The Premature Burial Literary Analysis

“The Premature Burial” Is Real And It’s All Around You

The Premature Burial is a captivating story about a man who was buried alive. Written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1844, many believe it is simply a horror story written because fear of being buried alive was common at the time. This is not entirely true, the Premature Burial consists of themes still prominent today. With a dark theme and concerning undertones, this story perfectly parallels one of the most elusive tragedies that, most of the time, go unseen. The Premature Burial is a metaphor about being trapped, expressed through tone, character, and plot. The tone of this story is a combination of despair, terror, and lost hope. This tone applies for it’s true meaning, of being trapped. In the following quote, you can clearly understand the tone of this story. “Despair -- such as no other species of wretchedness ever calls into being -- despair alone urged me, after long irresolution, to uplift the heavy lids of my eyes. I uplifted …show more content…
This is an intentional move on the author’s part. The fact that the character remains nameless symbolizes the idea that we don’t know who is trapped and who isn’t. The character in this story is clearly fearful that his crises, caused by an unknown illness, will lead him to his death. His fear and reaction to being buried are used to convey the horror of being trapped. “...I no longer dared trust myself out of the immediate presence of those who were aware of my proneness to catalepsy…” (Page 8, Paragraph 3). He fears his fits will be misinterpreted and he will become trapped, so he shields himself from the world and doesn’t let anyone in for fear of being trapped by them. The terror he expresses showcases his ultimate fear of being trapped, despite his greatest effort to escape. Even after preparing for this possibility by making a special coffin, he was bested and buried and a random coffin, not in a vault, but six feet