The life of Edgar Allan Poe can easily be found throughout all of his stories and poems. It would be unfair to say that Poe only wrote autobiographical fiction, but his work does parallel his life. His life was a perfect match for great fiction. While it is true that his life was horribly tragic, and many times bizarre, it was also great material for writing.
[...] And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood- bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. (Poe, Red Death) Virginia could not escape her red death either, and Poe knew that it could not be done. [...]
[...] The narrator in the story has allowed alcohol turn his personality from a docile young man to a perverse demonic person who does things so cruel that it is difficult to read. There is absolutely no evidence that Poe was ever anything but kind to Virginia, but perhaps this story displays the fear that he would do her harm. It could also represent the fury that he felt toward the disease. Poe's experience at West Point is also displayed in The Black Cat. [...]
[...] This information in his writing proved that Poe was an intelligent man with exposure to an excellent education. More evidence of his training at West Point is evident because the narrator allows the reader into the mind of the criminal. Not much was known about psychology in the 1840's, but it would not have been unusual for the military to train its up and coming officers to try to delve into the mind of the enemy. Poe tried to use the same technique in the mind of the criminal. [...]
[...] In the niche, they found a skeleton of a man who had apparently met his demise by being entombed in the wall. The Cask of Amontillado is not the only story that deals with the entombment of a character while he/she is still alive. Madeline Usher meets the same demise in the story The Fall of the House of Usher, and in The Black Cat, the cat is entombed alive in the wall with the corpse of the narrator's murdered wife. [...]
[...] He then begs for his life, cries, and in the end, he sobs quietly while the bells of his jester's hat jingle to signify that he is sobbing. A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated, I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied. [...]
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