In Edgar Allan Poe's stories he likes to talk about the death of his characters. He is not afraid to describe the deaths of the people and how others dealt with it. In the stories The Black Cat", "The Masque of Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Legeia", and "Tell Tale Heart" he uses death a lot. Although people may think that Poe is obsessed with many dark things, the thing he is obsessed about mostly is death.
Another short story that Poe talks about death in is the story “The Black Cat” there was a man with a wife and many animals. They had all kinds of Animals. Animals such as birds, gold-fish, a dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. This man was once humane and tender towards all his animals. He grew to love this cat more and more everyday. Him and his wife named him Pluto. This cat was a big beautiful creature and entirely black. This cat was his favorite. Pluto was also very fond of him. This man suffered from the disease of alcoholism. He would often beat or torture these poor animals. This cat made him go insane. On night when he came home after having a few drinks, and being extremely intoxicated found that this cat kept getting in his way. “I took from my waist-coat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe, “The Black Cat”)! This man claims that the cat urged him to continue what was left of the cat. In the morning he took Pluto, slipped a noose around the cats neck, and hung him from a tree. He ended up coming across a cat obtained the same characteristics of Pluto. When he tried to keep the cat, his wife tried to stop him. He didn’t know what to do so instead he got rid of her. He cut her up with an axe and shoved her in a wall with the cat. Poe has an unusual obsession with death especially in this story.
This story is about a disease called the Red Death and it can kill a large quantity of people. In this story there was a prince named Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero did not want to die of this disease so e became very selfish and decided to lock him and a few other people, not including the middle class, in his castle so that way the disease could nit get to them. The Prince would throw parties in his castle every night and they would all drink so that way they didn’t have to think about the red death. The one thing that they could not forget about though, was the clock in the castle. The people in the castle would feel very uncomfortable every time the clock went off. The clock would go off every hour, and one night there was a man that had dressed in a red mask. This man in the red mask was trying to say that the prince was trying to kill him. When the prince heard this, he tried to murder the man, but instead the man in the mask killed the prince. The people were in shock, and when they tried to remove the mask to see who was hidden behind it, they found nothing. The man had vanished. “He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall”(Poe, “Masque of Red Death”). This man resembles death. Death cannot be escaped, it is always there and no matter how hard someone tries to escape it or run away from it, it will find you. Another story that Poe talks about death in is “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
In this story “The Fall of the House of Usher” symbolism is used. The house itself is a symbol of death by the way it is decaying and how it breaks to pieces when the narrator looks back at it. This story is about a man named Roderick and his sister Madeline who live in an old rundown mansion. Roderick is very sick physically, and mentally. His sister Madeline starts to become ill and she ends up dying. The end up burying her underneath the house so that scientist will not dig her up and examine her body. Shortly after his sisters death he starts to hear strange things coming from around the house. These noises make him go crazy. After a little bit they start to realize that they accidently buried Madeline alive. Madeline finally makes her way out of the grave and out from underneath the house. Madeline was furious and wanted revenge towards Roderick. She wanted Roderick dead. She got her wish and Roderick died. The Narrator runs in fear away from this haunted mansion. As the narrator turns around and looks at the house, it starts to break into pieces and falls to the ground. The house resembles death because everything dies and so does this house. “I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened --there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind --the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight --my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder --there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters --and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "HOUSE OF USHER””(Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”).
In the story ligeia there's a man who once had two wives. His first marriage was with a woman named Legeia. She was a pale woman with long black hair. Shortly after they were married she became I'll and passed away. After Legeia died he moved over to England and met a women Lady Rowena. Lady Rowena reminded him of Legeia. And again just like Legeia she had died right after the got married. He stayed at her bead side as she slowly started to come back to life. “I shrieked aloud, "can I never --can I never be mistaken --these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes --of my lost love --of the lady --of the LADY LIGEIA"(Poe, “Legeia”).
He payed attention closely as Lady Rowena started to change into Legeia.
In "The Tell Tale Heart" a man lives with an older gentlemen who he adores. But this old man has a strange eye. They called it the vulture eye. This man hated it. And every time he saw it he grew weak. This man is convicted that he may need to kill the man because of his eye. Every night at midnight the man would come into the old mans bedroom with a lantern and check if his eyes were closed and he was planning the murder of this old man. On the eighth night he tried to check up on the old man and the old man heard him. He yelled and the man tried to wait outside the door until he went back to sleep. The old man didn't go back to bed and the man ran in dragged him in the floor and smothered the old man with the mattress. After he kills the old man he started to disassemble his body. He cut off the legs, arms and head. He shoved him under the boards of the floor. He cleaned everything up and made it seem like nothing happened. Police showed up at his door asking about the scream. The man convinced the police that the scream was him and that the old man had been out of town for a while. In the floorboards all the man could hear was the beating of the heart. It kept getting louder and louder and he started to get paranoid. He ended up admiring that he murdered the man and hived him under the floorboards. "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! --here, here! --it is the beating of his hideous heart”(Poe “Tell Tale Heart”)! Poe had an obsession with death and this story shows it by him going into detail about the murder.
Edgar Allan Poe Has written many short stories. He writes about death in a lot of them. Some if these stories are "The Black Cat", "The Masque of Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Legeia" and "Tell Tale Heart". These stories all mention death and in some of them Poe decides to describe the death of these people very well. He is not afraid to talk about death. He uses death more than anything. Although people may think that Poe is obsessed with many dark things, the thing he is obsessed about mostly is death.
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