Rachel Montgomery
March 15, 2012
Honors Am Literature
Provenzano, 1st
Obsession with Death
An obsession can be over anything in the world. It could be blatantly obvious to everyone or hidden from the world. Edgar Allen Poe, one of the greatest writers of all time, may have seemed like he wasn’t obsessed with death at first, but after another glance, it is apparent he is. No one would see that until taking a close look at his writings and seeing the thoughts behind his words. His obsession is shown very strongly when readers see the multiple points of similarity between the stories. These points show a darker and more twisted side to the stories after looking more closely. When you look and see the isolation, symbolism and dictation he used, you can see that he has a love for death and its twisted ways. When looking at the deeper meaning of Poe’s writing, his obsession with death become apparent to all who read his works. So through these different aspects that are apparent and common in his stories, any one of his readers could see how he is obsessed with death.
Isolation is part of Poe’s obsession with death in his stories. For Poe ends up creating the characters from the different stories with few or no friends to turn to during the story. “.. to the severe and long-continued illness-…a tenderly beloved sister-his sole companion for long years…” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher). Some even have replaced actual human friends with substitutes like animals. “I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets… There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute…” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat). This leaves these characters alone and in need of help of someone right off the bat and wishing for someone to help them. But even for the ones that do have friends and family to turn to though, Poe has them pushed away through bad habits or mistreatment by the main characters. “I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered my personal violence,” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat). At some point in the story, the main characters all seem as if they have been separated from the rest of the world. Poe creates this through his obsession with death. He has death involved with a series of unfortunate events that occur for the main characters. Poe has problems around every corner for them that lead to nothing but death, so he can establish a sense of aloneness and loss for all the main characters. Through this, a sort of bubble is being set around them that seems to force the character to face all their troubles on their own. This makes the characters feel as if everything happens to them and to them alone. In the end, a sort of depression or madness is created for the characters that makes death practically inevitable for themselves. This never ending cycle of depression and loss is created through this and creates a dark mood for his stories. A sense of darkness that was only brought upon the characters by having them run into problems related to death. Only to prove that the isolation in Poe’s stories has been created through his obsession with death.
Symbolism played a huge role throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. He created symbols that provided a whole new outlook on the stories and made in inanimate objects come to life. They created a new emphasis on different parts in the stories he has created. Intangible things became living beings that were part of or caused destruction in the stories. “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of Red Death). Objects became representation of characters from the stories that created a connection between the two that not even death could be differentiated between them. “… and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse…there was a long tumultuous shouting….dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the ‘House of Usher’” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher). Through these symbolic things though, Poe has them involved with his obsession with death by having them connected to death as well. To some they seem like normal characters or parts of the story, but with their presence, they spread a strong emphasis on death itself. In some cases they represent the death or the end of something. While in others, they cause the death themselves. Through this, the connection between the objects and death is undeniable because with these symbolic objects, comes death. The idea behind of each of these symbols there is a new meaning then just a person or an object in one of Poe’s stories. Each of these has a relationship with death that is apparent and adds to the idea of death in the stories. This makes symbolism is then a major contributor to Poe’s obsession with death in his stories.
Edgar Allan Poe, as the famous writer he is, is a master at description. This is evident in his stories and help show how obsessed with death he is. Poe describes everything as if it were right in front of you. An image pops in to your head the minute you start to read the first paragraph. He uses dictation to help describe and make the stories have the gloomy feel and ambiance he creates for his gothic scenes. His obsession with death becomes very noticeable then when he uses his unique and deep descriptions for his stories. Through this, he gives gruesome details to the story that allows you to see the agony and sadness the story has. “The upper lip, at the same time, writhed itself away from the teeth, which it had previously covered completely: while the lower jaw fell with an audible jerk…” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar). He likes to show the dark and twisted side of people and likes to create peoples worst fears on a piece of paper. “To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial). He uses his talents as a writer to create a since of loss and agony for all those who read it. When he describes the death of someone in the story, he makes sure that he doesn’t leave out a single detail. The picture is as gruesome and as detailed as it could possibly be. His depth in his details shows how fascinated he is with death by becoming that realistic and vivid. Even when he isn’t writing about death, he writes about someone’s troubles and writes it with a dark and depressing feel about it. A happy ending is never seen and death is more common then happiness for characters. So by writing so detailed about someone’s misery and experience with death, Poe’s obsession with death shows through very strongly through his descriptions.
In stories by Edgar Allan Poe, there is isolation, symbolism, and description that shows how he is obsessed with death. Between his creation of misery, symbolic parts of the story that represent death and his deep descriptions about the death of characters; death is key in all his stories. He uses it to create elements in his stories and make his stories the way they are. It was the deeper part of the story that made them as horrific as they were. Making his obsession with death very apparent in his stories.
Biboliography
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat”. The Literature Network. 13 March. 2012. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/24/
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Premature Burial”. The Literature Network. 13 March. 2012. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/41/
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”. The Literature Network. 13 March. 2012. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/30/
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