Zoie Uznis
Mr. Provenzano
Honors American Lit
16 March 2012
The Obsession of Death
Edgar Allen Poe is known throughout the world for his dark short stories. For over 200 years he has been entrancing readers with his words. Although every story differs from the next they all have the same frightening and spine tingling mood. No matter what the topic of the story is, they are all based around the same gravelly subject- death. No matter what the tale Poe incorporates death into almost every story he has ever written. Poe was criticized for his use of this theme before and after his own death. At the time his works were published, death was not a common subject to write about. He gave death a whole new light by bringing it to the literary world. Edgar Allan Poe made death in literature the attention-grabbing topic it is today.
One of his oldest stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is Poe’s most terrifying piece of work and the most well known. It is a gothic story set in a dark home that is oozing madness in and out of the house. Poe uses symbolism by the house falling with the death of the last Usher. Poe takes the story to a level of fear at numerous occasions in the story. The mysterious narrator, the numerous deaths, and the crumbling house chill the reader to the bone. The anticipation of death and the madness throughout the home is the main key in accessing the fear. “. . . then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”). Rodrick Usher knows that his death is coming; even with his mental instability the thought of death creeping over him like a black hand haunts him and makes him more insane then he already is. Not all of the events in the story pertain to death, yet it is always the underlying subject. All the actions, words, and mannerisms of the Usher family and the narrator foreshadow death. “The Fall of the House of Usher” symbolizes both the fall of the family name and the fall of the home. Poe uses this symbolism to show how death is inescapable no matter what the circumstance.
Poe wrote “The Premature Burial,” another one maddening and death obsessed stories. This short story shows the terror in being buried alive, and how eventually, one will die no matter what. Unlike Poe’s other stories, it is not the narrator that experiences the true terror of being buried alive; it is the psychological aspect that drives him insane. “The true wretchedness, indeed – the ultimate woe – is particular, not diffuse. That the ghastly extremes of agony are endured by man the unit, and never by man the mass – for let us thank a merciful God” (Poe, “The Premature Burial”)! Poe messes with the reader’s head by planning events to make the reader assume that the narrator will be the one buried alive. The narrator drives himself the breaking point of paranoia, always assuming that being buried alive is the next major point in his life that will result in his death. The use of this paranoia keeps the reader assuming that the narrator will indeed be buried alive yet by the end of the story they realize that it is all in the narrators head. “The Premature Burial” is the perfect example in showing that even though the topic of the story is indeed death it will not always be the ending. The constant paranoia shows how people’s perception of death from one person to the next.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” is another story where the narrator is not caught by death. The narrator explains the setting of his “arranged death” and how he waits in terror for the day it will happen. “That the result would be death, and a death of more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all that occupied or distracted me” (Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”). Like “The Premature Burial” Poe shows the different perceptions of death. The narrator is sitting waiting for his death for so long that he would rather be dead then wait in fear for it to happen. “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a short story again that revolves around the concept of death yet has no characters experiencing death first-hand. Rodrick Usher in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is like these people in the sense that they are waiting for a planned out fate. Poe uses death in all these stories but like the characters in them the perception of one differs greatly from the other.
“The Black Cat,” is considered Poe’s most disturbing story in which many people and things seem to be gone despite the narrator. The story shows how people change under extreme circumstances and sadly in this case, not for the better. The narrator ends up brutally killing all of his household pets. The two most important deaths are those of his wife and of his most loved cat. “Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such” (Poe, “The Black Cat”)? The narrator had an addiction to alcohol, which caused him to do this heinous act. The story has a direct correlation to Poe who also struggled from an alcohol addiction. With the narrator being the cause of the death, feeling the guilt, going crazy, and being aware of what he has done is different then Poe’s other stories of death. Poe changes the affliction of death to show its unique causes and possibilities and how like its perception differs with each person.
“The Masque of the Red Death” is the easiest to see the theme of death out of all of Poe’s work. Being set during the time of the Plague in Europe, the Prince Prospero, in an attempt to save the wealthier people, invites everyone to his castle until the plague has been wiped out. The Plague enters the castle and takes everyone’s lives that attended the party. “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers . . . died each in the despairing posture of his fall . . . And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”). The story is an allegory, yet is known both literally and symbolically as a direct correlation to the theme of death. The role of irony is shown in the story by the prince’s attempts to save his friends yet kills them all. The relation of death and time is also seen in the story. The clock chiming after everyone has died symbolizes how death is no master to time. The unavoidability of death is brought up again and again in all of Poe’s work. It shows how no matter what the circumstance is death will always defy you.
Edgar Allan Poe brought death to the stage of literature like no one ever had before. Death being one of the most sad and mysterious happenings ever to be seen in society has always caused ones mind to shudder. Through the gothic elements, and the events of his stories, they all revolved around the subject matter of death. Death, being different for everyone, always has the same out come. No matter how crazy one gets over the thought of dying it will always eventually happen no matter what the circumstances. Poe’s short stories far exceed other stories of the time to show the concept of death in a way it had never been seen before. Even 200 years later Poe’s works are thought of as the literary building blocks
Bibliography
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Black Cat." Poestories.com. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/blackcat>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Poestories.com. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/houseofusher>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." Poestories.com. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/masque>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Poestories.com. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/pit>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Premature Burial." Poestories.com. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/premature>.
"Poe's Short Stories Summary and Analysis." GradeSaver. GradeSaver LLC. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.gradesaver.com/poes-short-stories/study-guide/section13/>.
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