in the mind and the imagination. It is a psychological structure solely manifest in the poetic imagination as "A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!" (36).
The architecture in The Fall of the House of Usher is striking in the explicit and oblique associations between the `House' and Roderick Usher. I have mentioned Roderick's feeling that the family mansion was animated and was exerting its influence over him. The two most clear examples of this impression are found in his art and his physiognomy. The lyric called `The Haunted Palace' is very similar to Tennyson's poem (The six stanzas are equivalent to the six sections of `The Palace of Art.'). The verses, describing the slide of a character and a palace from normalcy in to a state of madness and horror, are important because they also describe the relationship between Roderick and the his house.
The influence of the building on Roderick's appearance is hinted at by the narrator when he says, "Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period as Roderick Usher!" (Poe 142). The architecture of the building had been described previously as having "vacant eye-like windows..." with "Minute fungi overspread[ing] the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves" (141). The building appears to be a decaying structure which is miraculously still standing. Roderick is described in a very similar manner:
A cadaverousness of completion; and eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison... hair of a more than web-like softness... and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face..." (142-143).
The complexion (decay), eyes, and hair (fungi) all serve to identify the last male member of the family with his ancestral home. It is clear that the features of the building and the man are interchangeable. The house has characteristics of animation. Conversely, the building was erected by Roderick's ancestors and it is represented in his lyrics and in a painting which the narrator describes on page 146.
Beebe has analysed Poe's own philosophy and cosmology in regards to the relationship between the artist and his work of art. In applying Beebe's observations it appears that the relationship between the `House of Usher' and Roderick Usher is as follows: the artist radiates the artwork as a manifestation of his being. The artwork always wishes to return to its lowest energy level which is a state of oneness with its creator. The creation is therefore under the influence of a form of gravity. Throughout the story a tension or equilibrium exists between the artist and the creation (i.e. Roderick Usher and the `House of Usher'). This state is maintained until Roderick accepts the influence of the house over himself. His acceptance is an unconscious attempt to invert the cosmology which places the artist at the center of the universe as the `radiator' and the artwork at the circumference under the influence of gravity. The building is forced to assume the role of creator. Usher is no longer emanating the artistic aura: "the light in his eyes had go out," once he accept the passive role (Poe 127). Roderick cannot maintain the equilibrium. He is no longer the `radiator' and the structure cannot fulfill the role of creator. The gravitational pull is no longer balanced by his radiation. Usher has assumed a subservient role to his own creation. This situation is identical to the worshiping of the work of art by the artist mentioned earlier in this paper.
The fate of the `House of Usher' (man and building) is interlinked among its constituent parts. Man and building both share the same fate in the final storm. The house collapses and sinks into the waters of the tarn. This act represent the return of the artwork to the artist. The force of gravitation has pulled the house down. There is no other possible explanation because the storm is not so terrible that the narrator is unable to escape. The "deep and dark tarn may be interpreted as the oneness of the artist from which all things came and to which all must return" (Beebe 121). The tarn is equated with the poet whom Poe identified as the "Heart Divine" (119).
Beebe see the major relationship as existing between the building and Roderick: "The crack in the building corresponds to Roderick's struggle against insanity, his effort to maintain his composure..." (121). The crack is more than this. The architecture resembles Roderick, or the reverse, but it definitely is the house of the race of Usher. In such a capacity it must bear some relation to Roderick's sister Madeline. At the beginning of the story there is no crack! Its existence is only implied: "Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure..." (Poe 141). It is easy to mistake this passage as a statement of fact, rather than that of conjecture which it really is. At the end of the story it is a crack in this spot along which the house splits. Even here there is no reference to the split existing prior to this moment of the story, only that the possibility of a such a crack was referred to earlier in the narrative. This crack represents a split between Roderick Usher and Lady Madeline. At the beginning of the tale Madeline is alive, and Roderick shows grief at her illness. After she is interred Roderick and his sister are split. He does not come to her aid when he realizes that she is still alive. It is ambiguous whether the split is a result of guilt over incest or her mistaken burial, or if it was caused by the parallel illnesses which incapacitated Madeline, and simultaneously caused the death of the last two members of the `House of Usher.' But this crack also represents the death of the house itself.
The `House of Usher,' otherwise known as `The Haunted Palace' and the `palace of art' is finally revealed by Poe as a manifestation of the artist's imagination. In his story it is built by the race of artists called Usher. It exists only as long as there is an artist to animate it. True, Roderick thought that the animated house was controlling him, but he was the animator of the house. Usher makes the characteristic mistake of the `ivory tower' artist: he ignores the external world and mistakenly worships his own creations.
