Edgar Allan Poe\'s Short Stories.

¶ … Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. This theme is "burial and redemption." Indeed, the theme of burial occurs in several of Poe's short stories. While expanding on this central theme, reference will also be made to three other stories of Poe, which also reflect this theme. The stories that will be explored are: The Black Cat, the Tell-Tale Heart, and the Cask of Amontillado. In each of the stories, either the protagonist of a primary character kills and buries or buries alive a family member of someone related. The haunting that results from the buriers guilt eventually results in retribution against the killer in two of the stories, the Tell-Tale Heart and the Black Cat. One is left to wonder what motivated this burial in the Cask of Amontillado. In the Fall of the House of Usher (not discussed in this essay, but from the same book where the three short stories are taken), this essayist believes that the burial is a metaphor for the wiping out the remnants of the Usher family along with their castle.

Popular horror/fantasy writers such as Clive Barker and Stephen King are of the opinion that the inspiration for fear-inducing tales, novellas and novels comes from tapping into the human fear of the unknown. Indeed, for most of us, a walk through a street in the pitch dark of night where shadows seem to be jumping at us is much different than walking through the same street in broad day light. Also, any one who's experienced a visit to a cave and the tour guide switching off the lights to give visitors a sense of real darkness will realize that it is not just the darkness but complete sensory deprivation coupled with a feeling of floating.

The instances of burial in the three short stories have to be considered in the context of how the impending doom seeps into a person's consciousness as he or she realizes what is about to befall him or her. Once the burial process is complete, there is no light. There is also the knowledge that the air supply will only last this long. The suffocation that one feels when deprived of oxygen does not come from deprivation of oxygen but from the increases in levels of carbon dioxide. If one were able to scrub away the carbon dioxide as it is being exhaled by the breather, then there would be no sense of suffocation from lack of oxygen, just an eroding away of faculties. And the problems before death are exacerbated if the person being buried is claustrophobic: the agony is significantly enhanced.

In writing this essay, use was made of the book containing these short stories with illustrations by Michael McCurdy (Poe and McCurdy 2005). Interestingly enough, of all the short stories that Poe wrote, this collection contains six stories, three of which will be discussed here. The other two stories, which bear mention (in the following few paragraphs) here also explore the same theme of darkness, a fear of burial, the sense of doom that comes from darkness and that being buried underground is also a metaphor for hell.

The first story in the book, the Masque of the Red Death, Poe describes a nobleman Prince Prospero who holds masquerade balls in his castle. As the story unfolds, the land is besieged by the Red Plague (with some reference to Europe's scourge, the black plague) and the Prince and his courtiers, well wishers and those who found favor with the Prince seclude themselves away from the suffering commoners so that the plague would not affect them. Poe is prescient in describing this communicable disease. He describes to a tee (with certain qualifications as to how long the disease takes from infection to fatality) the viral disease that affected some parts of Africa -- the Ebola virus. Issac Asimov in his collection of essays "The Roving Mind" (Asimov 1983) writes of how ignorant Arthur Conan Doyle was as a chemist in writing the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. And though Asimov castigates Doyle by providing several examples of when Doyle went wrong, he however, forgives Doyle all his mistakes because he believes that in describing the hallucinogenic effects that Holmes (a habitue of tobacco and even cocaine) suffers after experimenting with some herb was very close to the effects of LSD (lysergic ethyl diethanamide). While the receiving areas for most guests in castles were long rooms where people could gather around while the main events took place in the center or facing the nobleman's throne, Price Prospero's home in Poe's Masque resembled that of a funhouse. Each room was at right angles to the next. Each room was also bizarrely decorated in very gaudy colors where the entire room, including the drapes and the furniture was of the same color. Prince Prospero, an eccentric, wanted to create in his guests a unique experience. The most bizarre room however, is the seventh and last room. This room is painted entirely black. This includes the floor and the ceiling. Also the color of the carpet and the drapes match the paint so that one cannot discern where the walls end and the ceilings or floors begin. The only aspects of the room that are differently colored are the windows, which are painted blood red. This only serves to increase the eeriness. One supposes that through Poe, Prince Prospero was trying to create the effect of last room as a metaphor for hell. That any one of his guests who entered this room would get the feeling of sensory deprivation (alluded to earlier) and a sense of impending doom much akin to being buried alive. The ending of this story is not important to this essay. But this paragraph illustrates the constant theme of burial either really or metaphorically in Poe's short stories.

