The Importance Of Death In Poe's Poe

Throughout Poe’s life there is a lot of indication, which can be seen in his writing, that he had a sad and dreary life. While most of his stories have vastly different plots and themes, one theme that prevails through all of his stories is the concept of death or morbidity. He has this disillusioned fear of life and success, that is prevalent in his own personal life, through constant alcoholism, self-sabotage of his career or life-goals, and negative reactions to his tragic life events. All of these events can be evidenced through popular writings such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado and the commonalities shared between these two and even more of his other stories.

The Tale-Tale Heart starts off as the ramblings of a man,

Not because he had been wronged but because the old man had a pale blue eye that reminded him of a vulture’s eye and more importantly he thought it was evil. The eye drove him mad and crazy to the point where he killed the old man. This is seen as Poe writes, “for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (Kennedy, Gioia, 43). Then the man proceeded to dismember the old man’s body and bury his body parts below the floorboards, but even after getting rid of this evil eye there was another part of the old man’s body that vexed him- It was his heart. He heard it beating even when he was being questioned by the officers and at all times of the day. It drove him to the point of madness in which he admitted the deed to the police officers and where they could find the body. “”Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed! – tear up the planks! – here, here! – it is the beating of his hideous heart!”” (Kennedy, Gioia, 46). This over-bearing madness could be attributed to many things in his life such as his self-sabotaging of his personal career. Multiple points throughout his life, he had ruined his career. Poe had dropped out of University of Virginia,

Death is a theme that is common throughout almost all of Poe’s writing and even more is the manner of death of his characters, they are extremely violent or gruesome. Whether it is a character being skewered in the Pit and the Pendulum, the old man in the Tell-Tale Heart ¬being dismembered or Fortunado being buried alive in The Cask of Amontillado. This is probably related to the loss of everyone important in his life. Edgar Allen Poe’s mother died when he was two years old, Mr. and Mrs. Allan, who adopted him after his mom died, died shortly after he entered the military. He married his cousin Virginia, who died a decade later. His life was wrought with personal loss and very much translated into his writing. It seemed that one avenue of relief for his losses was to transfer that loss upon his