Edgar Allan Poe s The Cask Of Amontillado - 1401 Words

Poe Final Paper Edgar Allan Poe, a well-known writer, even today, was born January 19, 1809, and died October 7, 1848. During his lifetime, Poe had written sixty-six short stories and seventy poems, and his writing was inspired by a dark past. Poe’s mother died of tuberculosis after his father abandoned them. Then, while living with a foster family, his foster mother died and his foster father disliked him. These events caused Poe to have a particular style of writing and in each of these a reader is able to see similarities between the characters, theme, setting, and Poe’s use of symbolism. In ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ a reader can make these connections and see how Edgar†¦show more content†¦His mental stability is later questioned towards the end of the story when he announces he can hear his sister come back from the grave. â€Å"‘Do I not distinguish that heavy a nd horrible beating of her heart? MADMAN!’ here he sprang to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul – ‘MADMAN! I TELL YOU SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR!’† In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the nameless murderer kills an innocent man because of his â€Å"vulture† eye. At the beginning the narrator states that he has â€Å"the sense of hearing acute† and keeps asking the reader â€Å"How, then, am I mad?† and â€Å"would a madman have been so wise as this?† The narrator does not believe he is unstable for what he is doing. His oversensitivity could have also been a reason why he hears the dead man’s nonexistent heartbeat under the floorboards. It is clear that Poe creates a psychological problem in the main characters of his stories. In most of Poe’s writing, his stories usually have the element of death. As said in the beginning of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, the narrator killed the old man, â€Å"I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.† Later on in the story the reader finds out how the