Edgar Allan Poe and Death:

A Brilliantly Dark Mind

Becky Archibald

English 1102Professor Owens2 October 2010

“Thank Heaven! the crisis --The danger, is past, and the lingering illness, is over at last --, and the fever called Living is conquered at last”

(Poe).

Poe struggled with death of the women he loved and abandonment by father figures

Poe struggled with poverty and substance abuse

Death is a theme prevalent in Poe’s writings.

“Poe has grotesque inventiveness” (Reckley)

Graphic descriptions and morbid wording fortify psychological effects

Tales include death by disease, murder for a variety of reasons and in many styles, and

premature burial

THE Fall of The House of Usher

Story of death by debilitating condition

Ghastly death-like surroundings

Includes premature burial

Cask of AmontilladoStory of revengeful

murder

Includes premature burial

Vault - dark, damp, dreary surroundings

The Premature BurialDeath by premature

burial

Vivid description of the horrors of being buried

alive

Fears of death will consume if not faced

The Black CatDeath by murder –cat

and wife

Drunken delusions and torment

Concealment of body in the wall

The Pit and the Pendulum

No death – mental and physical torture

Psychological process of dealing with presumed

death

Dark, dreary, scary surroundings

Poems included theme of death – usually that of a beautiful woman

Extreme love followed by death – melancholy tone

Beautifully gloomy

Annabel LeeNothing worse than the death of a beautiful woman

Angels kill her because they are jealous of the love the couple shares

He wants to lay down and die to be with her

again

LenoreBeautiful woman died

too young

Damned to hell by lover who only loved her money

Narrator wants to sneak her to heaven

Other works include death theme

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Masque of the Red Death

The Raven

To Helen

Poe makes death intriguing and horrifying

Short horror story or a poem, the reader is bound to face the topic of death.

Edgar Allan Poe was a man with a brilliantly dark mind.

Works Cited

Clare, Lara. "Edgar Allan Poe, Lenore, and Annabel Lee."

Associated Content. Yahoo, 09 dec 2006. Web. 1 Oct 2010.

Hartung, Kristina. "The Gothic Mood of Edgar Allan Poe's "The

Fall of the House of Usher"." Ferris State

University. Ferris State

University, 15 apr 2008. Web. 1 Oct 2010.

Hurley, Richard. "Fear of imminent death. (Papers)." British

Medical Journal

327.7408 (2003): 200. Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

Kakutani, Michiko. "Books of The Times; Haunted by Death and

a Sense That

the Past Lives On.(Word and Image Page)." New York Times 13

Dec. 1991. Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

Work Cited Cont.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan

Poe. Modern Library ed. New York, NY: Random House Inc.,

1992.223-

958.Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. "Quote by Poe, Edgar Allan on Death and Dying." Quotations Book 18 Aug. 2010. General OneFile. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.

Reckley. "Famous Baltimorians." University of Baltimore. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct 2010.

All Graphics from http://webling.at/atteap/gallery/