Another story that brings up the fear of burial and the metaphor of hell is perhaps Poe's most well-known: The Pit and the Pendulum. This story was converted into a film whose narrative bore little resemblance to the short story. This story is set during the scourge of the Inquisition in Spain and our prisoner-protagonist, imprisoned for crimes against Christianity, real or perceived, is put into a cell in complete darkness. With a little ingenuity and by keeping his nerve, he discerns that the cell is multi-cornered. But while exploring the cell in the dark he almost falls into a pit in the center of the room. He has no idea that this pit was there and was perhaps put there to entrap the unwary. Our hero also finds that he is tied to a cot, fed once a day, suffers the indignity, the disgust and the fear of having rats crawl about his body in search of food (which he smartly uses to guile the rats into gnawing away at the bonds that bind him) while a pendulum to which a sharp axe is attached swings in a rhythmic motion while it is inexorably lowered to slice him open. This cell, whose walls are metallic (he discovers this later) are designed to ensure a gruesome and terrifying death through several means, all the while beguiling the prisoner into believing that he has escaped one mode of death.

The effective use of darkness, burial and the feeling of impending doom engenders in the reader a sharing of the sense of doom that he person buried faces. There is no immediate answer as to why this theme recurs in almost all the stories in this book -- the ones discussed above and the three stories that will be discussed in depth in this essay. While Poe lived a life full of struggles with his personal demons of alcoholism, indebtedness, failed relationships and dying (a pauper) never being financially or through acclaim being recognized for his abilities, there is no instance of burial being a part of his life. Unless of course, he saw his personal struggles as synonymous with being buried, while continually seeking redemption. This is unlike Franz Kafka, who in his most well-known short story Metamorphosis (Kafka and Appelbaum 1996) where he describes the terrors and struggles of an individual who wakes up having metamorphosed into an insect. We know that Kafka wrote this story as a catharsis to having been brought up by a tyrannical and unloving father.

The first of the three stories that will be discussed today is "The Black Cat." This is a story) of how alcoholism (though the issue of alcoholism is mentioned, at best, obliquely) takes hold of a person and compels him to behave in ways that are contrary to his nature. Eventually the protagonist of the story ends up sliding into a morass of wrongdoing that ends up in murder. As the story unfolds, the protagonist is a mild mannered man who lives well with others and is particularly fond of animals. He has all manner of pets, each of whom thrives under his care. He marries a woman of similar tastes. Their marriage and mutual love of animals makes this a situation that bespeaks long lasting happiness. One of the family pet is a black cat that is fairly large and the man's favorite. This cat is well liked, and unlike the disposition of cats that is aloof and independent, this cat follows his master wherever he goes, even out doors. The wife based on some superstitions has her misgivings about the cat, Pluto, believing that all black cats are actually witches in disguise. Disabused of this notion by her husband and with her general love for all animals, she immediately puts aside her fears.

It is possible that Poe here hints at his own alcoholism and indirectly blames it on witchcraft that comes from the black cat, though the role of the cat is one of an innocent animal. As the protagonist slowly sinks into alcoholism, he becomes ill tempered and ill mannered. He is insensitive to the feelings of his wife. He becomes cruel to his animals and also beats his wife. In the beginning however, Pluto is not singled out for this cruelty. He alone retained the position of favorite pet. But eventually, the man became so far removed from his natural character that even Pluto began to bear the brunt of his drunkenness and cruelty.

Finally, the depravity of the man turns into some sort of sadistic ritual. On being bitten, after he has worried the cat, he takes a knife and enucleated the cat. Pluto eventually recovered from having his eye taken out, but was still extremely fearful of the man. Though initially remorseful of what he has done, the man soon resumes his old ways. He seeks more and more perverse ways to torture those around him. And one day, he finally hangs the cat from the limb of a tree in his yard. On that very same night a fire that destroys the man's house. The man and his wife escape but the house is destroyed. The man attributed his saving to a wall that had been recently plastered. Indeed, this was one of the few parts of the house that remained standing. The firefighters and neighbors eventually found to their horror that on the man's bedroom wall is permanently etched a figure of a hanging cat.

The man attributes this to one of the neighbors having cut down the cat and flung it into the burning house where its imprint was burned into the wall.

The man and his wife, now significantly impoverished live in the basement of the house (the one part that remained intact). For a few months, the image of the hanging cat on his wall haunts the man and he changes his ways, somewhat. But this is only because of the shock of recent events. He is soon back to his own ways. During one of his sojourns to a pub he sees a black cat, not unlike Pluto, but with some white markings on his chest. Finding no owner and the animal having endeared itself to him, the man decides to make the cat his new pet. And for a while things are alright. But the hatred for the cat begins to rise for the man believes that the new cat came into his life to create guilt for the murder of Pluto. The man realizes that there are supernatural aspects to the cat. The white markings eventually metamorphose into a pattern that appears like the gallows. He becomes completely unhinged. He chases the cat, determined to kill it. But his wife intervenes; and, in a fit of passion he strikes his wife in the head with the axe, killing her instantly. By this time, the man's passions are so inflamed and his depravity is so far gone that his only thought is how to get rid of his wife's body. He decides to wall the body up into the cellar. With great pains he accomplishes this, so that there is no evidence of any crime having taken place.

