Iconic, gore, horror, gothic, insanity… All common characteristics of some of the most incredible tales by the famous Edgar Allan Poe. His stories, The Fall of the House of Usher, Tell Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Cask of Amontillado, brought grotesque tastes to the horror genre throughout the 19th century. Poe’s stories discussed, in detail, each characters horrific behaviors and their unreliable nature which reveal the influence the author had over his own literary works. Most say Poe’s psychological weaknesses spurred his creativity to which he poured his problems into Gothic Literature and produced these unreliable characters as pawns of his life. In his popular works, his characters have always had unintentional mental stability
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In The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator, Montresor, had been seeking revenge of Fortunato after being attacked from a petty insult. He and the narrator go to the underground graves where Montresor chains him to the wall and begins to build another wall of brick. This is done as a method of “persecution”, psychologically tormenting Fortunato until the last brick is put into place, leaving him to die. “It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” spoke the retaliator (The Cask of Amontillado, 432). The narrator in this tale is dedicated to his own point of view, which happens to be brutal and vengeful like Poe was known to be when he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. In The Cask of Amontillado, Poe wanted to trap the offender and wanted this character to feel as though he did in his everlasting struggle with alcohol addiction. The raconteur’s over dramatic approaches to situations easily compare to Poe’s weak and delusive …show more content…
Creating new, unique, and bothersome tales is what kept part of Poe’s mind in reality. He shaped his psychological challenges and shaped them into famous literature that continues to be read and admired hundreds of years later. Although the misery and the burdens he had to carry produced such “phantasmagoric conceptions”, this closed the window to Poe’s reality which allowed these publications to be made. In spite of the early death cause by alcohol and opium, his struggles are what truly caused his
In The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator, Montresor, had been seeking revenge of Fortunato after being attacked from a petty insult. He and the narrator go to the underground graves where Montresor chains him to the wall and begins to build another wall of brick. This is done as a method of “persecution”, psychologically tormenting Fortunato until the last brick is put into place, leaving him to die. “It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” spoke the retaliator (The Cask of Amontillado, 432). The narrator in this tale is dedicated to his own point of view, which happens to be brutal and vengeful like Poe was known to be when he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. In The Cask of Amontillado, Poe wanted to trap the offender and wanted this character to feel as though he did in his everlasting struggle with alcohol addiction. The raconteur’s over dramatic approaches to situations easily compare to Poe’s weak and delusive …show more content…
Creating new, unique, and bothersome tales is what kept part of Poe’s mind in reality. He shaped his psychological challenges and shaped them into famous literature that continues to be read and admired hundreds of years later. Although the misery and the burdens he had to carry produced such “phantasmagoric conceptions”, this closed the window to Poe’s reality which allowed these publications to be made. In spite of the early death cause by alcohol and opium, his struggles are what truly caused his