Honors American Literature
Poe Essay
Edgar Allen Poe is known as an American Romantic that mainly made Gothic literature short stories, but he also was an American poet, editor, writer, and an American literary critic. His stories contain the supernatural, the eerie, and horrifying. Edgar Allen Poe had a weird love for death. In some of his stories death has played a major part. He’s published many different stories, but the stories such as “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “the Black Cat”, “The Premature Burial”, “the Pit of Pendulum” and “the Masque of Red Death”,” are all related to death. Each story written by Edgar Allen Poe contained the theme of death in some form, and this shows that had and obsession with death.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the story “the Masque of Red Death” in 1850. The story was told when the plague took place. In the first few paragraphs of the story it states that Prince Prospero only invited his wealthy friends to come and live him; within his castle and to escape the ‘red death’ and party to forget about the outside troubles. One night during his party it crashed by a man who’d appeared to have been affected by the ‘red death’, “His vesture was dabbled in blood — and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was be sprinkled with the scarlet horror” (Poe 1850). This figure was to represent death itself coming to collect the lives of those who lived amongst the prince and the Prince as well. With trying to lock themselves away from the ‘red death’ all of them only finalized their sentence. This shows that in this short story Edgar Allen Poe was obsessed with death because these people where all surrounded by death and once they received an invention to get away and they took it death only followed. They were perfectly found within the solitude of Prince Prospero castle, but Edgar Allen Poe just had to have death follow them to kill them as well.
The story “the Fall of the House of Usher” was written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1839. There are many themes that take place in this short story, but death is the main one. “While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened --there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind --the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight --my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder --there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters --and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "HOUSE OF USHER". The foundation of the house was the foundation of the Usher family, weak and unstable. When the foundation of the house had fallen it meant that the chain of Ushers was no more. Edgar Allen Poe shows his love of death in this story by ending all of the lives in the Usher family.
“The Black Cat” was written in the year 1845. Within the first few paragraphs the narrator mentions how he was nice and how he loved animals. He has a black cat named Pluto that on he feeds an cares. His wife is supercilious about black cats and believes them to be witches in discise. As the story progresses the narrators mood changes and he becomes less tolerant towards all of the animals. One night the narrator is intoxicated and is angry when his cat Pluto scratched him. “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity”(Poe 1845). This shows that the narrator has a bad temper and will do drastic things at unexpected times. “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -- hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; -- hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; -- ...”(Poe 1845). Edgar Allen Poe uses so much imagery to get his point across. Edgar Allen Poe is having the narrator do extreme things for little to not reason. Causing the narrator to kill innocence creatures and innocence people.
“The Premature Burial was written in 1850“. this is everyones fear that Edgar Allen Poe brought to life. "It may be asserted, without hesitation, that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and of mental distress, as is burial before death. The unendurable oppression of the lungs- the stifling fumes from the damp earth–the clinging to the death garments–the rigid embrace of the narrow house–the blackness of the absolute Night–the silence like a sea that overwhelms..."(Poe 1850). Edgar Allen Poe uses so much imagery and sets an amazing tone in the story that a person reading the story can actually see whats going on. Edgar Allen Poe uses death in this story to show. The death in this story is mainly predictable and obviously peoples most deepest fear.
“The Pit and the Pendulum" was written in 1850. From the beginning of the story the narrator is already telling the reader that they are sick and and in pain. This story take place in the middle of a war.He’s captured and is in a cell created by the enemy. The narrator goes through a lot of black out. “So far, I had not opened my eyes. I felt that I lay upon my back, unbound. I reached out my hand, and it fell heavily upon something damp and hard. There I suffered it to remain for many minutes, while I strove to imagine where and what I could be. I longed, yet dared not to employ my vision. I dreaded the first glance at objects around me. It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see. At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes”(Poe 1850).
Edgar Allen Poe was known as an American Romantic that mainly made Gothic literature short stories, but he also was an American poet, editor, writer, and an American literary critic. His stories contain the supernatural, the eerie, and horrifying. Edgar Allen Poe had a weird love for death. In some of his stories death has played a major part. He’s published many different stories, but the stories such as “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “the Black Cat”, “The Premature Burial”, “the Pit of Pendulum” and “the Masque of Red Death”,” are all related to death. Each story written by Edgar Allen Poe contained the theme of death in some form, and this shows that had and obsession with death from the following examples shown above.
Bibliography
http://poestories.com
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