Comparing Edgar Allen Poes The Cask of Amontillado, The...

Comparing Edgar Allen Poes The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, and The Tell-tale Heart The short stories of Edgar Allen Poe demonstrate the authors ample gifts in the psychology of the mind, regardless of the fact he was decades ahead of Freud. Poes short stories are often from the deranged and murderous point-of-view of the narrator, who often illustrates the inner-workings of his own psychology and the disintegration of the self brought about by psychological disorders, aberrations, and other factors (anxiety, substance abuse, etc.). Perhaps two main factors omnipresent in the Poe psychological realm are substance abuse (i.e. alcoholism) and taphophobia (exaggerated fear of being buried alive). In short stories like†¦show more content†¦In The Tell-tale Heart, the narrators victim is buried underneath the floorboards of his dwelling. Even thought he old man is dead when he is buried, the narrator believes he is still alive. Because of the presence of the police and his imagined perception of the old mans beating heart through the floorboards, the narrator has a complete psychological breakdown. He exhibits emotional and physical reactions to his phobia of being buried alive. He exhibits the symptoms of a phobia given by the DSM-IV (Lets, 2001, 1): * Feelings of panic, dread, horror, or terror * Reactions that are automatic or uncontrollable * Rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, and an overwhelming desire to flee the situation * Extreme measures taken to avoid the feared situation Poes narrator in The Tell-tale Heart exhibits all of these as he blurts out a confession to avoid his fear that the old man is buried alive and will alert the authorities, Villains! I shrieked, dissemble no more! I admit the deed!-tear up the planks!-here, here!-it is the beating of his hideous heart (Poe, 1966, 124). We see that the man is not buried alive but the narrators phobia of it is apparent. In both The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat, we actually have a narrator who is suffering from both alcoholism and taphophobia. In the former a despised acquaintance is purposefully led to his deathShow MoreRelatedHow Poets of the Eighteenth Century Handled Love2802 Words   |  12 PagesPoets are infamous for expressing emotions such as pain, love and passions associated with this emotion we call ‘love.’ They allow us an outlet to experience and express love. Eighteenth century poets: Robert Frost, Emily Dickerson, John Keats and Edgar Allen Poe were infamous for their poetic contributions to the literary world; because of their extraordinary gifts of expression we are able to understand different aspects of what it was like to experience love in the eighteenth century. The aforementioned