Mr. Provenzano 1st Hour
March 16th 2012
Edgar Allen Poe’s Obsession With Death
After reading a story by Edgar Allen Poe, one will clearly understand that his stories represent the theme of death. Some conclude that Poe’s frequent use of this theme is a result of his tragic childhood. At a young age, Poe watched both his mother and father pass away and he was then forced to live with another family. Throughout his stories, Poe gives emphasis to his obsession with death by repeatedly bringing up the subject. Through each of these five stories, death is clearly executed as the main idea. In one of his stories, “The Fall of The House of Usher,” the death theme is emphasized through Poe’s distinct use of gothic diction and his creation of frightened characters. The “Masque of Red Death” is a story that introduces a more symbolic way to think about death. Another one of Poe’s stories, “Berenice,” is one that presents the idea of being buried alive, which connects with the death theme. “The Black Cat and The Mysterious Case of M. Valdemar” have characters in them that are obsessed with death themselves, just as Poe is. Edgar Allen Poe emphasizes his obsession with death by presenting the theme in his stories; “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Mask of Red Death,” “Berenice,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.”
One of many Poe stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is one that very clearly portrays his obsession with death. The use of gothic diction in this story is frequent and elaborate. It is used to commence the inner darkness of the plot. “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” 1). Poe’s description of the house in The Fall of the House of Usher is extremely fear-provoking for readers. The creation of such a frightening environment makes way for the events yet to happen in the story; much of these events involving death. One of the characters that Poe has created in this story is mentally ill and is expecting death to come his way. “’ I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” 6). The character’s fear of what death is yet to bring is just one way that Edgar Allen Poe represents the death topic in his stories.
Another way the author reveals his obsession with death in his stories is by using symbolism. One story that presents this use of symbolism in Poe’s collection is “The Masque of Read Death.” It takes place in a time where there was a horrible plague overcoming the population. The plague caused suffering and in most cases, instant death. In the story, the plague was represented by a man dressed in garments that looked like death itself; a corpse. Poe’s use of symbolism in this story makes it gothic. What is thought to be a man in a mask enters the Prince’s home and is thought to have murdered him. But when the people arrive at the scene of the crime, they realize that the masked stranger is not a concrete object or person at all. “…a throng of the revelers at once threw themselves into the black apartment and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in utterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form” (Poe, “The Masque of Red Death”). In this story, Poe stresses the theme of death by portraying death as a very human-like object.
“Berenice” is one of Poe’s earlier stories and is based on the revival of life and being buried alive. The author has also included the topic of early burial in several of his stories. It is when the character seems to be dead and is buried, but is actually still living in a coma or an inactive state. In “Berenice,” the main character is due to marry his cousin, Berenice, but she soon dies. The main character, Egaeus, is obsessed with Berenice’s teeth. He often goes into trances where, afterwards, he cannot recollect what he has done during the trance. One night, he is informed that someone has dug up Berenice in her grave and ultimately taken her teeth out. When she was studied at the scene of the horrible incident, viewers noticed that she was still breathing and very much alive. “He told of a wild cry disturbing the silence of the night --of the gathering together of the household-of a search in the direction of the sound; --and then his tones grew thrillingly distinct as he whispered me of a violated grave --of a disfigured body enshrouded, yet still breathing, still palpitating, still alive” (Poe, “Berenice”)! The concept of her still being alive when she is thought to be dead is how Poe represents death in this story.
The “Black Cat” is also a story including death-like elements. The story is about a man who has uncontrollable anger problems. He is constantly feeling the urge to kill or hurt his loving pet cat. Poe creates this personality like such because he loves linking his characters to the theme of death. After killing his first cat, the man feels better, but when he gets rid of the second, he is very relieved. “It is impossible to describe, or to imagine, the deep, the blissful sense of relief which the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). Although the man’s personality seems sickening and awful to readers, it was what Poe wished to include in his story because he loved to portray death throughout his stories.
Some of Poe’s stories possess a much more obvious connection to death. An example of one of these is “The Facts in The Case of M. Valdemar.” It is about a man who wants to experiment with death and mesmerism. He is quite interested in what might happen to a person who has been put in a trance at the very moment of death. “My attention, for the last three years, had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of mesmerism; and, about nine months ago, it occurred to me, quite suddenly, that in the series of experiments made hitherto, there had been a very remarkable and most unaccountable omission: no person had as yet been mesmerized in articulo mortis” (Poe, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”). The fact that Poe addresses the possibility of such an astounding scheme shows how interested he is in death. He also deeply describes the appearance of dying people in his stories. “His face wore a leaden hue; the eyes were utterly lusterless, and the emancipation was so extreme, that the skin had been broken through by the cheek-bones” (Poe, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”). Imagery such as this plays a very large role in creating a death-like theme in the story. Poe used vivid descriptions because he wanted to highlight the theme.
All of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories are written with a gothic feel to them. There are several themes presented in gothic writing, one of them being death. This seemed to be Poe’s favorite theme because it is highlighted very frequently throughout his works. Sometimes it is represented by death-like diction or imagery. Other times it is the plot line that brings out Poe’s love for the death theme. When reading “The Fall of the House of Usher,” readers can visualize Poe’s death obsession because of his gothic diction and his use of nervous and fearful characters that are near to death. In “The Mask of Red Death,” Poe uses a symbolic method to show what death is. “Berenice” is a short story by Poe that includes the topic of being thought to be dead when the character is actually still living. “The Black Cat” and “The Mysterious Case of M. Valdemar” are two Poe stories where the main character is interested or obsessed with death and act upon that feeling of curiosity and fixation. There is often something the reader can find in Poe’s short stories that leads them back to the theme of death.
Works Cited
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. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/houseofusher>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." Poestories.com. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/masque>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "Berenice." Poestories.com. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/berenice>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." Poestories.com. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/facts>.
"Poe’s Short Stories." SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/context.html>.
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