Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Sphinx'

In “The Sphinx” by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator accepts an invitation brought forth to him by his relative to stay at his cottage. He accepts the invitation and spends the summer with him. They enjoy the summer together but what got to them were the unpleasant signs of death from the cholera outbreak. Every morning, more and more people would die from the disease. Their best bet was to stay indoors secluded from the outside world. The relative was so shocked at what was going on, that he became depressed and because of that, the narrator led himself to read books to keep his mind distracted. He read books that led him to believe chaos was occurring because of an omen or evil spirits. Telling that to his relative didn’t make him feel any better
The idea behind concept lies within Russell’s interpretation of its meaning. He argues that when someone has an idea of an object, they can see it much easier as opposed to someone else. In the narrator’s case, for instance, he has to deal with constant fear and his belief that death and evil is coming his way. The creature he makes out is just a figment of his imagination sort of speak. Russell also states that the “Relation of mind and matter” (80) is based on the idea that a person should word their interpretations according to their own perception. For example, saying “I see a triangle” infers that only that person can perceive such image. However, in the case of it being structured this way: “There is a triangle”, others can therefore relate to what is being seen and share a commonality. As for the narrator, if he came to his relative with a better approach by saying, “There is a creature”, and then he would’ve saw it right away. According to Davidson, “Few things are more persistently misunderstood than the nature and limits of scientific solution, and the reason why solutions are demanded” (497). Referring back to the narrator’s struggle of reinforcing his perception to his relative, the relative knew that he was going “mad” so he offered a solution to his problem. The solution consisted of a book of insect species that went against the narrator’s findings proving him wrong. Also, Davidson goes on to say that, “Therefore be supplemented by something sufficient to convert it into such” (497). According to that statement, it relates to the narrators point of view of evil and death as being the “sufficient” entity that supplemented his understanding of the creature. The same goes for the relative when he pulls out the book of species as a supplement for knowledge in order to convert the fear and madness to