INCEST AND VIOLENCE IN POE AND BURGESS
INCEST AND VIOLENCE IN POE AND BURGESS

Summary/Abstract: Despite the fact that Poe and Burgess are separated by years of literature, their works share the interest in the brutality of sexuality that leads to the degradation of human condition. A clockwork Orange and The Fall of the House of Usher portray alienated characters whose personalities split, pushing the characters towards hiding behind their sexual deviations. Essentially, the characters have no genuine interest in fitting in the society, for, in their perception, reality is broken into hazardous pieces that they disown. Violence and sexuality are two consequences of alienation that broaden the gap between the alienated individual and the world surrounding him. Alex’s own mental weakness is hidden behind the violent sexual subdual. His fate, and not change it. Similarly To Oedipus, whose fate had been ordained and all he did was veil the unavoidable, Roderick’s destiny is predicted in The Fall of the House of Usher; the difference lies in the fact that Roderick prophesies his own destiny and it is in his power to change it, whereas Oedipus and his fate can only abscond for a short period of time. Seen as a mismatch between human beings and their social life, alienation causes the individual to return to his state of origin, or even to go beyond that in order to cure himself. In their quest for male identity, the characters in A clockwork Orange resort to violence, they find physical freedom in violence, and, moreover, they feel that violence gives them the means to avenge on society and to regain power and control. Alienation is to be understood as a feeling of relationlessness – in the case of the Ushers.

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