Short Stories Essay

Short Story Essay

In the three short stories, “The Black Cat,”“The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses death in all of these. I believe death is used so much in his stories because he is afraid to die. Poe had seen people around him die and was scared to experience this.

            To begin with, Poe lost both of his parents at the age of two years old. He was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan, but he became estranged from his new father due to gambling debts which lead to him not having enough money to pay Poe’s tuition. Poe enlisted in the Army in 1827 at the age of eighteen and was discharged in 1829. He went to live with his widowed Aunt, Cousin Virginia, and his brother who died two years later. In 1835, he married the love of his life Virginia and she passed away in 1847, ten days after Poe’s birthday. “Poe collapsed from stress but gradually returned to health later that year.” (Merriman) Poe died in a hospital on Sunday, October 7, 1849. “Much of Poe's best work is concerned with terror and sadness, but in ordinary circumstances the poet was a pleasant companion. He talked brilliantly, chiefly of literature, and read his own poetry and that of others in a voice of surpassing beauty.” (Edgar Allan Poe Biography) The mystery still surrounds his death. His life had not been easy and the people he loved passed away. It is understandable why he would fear death.

            Secondly, in “The Black Cat,” the narrator suffers from violent mood swings due to Alcohol. He begins mistreating his animals as well as his wife. Arriving home drunk one night, he lashes out at Pluto and the cat bites him on the hand. In turn, the narrator cuts out one of Pluto’s eyeballs. This leads the narrator to hang Pluto from a tree. That same night the house burned down. He saw his neighbors gathered around a wall with an impression of a gigantic cat on it and tries to explain but can not find the words. Months go by and a new cat appears. One day the narrator almost trips over the new cat and grabbed an axe to kill the cat. When his wife defends the cat he hits her in the head with an axe. Not knowing where to dispose her body, he ends up emtombing her body in a wall in the basement. The police show up four days after he killed his wife and the narrator shows them to the house and even the basement. Telling them about the house, he hits the wall with a cane. All of a sudden, a loud cry was heard. The police storm wall and rip it down finding his hidden dead wife with the new cat above her head.     

“The Cask of Amontillado,” tells about the narrator Montresor, and a guy he knows Fortunado. Montresor wants to seek revenge and sets a plan that he follows through with. Deciding to use Fortunato’s fondness of wine against him he asks Montresor to taste a wine that could pass for Amontillado. He leads him down to the cellar and as Fortunado begins to cough Montresor only pushes him farther by saying things like they could turn around. At the bottom, Montresor builds a wall around Fortunado and he could not get out. Fortunado died in this wall.

 “The Masque of the Red Death” relates most to Poe’s life by the Red Death being a plague. Poe’s wife Virginia died of Tuberculosis. In the story the Red Death plagues the country and causes victims to die quickly and gruesomely. Prince Prospero locks the gate of the palace to fend off the plague. Months later he throws a fancy masquerade ball. At midnight a new guest arrives at the party and the mask looks like a corpse with blood spots all over its face making it seem like he could be a victim of Red Death. Prospero catches him and when he confronts him Prospero dies. The guests then attack the man and find out no one is under this mask and everyone dies. Red Death killed the whole castle.

            In conclusion, within the three short stories, “The Black Cat,””The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Mask of the Red Death,” it is evident that Edgar Allan Poe was terrified at the thought of himself dying. He shows death as scary and painful. Poe’s life was hard and once the people he had left in his life passed away he was left sad and hopeless.