How Does Poe Illustrate The Horrors Of Death

There are few writers in history who portray such dark, gory, detailed subjects as skillfully as Edgar Allan Poe. This American author is famously known for his masterfully written short stories which are full of suspense and horror. Poe’s life experiences most likely contributed to his disturbing style of writing and his continual focus on death as the central part of his literary themes.
Poe knew more sorrows in his life than most people ever will. His hardships began at a very young age. By the time he was two, his father, David Poe Jr., had deserted Poe’s family, and his mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, had died. Death would become an increasingly familiar subject to Poe in the years that followed. His foster mother died when
His most common recurring theme is depicting the horrors of death. What would happen if a person were able to count down the time, the pendulum sweeps, until their death? What a terrible mental agony that person would go through. Poe describes the journey of what a man believes are his last living moments in “The Pit and The Pendulum”. This man is bound in a dungeon as a sharp, metal pendulum swipes ever closer to his heart. His thoughts are like a rollercoaster. At one moment he wishes for his torment to be over and death to come. “I wearied heaven with my prayers for its more speedy decent” (Poe 440). However, the next moment he says “there rushed to my mind a half-formed thought of joy ̶ of hope” (Poe 441). In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the theme that people can’t hide from the inevitability of death, however much they may try. There is a disease spreading throughout a land killing the common people. The duke hides away in his castle to avoid this plague. He ignores the pain of his subjects and holds a masquerade. This party is held in several rooms that are brightly colored with windows that are the same hue as the decorations and paint of the rooms. There is one room, however, that no one wants to enter. The room is black with red windows and has a large black clock in it. The colorful rooms represent
He “was… the principal forerunner of the “art for art’s sake” movement in nineteenth-century European literature” (“Edgar Allan Poe”). Poe is able to paint a picture with his words that lets the reader be able to watch the story unfold, much like a play, instead of simply looking at little black words on a white page. The feline in “The Black Cat” is easily pictured from the description given to it. The cat “was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree” (Poe 477). Poe’s brilliant writing also influenced many writers who lived decades after him. It is thought that Samuel Clemens (Comeau Page #? ), Allen Ginsberg (Pollin), and H. G. Wells (Rainwater) were all influenced by Poe in their literary works. Authors that are pioneers and break down the walls that restrict ordinary writers are the ones worth remembering and