Poe’s Obsession with Death as Seen Through his Writings

Rachel Forcillo

Mr. Provenzano

Honors American Literature

16 March 2012

Poe’s Obsession with Death as Seen Through his Writings

            One of the most distinguished writers of all time, Edgar Allan Poe is most well-known for his spine-tingling Gothic tales.  Orphaned at the age of two, he faced a plethora of issues during his lifetime, including gambling, drug and alcohol problems, poverty, and deaths of many of his loved ones.  Because Poe’s life was filled with hardship and loss, it is not surprising that the majority of his stories share a central theme: death.  The tone, as set by literary devices such as diction and imagery, is often ominous and dark.  In certain pieces, such as “The Masque of Red Death” and the “Pit and the Pendulum”, symbolism is also a way death is spotlighted.  Through careful examination, one can also see an obvious connection between his life and his writings.  Many of his works, such as The Masque of Red Death, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Fall of the House of Usher, show that Poe is is greatly enraptured with the concept of death by his use of symbolism, parallelism, and tone, shown through imagery and diction.

            Sweeping Europe in the mid 1300s, the Plague, or “Black Death”, heavily influenced The Masque of Red Death.   In a medieval village, the brutal “Red Death” has taken the lives of more than half the village population.  Instead of tending to the needs of his people, the eccentric Prince Prospero tries to avoid the illness by inviting all his royal friends over for a magnificent, never ending masquerade.  He orders the castle to be completely closed off to avoid contagion.   His efforts are in vain, seeing as the “Red Death” in human form enters the castle, and violently infects, then kills, everyone.   Poe describes his arrival as follows: “He had come like a thief in the night.  And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall…Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe, The Masque of Red Death 6).  From beginning to end, the tone is exceedingly grim, shown with vivid imagery describing the red death.  Though the royal masses seem safe with the castle walls, thoroughly enjoying their absurdly lavish masquerade, a sense of foreboding is still present.  The great ebony clock greatly contributes to this.  Every hour, the clock chimes, and the festivities cease.  The clock represents the larger concept of time, and how, when all is said and done, death answers to time.  The most prominent message in this story, though, is that no amount of wealth, stature, or power can ward off death.   When Poe attended the University of Virginia, his affluent, tobacco-merchant godfather offered him very little financial aid, leaving Poe in poverty.   Poe, through “The Masque of Red Death”, may have been releasing his pent-up anger at his ungiving guardian, a feeling of contempt for the wealthy in general, and well as a wish for them to endure the same suffering as the poor.  He wanted to express that those who choose to ignore death or strive to avoid it will be faced with the same end result as those who were already killed.  In The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, the message the reader is left with is somewhat similar to the one in The Masque of Red Death.

            The narrator of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, who is well practiced in the art of mesmerism, is anxious to perform a test to see if he can hypnotize someone as they are dying.  M. Valdemar, who has tuberculosis and is aware death is soon approaching, is the subject of the narrator’s experiments.   The narrator is successful in keeping his friend mesmerized at the point just before death for seven months, and when he asks what M. Valdemar’s wishes are at that point, the following occurs: 

            There was an instant return of the hectic circles on the cheeks; the tongue quivered, or       rather rolled violently in the mouth (although the jaws and lips remained rigid as before;)           and at length the same hideous voice which I have already described, broke forth: ‘For        God’s sake!—quick!—quick! Put me to sleep—or, quick!—waken me!—quick!—I say   to you that I am dead!’  I was thoroughly unnerved… (Poe, The Facts in the Case of M.       Valdemar)  

From this quote, a brief glimpse of the ghastly imagery is seen.   The use of this gruesome, extraordinarily detailed imagery, suggests an interest in death and perhaps a study of the human body, which would lead the reader to further come to the conclusion that Poe was infatuated with death.  Though the scene the narrator is witnessing is frightening and repulsive, he is surprisingly relaxed.   This nonchalant attitude towards death could have been purposely used by Poe as a façade of his own fear of death.  Published in 1845, Poe had already been forced to deal with a huge amount of death, such as the passing of his mother and father, his adopted mother and father, John and Francs Allan, and his brother, William Henry Leonard Poe.   He probably was terrified that his wife, too, would die: at this time, his wife Virginia very ill of tuberculosis, the same disease M. Valdemar was afflicted with.   In The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, the narrator attempts to extend the life of his friend.  This story might express Poe’s desperate longing to keep his beloved wife alive.  The narrator tries to postpone and overcome death, but in the end, M. Valdemar literally rots away.  The ending thought Poe leaves us with is that great consequences come with the effort to escape death.   

