Poe Essay

An obsession is defined by the Miriam-Webster dictionary as “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling”. This term, used more and more loosely over the years, has been used to represent passion, but this is not its correct use. To use this word is to discuss not just a passion, but a continual, unrelenting focus on the same perverse concept. Edgar Allen Poe is known by many to be a brilliant man, gifted with the ability to invoke emotions in his stories and poems. The mood of his stories often appeal to the emotions of fear and misery alike, and to compel those readers to feel that, he sets up many common gothic elements in his stories. Poe has written numerous different stories, the majority of which use his most common and most universally portrayed concept of death. The presence, or occurrence, of decease is not the only way Poe brings about death into his stories.  The persistence of this death as the theme, mood, and central idea of his stories is what helps the reader acknowledge his obsession with death. He uses various literary elements to bring the perception of death into a great number of his famous works, thereby presenting his fixation with that particular notion. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of diction, foreshadowing, and symbolism emphasize his main points, and connect the story together into one central theme; death.

Diction is used in his stories to set up a horrifying mood, and transform the reader’s emotions to those of fear. In stories such as “The Masque of Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, words are used to describe and illustrate different aspects of the story, such as the setting and the characters. Individual words are utilized throughout to show a gothic tone, and to link particular elements of the story to ideas of death and pain. “But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, what 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, “The Masque of Red Death”). The correlation of the color of the window with the color of blood, in combination with the guests’ reluctance to go near that chamber, helps the reader to feel negatively about that room. Likewise, the use of blood in the description invokes thoughts of pain, suffering, and even death in the reader.

Other than just using diction to present a particular circumstance of death, Poe uses intense description to create an image for the reader that presents death as gruesome and terrifying. “As I rapidly made the mesmeric passes, amid ejaculations of “dead! dead!” absolutely bursting from the tongue and not from the lips of the sufferer, his whole frame at once—within the space of a single minute, or less, shrunk—crumbled—absolutely rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before the whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome—of detestable putrescence” (Poe, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar). To any reader, the image presented to them through this diction is petrifying. Just before this ending to the story came up, the body in question had been preserved for an extremely long time, in some sort of unknown state between life and death. The man, M. Valdemar, had managed on more than one occasion to explain to the narrator of the story that he was, indeed, dead, but his body had shown almost no signs of it. However, at the end, the body suddenly showed extreme signs of death, not only shocking the reader, but omitting a horrible image. The entire story had led up to this final climax, and the story centered on this idea of death. “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”). Up until this point in the story, it had been made clear that the narrator suffers from a condition where he often passes out, finding himself in a state very like that of a dead man. His worst fear is that he will pass out into this state, and those who are not aware of his condition will believe him to be dead, thus burying him in the ground. Despite precautions that he had taken, the narrator strongly believed that he had managed to be buried alive, and thus, his reaction is identical to one of someone who, in actuality, was buried alive, despite his circumstance being entirely not one of premature burial. At this point, however, the reader is not aware that his circumstance is not deadly, and has no reason to think otherwise. Poe uses this imagery, and these thoughts of fear in the reader, to imply a situation where a horrible death is about to take place. By setting the story up so that the reader would feel this way, he manages to contain the theme of the story to one of death, thus focusing every thought of the reader onto one of the most feared and horrible ways to die.

By foreshadowing the eventual outcomes of his stories, Poe presents another way of allowing his obsession with death to seep into every page of his stories. By hinting at the death that is to come, or by setting up the suspense, Poe is able to refer to the death that is to come in the story even before it happens. Thus, the reader is constantly kept on that same mindset that the only thing that could possibly come out of the story is, indeed, a death. “To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality. That it has frequently, very frequently, so fallen will scarcely be denied by those who think” (Poe, “The Premature Burial”). This quotation, taken from the beginning of the story, tells the reader that the story will be about someone being buried before death. This informs the reader where the story will eventually end up, if they didn’t already infer that from the story’s title. Before Poe reaches his main plot focus in this story, he also discusses three other profound stories that the narrator tells about circumstances where people have been buried alive. This continues to remind the reader that death is a major part of the story. Poe’s inclusion of death in as many parts of this story as possible show his persistence with the subject. “Ligeia” is a story Poe wrote that seems to be about the tragic love story between the narrator and his beloved wife. The story begins with a great deal of description, discussing Lady Ligeia’s beauty, and many aspects of her character that the narrator really loves. However, the fact that the Lady Ligeia had died prior to the writing of this story is made evident to the reader, and the reader is constantly reminded of this fact. “There had been much in her stern nature to impress me with the belief that, to her, death would have come without its terrors; -- but not so, Words are impotent to convey any just idea of the fierceness of resistance with which she wrestled with the Shadow” (Poe, “Ligeia”). This constant reminder of the current state of the narrator’s late wife serves as Poe’s way of linking this love story to the theme of death.

The use of symbolism with some of the main elements of the story allows Poe to centralize the story on the concept of his obsession. This use of symbolic representation of death is particularly evident in two of his stories which stand out to me. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the story is set in a decaying, old house that looks gloomy, and seems to suck the spirit out of the narrator. “…an effect which the physique of the fray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher.)When the phrase “House of Usher” is used, it can be taken one of two ways; either the literal house that the man Usher owns, or the Usher family. If the reader makes this connection, it becomes apparent that the house is representative of the family. Since the house is old and decaying, it could be inferred that the members of the family might not be of sound mind. While the symbolism of the house representing the family might be missed, the symbolism used in the “Masque of Red Death” is nearly impossible to miss. “It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause” (Poe, “The Masque of Red Death”). This clock is a representation of the time as is passes. A feeling of unease sets in amongst the guests at Prince Prospero’s masquerade. As the clock chimes every hour, the party has to come to a halt, and the people have to remember that while they are in there partying, time is going by, and in the meantime the Red Death is continuing to take its victims. This representation of time is also an indirect representation of time’s control over death. No matter how much power death has over people, time is still what brings things to their end. “…whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the clock,” (Poe, “The Masque of Red Death”). This concept of death answering to time is especially represented when the figure that brings death to Prince Prospero walks right up to the clock, receding into its shadow. Since this clock was mentioned time and time again throughout the story, once the connection was made to death, the entire story enveloped the theme of death.

Poe demonstrates his obsession with death by metaphorically allowing the main points of his stories to represent death. The symbolism used with many key elements of a story, such as the setting, or an important object, Poe manages to key into the central theme of death without constantly bringing it up. Instead of referring to death constantly, he simply connects a major point of the story to death, so that, in the mind of the reader, that object invokes thoughts of death. Poe also uses diction to bring many gothic elements together, and directly inform the reader of the story’s connection to death. He oftentimes would use his words to create an image, which  brings fear to the reader, and informs them of the possibility of death in the situation. Lastly, by foreshadowing deadly events, Poe can continue returning the story to the theme of death. Ultimately, Poe uses many common literary elements to connect his stories to one central theme; death. With that theme in mind, and with the way he presents it to the reader, it can be seen that Poe truly does have an obsession with death.

Bibliography

“obsession.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2012. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obsession (13 March 2012).

Poe, Edgar A. Ligeia. 1838. Poe Stories. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/ligeia>

Poe, Edgar A. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. 1845. Poe Stories. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/facts>

Poe, Edgar A. The Fall of the House of Usher. 1839. Poe Stories. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/houseofusher>

Poe, Edgar A. The Masque of Red Death. 1850. Poe Stories. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/masque>

Poe, Edgar A. The Premature Burial. 1850. Poe Stories. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://poestories.com/read/premature