Edgar Allan Poe Essay

The numerous different works of Edgar Allan Poe all(a) labor to do one thing. Strike fear into the heart of the reader. Simple, yet effective, he expresses fear through these many different themes and motifs. At full length, Poes stories all acquire a distinct theme or motif that moves the theme forward. Whether you know it or not, many of his stories rely on themes and motifs to make the story more(prenominal) appealing to the reader. Time, duality, and dreams all play key roles in Poes short stories.They descriptively provide all of the necessary information in order to mature the whole concept of fear. Without them, these stories wouldnt push you to the move on of your seat, wondering what is going to happen next. Time plays a major role in providing the story with the decisive data it needs to make the story frightening and perplexityful. It presents the story with a visual that makes the mood of the story transition into a very adverse setting. Dusk is probably the most common condemnation of casereal day in many of Poes stories.He chooses dusk because, during that time of day, it is very difficult to see. For example, in The evenfall of the House of template the vote counter begins to describe how it is very difficult to see while he is do his way towards his child hood friends mansion. When choosing the time of day that produces little or no light, Poe tries to make the setting as dark as possible. Light represents happiness and positivity, so Poe tries to eliminate anything that represents prosperity. By assembling negative forces, the story will generate fear into the reader.In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator stalks his solicit for seven days, but on the eighth night the narrator commits the horrible deed. The number eight is utilise frequently with Poe and his stories in this case, it represents what day the narrator will kill the out of date man. With mask of the Red remainder, time represents life. It represents life because onc e a individual is infected with the red death the infected person has only 30 minutes to live. The ebony quantify also represents life, because after every hour the clock will ring, reminding the people that time is running out.This theme is very necessary for producing fear, because if Poe doesnt clarify what time of day it is, the story loses suspense. So its apparent that time is a key necessity in conveying fear into readers. The narrator often produces dreams themselves. Frequently, it presents a distortion of reality for the narrator and the reader. Dreams in Poes stories draw the line between reality and fantasy. Many unexplainable things would occur and the narrator would instantly have on it would be his imagination or that he would be dreaming.Providing dreams will make the reader build tenuity into whether or not these bizarre things are real or just images of the narrators eccentric imagination. In Masque of the Red Death, a huge party is thrown, to isolate the peopl e from the disease. In the party, the guests have a great time by dressing up and having a perfect time, until the ebony clock rings. at one time the clock rings, the party guests snap back into reality for a short moment. For that short moment, the reader realizes the scratchiness of the situation. That short moment of severity produces fear.During his trip to Redericks mansion in The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator feels like the trip is a dream because the environment of the mansion is so surreal. Alcohol provides the narrator in The Black Cat with a distortion of reality, because after he hangs the black vomit, he comes crosswise a cat that is identical to the one he hangs after he leaves the bar. The narrator is completely shock by the resemblance to his previous cat. This similarity conveys fear into the reader, because you cant tell if its the homogeneous cat or a different one.The distortion of reality in dreams really help produce fear due to the doubtful event s that keep occurring. These events help generate fear and build up the suspense in the reader for a few moments. Duality in the characters conveys the most fear towards the reader. By having a dual persona, the character is able to build up that suspense by having a good side and a bad side. As an animal make dor, the narrator in The Black Cat would always love to take care of animals, until he becomes striked by the imp of the perverse which exposes his negative side.This negativity leads him to cleanup spot his cat and his wife. The insanity of having a dual persona helps transmit true fear into the reader. As a teenage caretaker, the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart has nothing against the old man he is looking after the old man has done nothing wrong to deserve any negative treatment. During the day the narrator would go about his business taking care of the old man, until night came upon. At night, the narrator would be consumed by the old mans eye. His evil eye leads the n arrator to kill his wife and their pet.The duality in both of the these characters are very similar due to them being consumed by some object that leads them into killing their loved ones and pets. All of these themes help produce the backbone of Poes stories. Without these themes and motifs, these stories wouldnt be as nail-biting as they are today. These stories rely on the descriptiveness and the intensity of these themes to carry the suspense and to convey fear into the readers. Today, as people still learn about Poes stories, they will still be able to consume the fear that they read due to these themes and motifs.