            The nonchalant frame of mind the narrator posses in The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar concerning death is also present in The Cask of Amontillado.   The story immediately starts off with a narrator, whose last name is Montresor, explaining how he must seek revenge upon his former friend, Fortunato.   The tone set by the opening statement is foreboding.   Diction also greatly helps establish the tone, with words such as avenged, definitively, vowed, revenge, injuries, immolation, retribution, impunity, and punish.   In the midst of a jovial carnival, the narrator greets Fortunato, and by playing into his pride and love of wine, convinces him to come down to the narrator’s vault and authenticate a bottle of Amontillado.  Tactfully, the narrator drugs Fortunato with wine to “help with his cough” as they head down into the nitre-filled vaults, and describes this part of the story:  “He raised it to his lips with a leer.  He paused and nodded to me familiarly, while his bells jingled.  ‘I drink,’ he said, ‘to the buried that repose around us.’ 

‘And I to your long life.’ He took my arm and we proceeded” (Poe, The Cask of Amontillado). The calmness and trickery in which he uses to effectively carry his murder plan, exhibited in this quote, is quite disturbing.   It is evident Fortunato respects Montresor, and Montresor does a good job making Fortunato think the same.  In reality, he is about to trap Fortunato in a wall, essentially burying him alive.  This is the revenge Montresor seeks.  Generally, revenge isn’t death.  The fact that Poe made that the goal of revenge in this story definitely alludes to his obsession.   Poe also sets the story in a place directly related to death: the majority of the book takes place in a catacomb, or underground cemetery.   The deceased members of the Montresors rest here.  This, perhaps, is a representation of the many deaths in Poe’s family.  The dramatic imagery used to describe this underworld-like setting also helps set an ominous tone of darkness and decay.  The setting, as well as the intentions and attitude of the narrator towards Fortunato’s murder, clearly shows how Poe is captivated with death.           

            Like The Cask of Amontillado, the plot in The Pit and the Pendulum is focused around hatred and the determination to make an enemy die through pain and suffering.   In this case, the Spanish Inquisition, headed by the Roman Catholic Church, is determined to obliterate all heresy. The narrator, who was probably accused of heresy, is found guilty by the court and sentenced to death.  Dropped into a dark, damp, cave, the narrator wakes up from a dreamlike trance, completely unaware of his surroundings.   He feels his way around, and narrowly avoids a deep well in the center of the prison.  The narrator also discovers, with disgust, a large pendulum swinging at the top of the prison.  At the end of this brass pendulum, there is a razor-sharp steel point: obviously designed to kill.  He describes this continually lowering object, saying, “The odor of sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils.  I prayed—I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy decent.  I grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimitar.  And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child at some rare bauble” (Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum).  This quote shows how the narrator, throughout the story, goes through various states of mind regarding his upcoming death.  At first, he wants to escape the terrible fate awaiting.  As time goes on, he becomes psychologically unstable, and hysterically wishes for the pendulum to hurry down.   Then, he becomes so exhausted, that the narrator can do nothing but lie down and stare the object that will cause him to die.  Poe, with this story, was delving into one’s mentality regarding their death.  The pendulum, constantly swinging back and forth, could be a symbol for the constant back-and-forth emotions the narrator experiences related to death.  The setting in itself is a symbol for the underworld, or Hell.  Though the narrator is sure that he will eventually die, at the very end, he is actually able to break free from the ropes in which he is trapped, and then, escape from the room as it closes in (with the help of a Frenchmen).   After all the torture he endured in the pit, and the death he expected, he escapes.  This story was published in 1843, in the midst of his wife’s bout of tuberculosis.  This happy ending may represent Poe’s hope for his wife, who had suffered through tuberculosis since 1841, overcoming her disease and escaping death.  Through The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe’s obsession with death is seen through symbolism and the possible relation between his life and the story. 

