Grace Martinez
Mr. Provenzano
Honors American Literature
16 March 2012
Poe Essay
Edgar Allen Poe, one of the greatest gothic writers of all time, wrote dozens of gothic poems and stories that focused on the theme of death. Of his work, The Masque of Red Death, Ligeia, and The Premature Burial all center on this main theme. Of the countless stories that Poe has written, all of them contain a theme, symbol, of incident that relates directly to death. Although some of his other stories may contain differing themes and morals, death is commonplace in each of his stories in some form. Edgar Allen Poe’s use of death in his stories shows that he was obsessed with using death as a theme for his writing.
Ligeia, written by Poe in 1838, tells the gothic love story of a man obsessing over his deceased wife. Although Ligeia alludes to the traditional tragic love story, Poe manages to twist the tale by adding dark aspects and supernatural elements. Even the description of the narrator’s first wife, Ligeia, is dark and humors he nontraditional aspect of his love story. “It is the person of Ligeia. In stature she was tall, somewhat slender, and, in her latter days, even emaciated… Yet her features were not of that regular mould which we have been falsely taught to worship in the classical labors on the heathen” (Poe 1838). The aspect of death as a theme is not present until the death of Ligeia. The tragic death of the narrator’s first wife causes the story to become about his obsession with the dead. The obsession with the dead is so great that the narrator obsesses over the memory of first wife through the marriage and death of his second wife. “The night waned; and still, with a bosom full of bitter thoughts of the one only and supremely beloved, I remained gazing on the body of Rowena” (Poe 1838). The theme of death is present with the obsession that the narrator has with the memory of the dead Ligeia. The supernatural aspect of the story occurs with the revival of Ligeia through Rowena’s corpse. The initial love story changed drastically as the theme of death became present and caused the story to become gothic. Ligeia is one of the many stories where Poe focuses on, and displays the theme of death.
The Fall of the House of Usher, written by Poe in 1839, is introduced as an extremely gothic story. The mood and setting are bleak and dark, and the gothic elements are immediately introduced within the first lines. The story describes the venture of a man to comfort his close friend, Roderick Usher. As the story develops, the reader learns of the mysterious lineage of the Usher family, and of the strange happenings of the house. The initial themes of The Fall of the House of Usher, expressed by Roderick, were those of superstition and the fear of apparitions. Roderick expresses fear for his sister, Madeleine; also, who he believes is possessed by the bizarre haunted Usher house. “…she succumbed (as for her brother told me at night with inexpressive agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer” (Poe 1839). The theme of death is introduced into the story with the death of Roderick’s sister. Poe inserts symbols of death with the rotting of the house, and the catacombs in the basement. After placing his sister in the basement catacombs, the theme of the supernatural arises with the sounds of his sisters ghostly struggles in the basement. Madeleine claws her way out of her grave, as if reviving from the dead. Roderick confesses to burying her alive and the reader is again reminded of the theme of death. After clawing her way out of the basement, Roderick dies of fright, and Madeleine collapses on top of him. With the death of the Usher family the house collapses, and the lineage of the Usher family ends. With the destruction of the Usher estate, death becomes a symbol of the Usher family’s end, and also results in the death of the house. The theme of death is apparent with the idea of being buried alive and coming back from the dead. The use death as a theme in The Fall of the House of Usher shows that how the theme of death continues to resurface in all of Poe’s works.
The Premature Burial, written by Poe in 1844, represents what the living fear the most. The beginning of the story describes examples of common horrors, of incidences that make the living afraid. As the narrator continues, it is explained that there is one thing that the living fear more than anything else, and that is being buried alive. The theme of death is introduced with the description of being buried alive, and how it can be an experience of a personal Hell. “There are moments when, even to the sober eye of reason, the world of our sad humanity may assume the semblance of Hell” (Poe 1844). In the situations given, where the people were buried alive, the narrator describes the immense horror that they experience at that moment. “… I remained without motion. And why? I could not summon courage to move. I dared not make the effort which was to satisfy me of my fate – and yet there was something at my heart which whispered me it was sure” (Poe 1844).The last example, which happens to be the narrator’s own experience, describes his fear of being buried alive. His experience ends humorously, being that he was not actually buried alive, and that his immense fear made him act foolishly. Poe uses the last example in his story to show that the fear of being buried alive is actually trivial, and that what the living truly fears is death. Similar to The Premature Burial, The Pit and the Pendulum represent the theme of death similarly. The Pit and the Pendulum, written in 1843, describes the horrendous struggle of a man trapped in a torture chamber. The fear represented by the narrator is the fear of death itself in that terrible place. “… the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears” (Poe 1843). The theme of death is represented through the fear of being buried alive and of being tortured, which becomes a moral that the living actually fears the inevitable death that one would experience in a buried coffin or in a torture chamber.
The Masque of Red Death is one of the most gothic stories about death that Poe has ever written. Published in 1845, The Masque of Red Death contains very many allusions to death and mortality. The story describes the ‘Red Death’, which is a plague-like illness that sweeps through a population without any hope for survival. The Prince and his noble friends took refuge in his castle in order to survive, and ironically, seal their fate for the end of the story. Each room in his castle were painted different colors and contained a large stained glass window. The last of the colored rooms was painted black, and contained an ominous red tinted window. Each of the rooms represented life, whereas the ending room represented death. The guests represented the living, who feared the black room, and symbolized the living’s fear of death. “But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all” (Poe 1845). With the appearance of the ghastly man towards the end of the story, the guests in the Prince’s castle became afraid of his presence. The man in the mask represented death himself, and like the living trying to fight off death, the guests tried to fight the man. All of the guests died of the ‘red death’ in the black room trying to fight the man in the mask. Poe places the theme of death heavily upon this story by creating numerous symbols for the living and the dead. The guests dying in the black room of the red death represented the living inevitably dying in the end, and that it cannot be escaped. “And darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe 1845). The moral created behind Poe’s use of the theme of death in this story was that the living cannot escape dead. The Masque of Red Death is another example of how Poe uses the theme of death in his writing.
Edgar Allen Poe has written many stories with various themes, but an aspect of death is always present in some form. With stories like The Masque of Red Death, Ligeia, and The Premature Burial death is the major theme present. The theme of death is also present as a symbol in The Masque of Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher. All of Poe’s stories contain an incident of death, like Ligeia in Ligeia, or the Usher family in The Fall of the House of Usher. Death is common place in every one of Poe’s stories, whether that death be a theme, symbol, or just an incident. The use of death as a common theme for Poe’s work shows that he was obsessed in using death in his writing.
Bibliography
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Poestories.com. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/houseofusher>
Poe, Edgar Allen. “Ligeia.” Poestories.com. Web. 14 March. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/ligeia>
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." Poestories.com. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/masque>
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Poestories.com. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/pit>
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Premature Burial." Poestories.com. Web. 15 Mar. 201 <http://poestories.com/read/premature>
SparkNotes. "Poe’s Short Stories." Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
GradeSaver. "Poe's Short Stories Summary and Analysis." Web. 15 Mar.
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