Works of Poe Essay Example for Free

Works of Poe Essay Poe vividly re- accounts these acts through the eyes of this deceitful narrator and creates a horror and disgust that is oh so real and palpable as in His visualization of the murder in The Black Cat, I withdrew my arm from her grasp, and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan (Black Cat 386). The use of this horror grabs and maintains the readers attention, and is further perplexed through the environments he creates with his settings. Setting can help to achieve the overall mood a writer is trying to obtain. Poe purposely creates settings that fabricate dark and mysterious imagery in the readers mind. His use of description takes the mind on a journey into these dark and evil places where the protagonist characters follow through with their evil notions: At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size (Amontillado 544). In each of these short stories the setting is a some sort of depressing place, whether it be told from a lonely jail cell, a dark residence of an elderly caretaker, or the deep, dark catacomb under a palazzo. The settings create strong overtones and quickly dictate the moods of Poes stories. His Style of setting, even though in different forms such as a residence or jail cell, is executed with much clarity. The theme of horror is carried out and put into reality in these dreadful places where evil prevails For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted and made to resemble the rest the cellar (Black Cat 386). These settings give way to the characters personalities and enhance the mood and existence of evil each one of their personalities hold. Characters make the story what it is. They evoke emotions from the reader and are the basis for what literary critics and everyday readers alike form their opinions on. Characters can be relatable, or as far-fetched as the immoral protagonists Poe has created. The protagonists in these three stories prove to be round characters as they are well developed and closely involved in the main action. There are a few background characters in these stories such as the old man and police in The Tell -Tale Heart, the wife and cats in The Black Cat, and Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado. These characters, although extremely relevant to each story, are flat and not very well developed. Poe chooses to use his protagonist as the main character and the driving force for the plot. There is a bit of irony in each of the characters Poe created and most likely a purpose for underlying symbolisms he used. Inferences can be made for his use these ironic character traits he created. The old man in the Tell-Tale Heart had a crazy eye, which could be associated with evil eyes of vultures He had the eye of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. (Tell-Tale 354). Evil eyes meant bad luck, and this poor old mans defect resulted in the superstitions of his tenant getting the best of him. In The Black Cat, superstition also got the best of the protagonist who was antagonized by the stereotypical evils of a black cat I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth (Black Cat 382). Poe named Fortunado with the intent of creating irony, The thousand injuries of Fortunado I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. as fortunado quickly learned, his fortune was meant to be an un-timely death at the hand of his avenger (Amontillado 542). Edgar Allan Poe used his writing to evolve his works into a style that is distinctly Poe. His use of point of view, themes of horror, setting, and characters in The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado help to show the uniqueness of his style. He created these chilling and enraging stories to play with the readers emotions and to take them to a demented mind state where not many wander. His style is well known today and one that revolutionized American fiction. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allen. The Black Cat. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 381-387. . The Tell-Tale Heart. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 354-357. . The Cask of Amontillado. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 543-545. Word count: 1,803.