#2-2. Reflective Essay: Poe's Short Stories

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

March 21 2012

Reflective Essay: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe is a renowned American author in the Gothic tradition. Gothic literature refers to one literary genre, first proposed by Horace Walpole in his novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), and is unique with its mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere, overwrought emotions such as terror, insanity or agitation, and use of dark, gloomy-imaged words.

Critics often say Poe adapted such style in his writing, based upon his unfortunate path of life. Poe was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, 1809, but his father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died a year later from tuberculosis. It was John Allan, a successful merchant, who gave Poe the name Edgar “Allan” Poe and raised him. He, however, never adopted Poe officially, and disciplined him strictly and aggressively. Grown up in forceful environment, Poe always lacked parental love. He married twice, as if he wished to supplement the insufficient affection upon him, but as his second wife died on 1847, he became increasingly unstable. He spent a lot of time drinking and behaving erratically. Within two years, he demised, which death cause is in mystery, but is assumed to be delirium tremens and/or heart disease caused by his alcoholism.

Considering that writings often reflect the writer’s own experiences, it is not a surprise that Poe’s stories are mostly dark, mysterious, and eerie. Two short stories, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, are not exceptions; reading those stories, I found few elements that are inferable to be drawn from Poe’s personal experiences.

In the stories, narrators are being obsessive over trivial issues. In The Cask of Amontillado, for example, the narrator buries Fortunado, his friend, because Fortunado “ventured upon insult” once. There is no specific mention how Fortunado insulted him, which makes readers be suspicious whether that offend was severe enough to justify the revengeful act of burying Fortunado alive. These “obsession” toward trifling details made me guess that Poe himself might experienced revengeful thoughts upon not-that-special, insignificant events. For example, it is known that Poe was disciplined under strict, violent foster father; usually, these parents scold their children for even the slightest mistake. Among various reprimand Poe received in his childhood, one of them—even though it is just another petty issue, not largely differentiable from other similar rebukes—might irritate him especially, thereby leading him to vow a great revenge to John Allan someday. Such of Poe’s real life experiences is precisely reflected via Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado.

Narrators’ obsession to trivial things does not only contribute in leading them to commit crimes, but also, to feel sense of guilty or confess easily. This is well described in The Tell-Tale Heart. The narrator thought that he feels no guilt at all; when the policemen knocked on his door, he “smiled” with “a light heart”, and “answered cheerily” to their questions. However, as he kept talking, he started to think that he hears something – “A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND – MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON”. This sound was an auditory hallucination created by the narrator himself – the sound itself did not exist, and was meaningless. The narrator, however, was obsessed with triviality, and put too much meaning on the sound that it is “the beating of [the old man’s] hideous heart”. His delusion of grandeur made him believe that the sound was increasing, and at last, unable to bear the loudening beat, he confessed his murder. The concept of hallucination and delusion of grandeur appear frequently when one is addicted in alcohol, and it is a well-known fact that Poe was a serious alcoholic. It is inferable that Poe might use his drunken experiences when writing his novel, so to emphasize abnormal psychological symptoms of the narrators.

Reading the two stories, I found that Poe’s real life is reflected in his writing thoroughly. Not only the general view that the overall plot of crime-related story or mood created by spooky dungeon remind readers of Poe’s miserable life, but also the use of specific details are noticeable. The narrators’ features – being obsessive over trivial things, both before and after committing a crime – seem to be borrowed from Poe’s direct experiences, regarding harshly-reared childhood or alcoholism. It was an interesting experience to me, to read literature works, while connecting the details with the writer’s own life.