There is no guilt and no remorse. For the first time, the protagonist sleeps well. There is of course, also, no sign of the cat and he believes that the cat has escaped from fear. Four days later, the police arrive to check on the man's house. He is so confident that the police will not discover any evidence of the crime that he becomes arrogant. He proclaims that the house is constructed very well. In demonstrating how well, he pounds the walls of the cellar. However, he accidentally he also beats against the newly constructed wall where his wife is entombed and he hears a distressing wail from within the walls. Terrified, the man has no idea how such a thing could come to pass. The police lose no time in breaking apart the walls where they find the decaying corpse of the wife -- and the cat. The cat was somehow entombed with the wife and the beating against the wall had caused to respond in that terrifying wail.

Thus, the man was punished for his crimes. There is redemption (posthumously, however) for the long-suffering wife who has sought nothing more than to protect their pets against her husband's depravity and had paid for it with her life.

The next story, the Tell-Tale Heart, is based on an actual event that occurred in 1830 in Danvers, Massachusetts.

A young man, the teller of the tale kills an old man, an old man with whom he lives. The reader is not given to understand what the relationship between the old man and young man might be. Whether the young man is a boarder in the old man's house or whether they had some familial relationship. As the narrative unfolds, since the house purportedly belongs to both of them, the reader also does not know to whom the house belongs. Both men share a very strong bond of love. And indeed, the young man who tells the story indicates that he is one of nervous disposition, that he fears borders on the insane. In reading the story, one might aver that the young man might be a paranoid schizophrenic.

While he loves the older man, the young man remains fixated on one of the eyes of the older man. He describes the eyes as "one of a vulture -- a pale blue eye, with a film over it" (Poe, 45). The young man is terrified of the eye; why, we don't really know. The fear is clearly irrational. But he believes that this eye stores all the evil that has or might befall him. Therefore he decides to kill the old man, so that the eye might not portend or cause any harm to him.

The murder is meticulously planned. Every night, for a week, before the murder actually occurs, the young man tiptoes to the older man's room. Near the door, he shades the lamp that it might not wake up the old man. Then he unlatches the door and peers in -- perhaps to gauge the sleeping habits of the old man. This exercise is performed with such deliberation so as to not wake up the old man that the young man takes up to an hour moving his head inch by inch from out side the door to inside the man's room. Once his head is inside the room, he removes the shade carefully so that only a sliver of light is aimed directly at the old man's eye. But while asleep, this eye is always closed. Since the young man really only hates the eye and what it may or may not represent but bears no ill-will towards the older man, he cannot bring himself to kill the old man.

On the appointed night, the young man makes a mistake. While opening the door, the latch comes unfastened a little too quickly. The resulting noise causes the man to become wide awake. The old man becomes cautious, he tries to remind himself that his fears are unfounded -- the noise probably came from a mouse or a cricket. The young man waits patiently, holding his position at the door. At length, when he shines the light on the old man, it falls straight on the eye, which for the first time at that hour is open. The paranoia sets in again. The young man still cannot bring himself to do anything. Eventually, while waiting, the young man begins to hear the muffled sound which he construes as that of the man's beating heart. The sound of the heart beat continues to increase and all the while the eye remains open. The young man can control himself no longer: with a shriek, he leaps upon the old man, drags him to the group, and overturns the bed on top of him stifling him and killing him. Later, well satisfied, he cuts off the man's head and limbs (in a tub so that the blood can easily be washed off) and he buries the old man's corpse under three boards in the same room.

Soon after, he is visited by policemen who are following up on a complaint from the neighbors on hearing a shriek (the young man's). The young man appears nonplussed as he confidently asks the police to search the house confident that they will not look under the floor boards. While the search is going on though, the young man begins to hear the heartbeat -- the same one that he could not escape. The heart beat grows louder and louder as if taunting him. The young man attempts to drown out this sound by carrying on a conversation with the police. But the heartbeat (that he thinks is the old man's) grows louder and louder. The young man cannot stifle this sound; he is guilt ridden and has to confess to killing the old man and burying him under the floorboards.

One can presume that he tell-tale heart was the young man's own. The first time it was feeding his hysteria and paranoia; the second time, it was feeding off his guilt.

In the third story, is slightly different from the other two. In the first and second stories, redemption comes from the aggrieved getting some delayed benefit while the criminal is caught in the act (or a little after the act). In the Cask of Amontillado redemption comes from the act of burial to one who is aggrieved. In this, the story is slightly different. The story is also incomplete. The protagonist exacts vengeance, but we don't know whether he will pay for the crime. Presumably, eventually, when news gets out of a gentleman missing, the guilt will find that the person who did the burying would be caught or would confess to the crime. Certainly, the person who is buried alive is of such a character that he has not endeared himself to most people who would be happy to be rid of him.