Edgar Allen Poe

One of the greatest authors of all-time was Edgar Allen Poe who lived between January 19, 1809 and October 7, 1849. He first wrote a volume of poetry called Tamerblane and Other Poems in 1827. He also wrote a second book of poetry 1829 called Al Aaraf, Tamberlane and Minor Poems. His third volume entitled Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Second Edition in 1831. He wrote many prose tales and five of these appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in 1832. Poe also wrote Tales of the Folio Club, a volume of burlesque tales and a book-length narrative entitled Arthur Gordon Pym in 1838. Poe had two volumes published of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840. (Wilson) "The Tell-Tale Heart" was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843 (Womack & Nilsson, "The Tell-Tale Heart") and the story "The Black Cat" appeared in the United States Saturday Post (also called The Saturday Evening Post) on August 19, 1843. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Black Cat") In 1845, he became famous with his poem "The Raven" and later the books Tales by Edgar A. Poe and The Raven and Other Poems were also released. (Wilson) "The Cask of Amontillado" first appeared in Godey's Lady Book in 1846. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Cask of Amontillado") The three stories that have interested me the most are "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Black Cat", and "The Cask of Amontillado". All three stories have nameless narrators and the narrators' thoughts and feelings are different in each one and they all invite the reader to enter into a sinister mind.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story about the narrator who is disturbed by an old man's "evil" eye. "He had never wronged me [ .…] For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye." (Poe) He repeatedly says he isn't insane but the reader can understand the lack of sanity of the narrator when he explains how he murdered the old man. "Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded - with what caution - with what foresight - with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." (Poe) Every night at midnight, the narrator went to the old man's room and carefully opened it and looked in on him for seven nights and killed the man by pulling his heavy bed over him and then concealing the body underneath the floorboards. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Tell-Tale Heart") The neighbors suspected fowl play so they called the police and the police searched the house but it was the narrator, because of his own consciousness, that admitted he did the crime.

"'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) The narrator could have been either male or female - the gender of the narrator is never revealed. However, most critics argue that it was a man since Poe wrote the story and probably wouldn't write a story as a female narrator. The main theme of the story is the balance of good and evil in human nature but in this story, the dark side of the narrator is exposed and speaks of an illness that affects his senses. "Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heavens and in the earth. I heard many things in hell." (Poe) The belief of the evil eye dates back to ancient times and is still a belief in some cultures today. Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu faiths all have references to the evil eye. The belief centers on the idea that those who possess the evil eye have the ability to harm people or take their possessions by simply looking at them. In some cases, the eye must be destroyed, this could be the reason the narrator killed the old man. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Tell-Tale Heart")

"The Black Cat" is about a narrator who is about to be executed for murdering his wife. As he awaits his death, he discusses the events that lead up to the murder and how the police found out about it. The narrator had problems with alcohol and abused his animals, even his favorite animal, Pluto, a cat. He grabbed the cat one night when it was trying to avoid him and it scratched his hand so he took a knife and "deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!" (Poe) Later, he hung the cat on a limb of a tree and that night there was a fire that destroyed his house and all his wealth. Months later, he found a similar cat at a tavern and he brought it home. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Black Cat") He later grew a dislike towards it and was about to axe the cat but the wife pulled the cat away so he killed her. The police searched his cellar many times but he made the mistake by accidentally providing evidence. He "rapped heavily on a cane which [he] held in [his] hand, upon that very portion of the brickwork behind which stood the corpse of [his wife] [….] No sooner had the reverberation of [his] blows sunk into silence, than [he] was answered by a voice within the tomb! - by a cry, at first muffled and broke, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud continuous scream…a howl - a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph…" (Poe)

The police tore down the wall and found the body where he buried her. "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" (Poe) The narrator says he is a happily married man but attributes his downfall to alcohol abuse and to the human spirit of perverseness which he defines as "one of the primitive impulses of the human heart." (Poe) The story has an added twist and the narrator hopes the reader will realize that the events weren't "an ordinary succession of very natural causes and events." (Womack & Nilsson, "The Black Cat") It is important to remember that the narrator has a distorted view of reality and it's possible there wasn't a second cat or that he has seen hallucinations and accepts them as reality. "The capacity for violence and horror lies within each of us, no matter how docile and humane our dispositions might appear." (Womack & Nilsson, "The Black Cat")

"The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" both center on violence and guilt. In both stories, the narrator discloses the crime and both make references to the eye. The themes of "The Black Cat" are similar to "The Tell-Tale Heart" however "The Black Cat" incorporates the supernatural into the story and doesn't involve a premeditated murder like "The Tell-Tale Heart" does. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" repeatedly says he isn't insane while in "The Black Cat", the narrator repeatedly says that black cats aren't witches in disguise, a superstition that his wife believed and repeatedly told him. (Womack & Nilsson, "The Black Cat")

"The Cask of Amontillado" is a story that happened in a European city during the carnival season. Montresor encounters his "friend" Fortunato in a drunken state dressed up like a court jester and tricks him by telling him that he has gotten some Amontillado which is a variety of dry and sweet sherry and to come with him to make sure that it is genuine. He holds Fortunato in chains and closes the cave and as Fortunato sobers up he realizes that he was tricked and that Montressor has taken revenge on him. The story is written in Montressor's prospective in an effort to support his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one assails me with impunity" which means no one can attack me without being punished. (Womack & Nilsson "The Cask of Amontillado") "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge [.…] At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled…I must not only punish, but punish with impunity." (Poe) The main theme is revenge and the story has examples of verbal and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is when a character says one thing but does another such as when Montresor expresses concern about Fortunato's health and several times suggests that they should turn back for fear that Fortunato's cough will worsen as a result of the cold and dampness of the catacombs. Dramatic irony is when a reader perceives something that a character in the story does not such as when the reader becomes aware of what will happen of Fortunato even though the character continues his descent into the catacombs in pursuit of the Amontillado. (Womack & Nilsson "The Cask of Amontillado")

Poe uses a premature burial and suffocation as motifs in both "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". (Rose) Both stories have narrators that want the reader to applaud their cleverness. Both stories also "force the reader to look into the inner workings of a murderer's mind." (Womack & Nilsson, "The Cask of Amontillado")

In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe incorporated a variety of themes in all his stories that could be interpreted many different ways. The literature he has written still has relevance today as its themes are universal and explore the evilness of human as well as the line between sanity and insanity.