The Uncanny as the Intrasubjectivity in the (m)Other: Edgar Allan Poe’s “Morella”

Abstract

This study investigates the contribution of the sense of the uncanny to the intensification of mystery in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story titled “Morella” using Freudian ideas as a backcloth. This paper aims to look at how Poe makes use of the psychodynamics of the characters at the intersection of the (m)other, death and the uncanny. In this sense, typical of Poesque literature is that his work is marked by tales of horror, mystery, the macabre, and morbid imagery; the sense of the uncanny is an indispensable part of a plotline which includes semantic loopholes and narrative ruptures. The unnamed male narrator of the story offers a retrospective account of his past memories from his marriage to Morella up to the death of his daughter, which reveals that this unreliable narrator suffers from a psychic regression by establishing intrasubjectivity with his wife. Using Freudian ideas as the conceptual backcloth, this paper will also discuss the ways in which how the mysterious bond established between this couple generates its uncanny effect. Such a reading of the short story is especially useful because although much has been written on Poe’s representation of women and death, this paper aims to open up a discursive space to discuss the operations of the psychodynamics of characters within the framework of the Freudian uncanny, which has not received adequate scholarly attention from psychoanalytic circles.