The architecture of the `palace,' Roderick's temple, reflects the face of its creator more than Roderick emulates the house. Whether Poe considers the failure of the `palace of art' to be problematic or if this is merely a reflection of Victorian artistic decadence is unclear. What is clear is that the `palace of art' is a construct of the artist's imagination and as such it exists only through his will. The failure of aestheticism must invariably rest on the shoulders of the artist himself. In `Kubla Kahn,' `The Palace of Art,' and The Fall of the House of Usher Coleridge, Tennyson, and Poe each develop an image of the `palace of art' which contains a consistent commentary on aestheticism. The prognostication is unfavourable. The primary element which causes the failure of the artist/protagonist is present in the idea of isolation. All three writers present `palaces' which are both external structures and expressions of mental states of the characters who reside in them. But only in Tennyson's poem is the physical `palace' both a positive residence, and still capable of residence, at the end of his story. These men agree that the ultimate responsibility for aestheticism resides with the individual artists and how they confront society and their own artistic creations.
The failure of the artist in the `palace of art' reflects on the state of the contemporary artist. None of the writers create an image of a successful artist existing in isolation in his aesthetic world. It is, therefore, likely that they consider such a state to be impossible. But in all three works there are hints left in the texts which work against this idea. In Poe's work there is the narrator, and artist who returns to the outer world. In `Kubla Kahn' the protagonist still strives to recreate the paradise. Finally in Tennyson's poem the Soul explicitly states her option: "Perchance I may return with others there / When I have purged my guilt."
Notes
1 The edition of `The Palace of Art' used in this paper is divided into stanza's of four lines. The numbers in parenthesis refer to stanzas not to lines.
2 The narrator is also artistically inclined. He says "We painted and read together..." (145). The manner in which the narrator describes his first encounter with the house indicates that he is of a similar though less acute artistic temperment as Usher. He is apparently not an artist of the `palace of art' because he comes from and returns to the outside world.
3 Seronsy has associated this detail with the drug metaphors of Usher (219-220).
4 Beer uses another MS to show that there are four stanzas. Lines 37 to 41 are set apart to form a separate stanza.
5 A similar progression of states has been described by De Quincy in his Confessions (1822).
Works Cited
Antippas, Andy P. `Tennyson's Sinful Soul.' Tulane Studies in English. (1969) 113-134.
Beebe, Maurice. `Art as Religion: The Ivory Tower Tradition." Ivory Tower and Sacred Fonts. New York: New York UP, 1964, 114-128.
Borges, Jorge Luis. `The Dream of Coleridge.' Other Inquisitions. R.C.L. Simms trans. Austin: Austin UP, 1964, 14-17.
Beer, John. "The Languages of `Kubla Kahn.'" Coleridge's Imagination. Richard Gravil ed. et. al. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985, 218-262.
Burke, Kenneth. `Particular Authors and Works: "Kubla Kahn."' Language as Symbolic Action. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966, 214-221.
Coleridge, Samuel. "Kubla Kahn." The Portable Coleridge. I. A. Richards ed. New York: Viking, 1950, 156-158.
Lawrence, D. H. From "Studies in Classic American Literature: Edgar Allen Poe." The Portable D. H. Lawrence. Diana Trilling ed. New York: Viking, 1946, 671-692.
Poe, Edgar Allen. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings. David Galloway ed. Toronto: Penguin, 1967, 138-157.
Praz, Mario. "An Introductory Essay." Three Gothic Novels. Peter Fairclough ed. Toronto: Penguin, 1968, 7-34.
Seronsy, Cecil C. `Poe and "Kubla Kahn."' Notes and Queries. (1957) 219-220.
Tennyson, Alfred. "The Palace of Art." A Collection of Poems by Alfred Tennyson. Selected by Christopher Ricks. New York: Doubleday, 1972, 129-139.
Works Consulted
Beckford, William. Vatheck: an Arabian tale (1786). Menston, England.: Scolar, 1971.
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. London: Routledge, 1858.
Gerhard, J. Joseph. `Poe and Tennyson.' PMLA (1973) 418-427. Guilds, John C. `Poe's Vaults Again.' Notes andQueries. (1957) 220-221.
Heninger, S.K. Jr. "A Jungian Reading of `Kubla Kahn.'" Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (1960) 358-367.
MacKenzie, Norman. `"Kubla Kahn": A Poem of Creative Agony and Loss.' English Miscellany (1969) 229-240.
Praz, Mario. The Romantic Agony. Angus Davidson trans. London: Oxford UP 1933.
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Ortranto: a Gothic story (1765). London: Oxford UP.
Originally submitted to Professor E. Faas Eng. 6350 26 April 1988