            Symbolism is also very much present in The Fall of the House of Usher.  This story, probably one of Poe’s most famous, is centered around Roderick Usher, the narrator’s boyhood friend, who calls upon the narrator for company.  Roderick inhabits a secluded, decaying mansion, and is afflicted with a curious malady.  He and his sister are the last living members of the family.  Upon entering the Usher residence, the narrator observes the condition of it, notes, “Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in the front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn” (Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher 8).   Though this minute crack may seem insignificant, it is a tactfully placed symbol used to foreshadow and upcoming event.  The fissure represents not only the breakdown of the physical structure, but also the disintegration of the Usher family.  When Madeline, Roderick’s twin sister, is thought to be dead, she is buried in a chamber beneath the house.  Madeline, in fact, is a cataleptic, and because of her condition, is unable to make any muscular movement (so they assume she is dead).  The narrator subtly mentions how the vault in which she is placed was used in feudal times as a dungeon.   Since Madeline is still alive while in it, the underground vault is used to symbolize a prison-like Hell (similar to The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum).  She does manage to escape, though, and ends up collapsing on Roderick, who dies of fright.  Shortly after the death of the last two members, the abode falls to the ground.  Because of the all the death related symbolism in this story, Poe’s fascination with death is evident.

            The symbolism in this tale would not be nearly as effective if Poe did not use imagery and diction so artfully.  “It was indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty…there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not prevent our perceiving life-like velocity with which they flew careering from all points against each other…” (Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher 14-15).  This quote demonstrates the dramatic imagery used to enhance the gloomy, foreboding, tone.  It gives the reader a feeling of dread about the coming events.  The diction exhibited in this line, including words such as tempestuous, sternly, terror, violent, and velocity, also greatly contribute to the tone.  His word choice sets the stage for the climax of the story, which is certainly violent and terrible.  Poe uses these devices to foreshadow the destruction of Roderick’s house and family.  The Fall of the House of Usher could symbolize the dissolution of Poe’s own family.  The dark tone of the story showcases Poe’s focus on death through expressive diction and ominous imagery.  

            In the various masterpieces written by Edgar Allan Poe, his obsession with death is undoubtedly revealed with the help of parallelism, symbolism, and tone.  Poe definitely drew from his personal life when composing these stories, as shown in The Case of M. Valdemar, The Masque of Red Death, and possibly The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Fall of the House of Usher.  Symbolism also strongly supports the theme of death.  The multiple underground vaults represent Hell, the clock in The Masque of Red Death connects time and death, the crack in the House of Usher foreshadows the downfall of the physical structure and the family, and the pendulum symbolizes the back and forth attitude towards death.  Imagery and diction are used effectively in every one of Poe’s pieces, helping to set a somber, morbid tone.  Poe is one of the most talented Gothic authors the world has ever seen, and was, without a doubt, obsessed with death.  

Bibliography

"Poe's Life." Poemuseum.org. Poe Museum, 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2012.

"Chronology of the Life of Edgar Allan Poe." Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. 1 Aug.         2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

Carlson, Eric W. "Edgar Allan Poe Biography." UNet Users' Home Pages. Brandeis University.   Web. 13 Mar. 2012.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." PoeStories.com. Web. 10 Mar. 2012.

Poe, Edgar Allan.  “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.” PoeStories.com. Web.  10 Mar.         2012

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” PoeStories.com. Web. 10 Mar. 2012

Poe, Edgar Allan.  “The Pit and the Pendulum.”  PoeStories.com. Web. 11 Mar. 2012

Poe, Edgar Allan.  “The Fall of the House of Usher.”  PoeStories.com. Web.  8 Mar. 2012