Edgar Allen Poe was known for his insight of the human mind when writing his various horror stories. Through research one can say that the internal horror of the characters mind would be vastly in creating suspense and overall fear more efficiently than that of the external horror of its location or the condition of the environment. H.P. Lovecraft mentions in his writing of Supernatural Horror In Literature- VII. EDGAR ALLAN POE, Poe was one of the first few to incorporate the human psyche into horror stories. It’s easily seen through two of Poe’s short stories as well. These are The Raven , and The Tell-Tale Heart.
To begin with, H.P. Lovecraft feels that Poe basically created a whole new way of creating horror stories due to not …show more content…
It starts with the introduction of a very morbid mood which was caused by the death of an important person ,( Lenore), to the protagonist. The main character interacts with what appears to be a raven. Through communicating with this bird which speaks one word “ Nevermore”, Poe somehow ignites the feelings of worry and even hope into his readers. Under normal circumstances the bird would appear to be one of the many abnormalities of the world. However, due to a connection made in the character 's mind, the bird could mean a physical or even spiritual connection to the one he loves. Later on in the same story due to the answers of the crow it appears that the crow could actually be a demon in the skin of the crow. All these connections are scary and are meant to ignite a fear of a higher power, and all the connections were made from the character 's mind. Another form of using the psyche in Poe’s work is how the character somehow makes a demon out of the crow. This is shown in paragraph 15 of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. When the character is frustrated and can’t get any information that he was seeking from the crow, it could be inferred that the character made the connection that if the crow is not good it must be bad. This doesn’t just affect the story mood but also the way the readers/ audience view the situation as …show more content…
The main character in the Tale-Tell Hearts believed that his sense had become keener over such a short amount of time. With this keenness came a cockiness that gave way to a darker side of the human mind. He believed that since the eye of the man whom he might of been taking care of was hideous and seemed to affect his “sanity” with its evil glare he soon set out to kill the elderly man. Another unlikely show of mind play being far scarier than the actual surroundings was of the elderly man’s reaction of someone opening his door on the eighth night of the man watching him. From the dialogue in the same story the elderly man after being spooked suggest that he is trying to trick his mind that it is safe to sleep, instead of realizing the true terror. Someone might be trying to break in or the actual truth to steal the old man 's very life. It is this trick of the mind that should truly scare a man. Giving yourself false hope instead of fighting for your life is perhaps a mechanism inside the brain that humans use to help relieve the pressure and anxiety of something greater than them, or an unknown force. An additional source of the mind being far scarier is when the main character is surrounded by police officers that he himself let in. He begins to imagine that he can hear the voice of the elderly man to whom he had just killed moments before. In this moment it could
To begin with, H.P. Lovecraft feels that Poe basically created a whole new way of creating horror stories due to not …show more content…
It starts with the introduction of a very morbid mood which was caused by the death of an important person ,( Lenore), to the protagonist. The main character interacts with what appears to be a raven. Through communicating with this bird which speaks one word “ Nevermore”, Poe somehow ignites the feelings of worry and even hope into his readers. Under normal circumstances the bird would appear to be one of the many abnormalities of the world. However, due to a connection made in the character 's mind, the bird could mean a physical or even spiritual connection to the one he loves. Later on in the same story due to the answers of the crow it appears that the crow could actually be a demon in the skin of the crow. All these connections are scary and are meant to ignite a fear of a higher power, and all the connections were made from the character 's mind. Another form of using the psyche in Poe’s work is how the character somehow makes a demon out of the crow. This is shown in paragraph 15 of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. When the character is frustrated and can’t get any information that he was seeking from the crow, it could be inferred that the character made the connection that if the crow is not good it must be bad. This doesn’t just affect the story mood but also the way the readers/ audience view the situation as …show more content…
The main character in the Tale-Tell Hearts believed that his sense had become keener over such a short amount of time. With this keenness came a cockiness that gave way to a darker side of the human mind. He believed that since the eye of the man whom he might of been taking care of was hideous and seemed to affect his “sanity” with its evil glare he soon set out to kill the elderly man. Another unlikely show of mind play being far scarier than the actual surroundings was of the elderly man’s reaction of someone opening his door on the eighth night of the man watching him. From the dialogue in the same story the elderly man after being spooked suggest that he is trying to trick his mind that it is safe to sleep, instead of realizing the true terror. Someone might be trying to break in or the actual truth to steal the old man 's very life. It is this trick of the mind that should truly scare a man. Giving yourself false hope instead of fighting for your life is perhaps a mechanism inside the brain that humans use to help relieve the pressure and anxiety of something greater than them, or an unknown force. An additional source of the mind being far scarier is when the main character is surrounded by police officers that he himself let in. He begins to imagine that he can hear the voice of the elderly man to whom he had just killed moments before. In this moment it could