Nicole Bade
03/16/11
1st hour, Honors American Lit
Poe's Obsession With Death
The time period in which Edgar Allen Poe lived, the years 1809-1849, was full of disease and death. With very little access to medicine, the world the man must have lived in was no doubt wrought with frightening images of corpses and sickness. It is no surprise, then, that this atmosphere translates clearly into his writing. He filled his stories with gore and garish descriptions. His fascination with death is evident in many of his short stories, such as The Black Cat, The Premature Burial, the Facts in the Case of M Vladmir, the Masque of Red Death, and the Fall of the House of Usher.
One of his short stories, the Black Cat, has some extremely descriptive illustrations of the murder of a man’s cat, and then his wife. The way Poe uses imagery and descriptions, it is clear that his mind has spent a lot of time puzzling over these situations and is infatuated with the idea of murder and death. His description of the murder of the cat is incredibly unsettling and disturbing, “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” (Poe, "The Black Cat 2). He describes the murder of the cat as clearly as if he had done it himself, which while writing this, he probably imagined it hundreds of times. Poe later goes on to describe the sudden and violent murder of the main character’s wife, with an ax that was intended for the new cat. He is shown feeling almost no remorse, actually feeling happy because the cat had disappeared and he was free of him at last. This is another clear indicator the Poe idealizes the murder of the animal. The fact that he portrayed the murder in such a way, combined with the fact that almost all of his stories are centered around death, shows that Poe had an unhealthy obsession with death. Some of his other stories also showed death in such a positive light, for instance, the short story the Masque of Red Death.
In the Masque of Red Death, death is symbolized as a party attendee who brings death to the ball with him. Poe's diction in this story illustrates the horror and unpleasantness of the man, while at the same time glorifying him. He wrote, "... No ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation... the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum" (Poe, "Masque of Red Death 4). Poe describes him in such a way that the reader would think Poe admired the man for his bold costume, and that his appearance was daring and brave. When he goes on to describe the scene in which the Prince attempts to have him arrested, people treat the man dressed as Red Death with a terrified sort of reverence, suggesting Poe felt the same way. He then portrays Prince Prospero as an angry, red faced man, someone who the reader could not admire. In this way, he paints death as almost a protagonist, someone who the reader would prefer to Prince Prospero, and really, any of the other characters. This shows Poe's obsession with death in how he reveres death, and makes it seem preferable to the ugly way some people (such as the prince) would choose to live. Making death an, if not likable, admirable character, shows Poe's fascination with death and how it fits into peoples' lives. This is also illustrated by the personification of death, and how Poe used a human man as a symbol for it. Poe has many clever ways of discussing death, such as the unique way he portrays it in the Facts in the Case of M Vladmir.
The Facts in the case of M Vladmir clearly shows Poe's obsession with death. The entire story is about a dead man being hypnotized so that he lives beyond death. Poe's curiosities about death were illustrated through this piece as he explores the other side of it: perpetual living. Again, Poe shows death in a positive light, portraying an old man who, though he agrees to the experiment, in the end is just desperate for death. At one point, when asked if he was asleep, he cries, "Yes; asleep now. Do not wake me! -- Let me die so!" (Poe, Facts in the Case of M Vladmir, 3). In this story, Poe shows his obsession by way of showing death in a way not normally thought of by other people. By telling the story of a half dead/half alive man, he is demonstrating the many different elements or ways of looking at dying, such as immortality or life after death. His obsession with the matter is completely clear from this story, as such a strange and different perspective on death would be necessary to write about such a subject. Another perspective of death that Poe excelled at writing on, was the fear of it.
The Fall of the House of Usher is unique for Poe's short stories, as death is neither glorified nor used as a symbol for anything remotely positive. Instead, it is written as a complete horror story, with madness playing a key role. The house itself is used as a kind of metaphor for death, with everyone who lives in it eventually succumbing to madness, and then, as it would seem, death. The narrator states, "It was no wonder that his condition terrified - that it infected me. I felt it creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions" (Poe, the Fall of the House of Usher 6). This seeming contagion of insanity is Poe showing fear of death, and how it can spread from person to person. He is probably illustrating his own fears of the matter, because as his mind was constantly occupied with thoughts of death, these fears had probably arisen. The fissure at the end of the story was a symbol for death, swallowing the house whole. His obsession with death is shown here as a constant fear that the character (and he) carried. Similarly, the Premature Burial also shows Poe's fears about death.
In the Premature Burial, Poe again explores the darker side of death. The way he writes about being buried alive shows an intense paranoia. In both the Fall of the House of Usher and the Premature Burial, death is shown as a kind of a trap that the narrator could fall into. At one point the narrator thinks that he has been buried alive, "I endeavored to shriek-, and my lips and my parched tongue moved convulsively together in the attempt -- but no voice issued from the cavernous lungs, which oppressed as if by the weight of some incumbent mountain, gasped and palpitated, with the heart, at every elaborate and struggling inspiration" (Poe, the Premature Burial 5). This passage shows Poe's inner thoughts and fears about death, much like the Fall of the House of Usher did. His fascination shines through with this, as his paranoia is evident. Using being buried alive as a simple metaphor for death, Poe conveys a fear many people share of death, and one he most likely carried himself. By using it as a powerful symbol, Poe uses death to portray his obsession.
By writing, Edgar Allen Poe explores his obsession with death. From glorifying death to exploring different elements or sides to it, he shows how his mind is fascinated with the subject by his many works focused on it. Whether Poe is writing to personify death or show his paranoia, he uses it as a symbol in almost all of his works. Poe's ability to write about death from all perspectives shows an avid obsession with the subject.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Giordano, Robert. "Welcome to PoeStories.com." Edgar Allan Poe, Short Stories, Tales, and Poems. Edgar Allen Poe. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Black Cat." Poe Stories. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/blackcat>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Premature Burial." Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/premature>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Masque of Red Death." Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/masque>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Facts in the Case of M Vladmir." Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/facts>.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/houseofusher>.
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