Common Motifs of Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His first book was published in 1827. In 1829 Al Aaraaf Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, Poe's second book was published. Poe became the editor of The Southern Literary Messenger in 1834 after his lawyer persuaded them to publish some of his stories and make him an editor. During this time his mark on American Literature began. Three of Poe's well-known stories are â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, which was published in 1846, â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart, which was published in 1843, and â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum†, which was published in 1842. In these three stories like most of Poe's stories they deal with the deep, dark, psychological side of the human brain. In Poe's short stories â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum†, Poe use three common motifs; death, fear or terror, and madness. The meaning of death is the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism. Death can take different forms, sickness, revenge, hate, misunderstandings, love. Death is one of the main motifs in all two of the three short stories, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† Montresor kills Fortunato in revenge, and although death is mentioned in â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum† there is actually no form of death even though it was close to happening. â€Å"..I felt that I tottered upon the bring – I averted my--...An out stretched arm caught my own as I fell fainting into the abyss. It was that of General Lasalle† (The Pit and the Pendulum p. 10). In â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† where Fortunato was chained to a wall and then bricked into a little cavern filled with bones and then the room was set on fire. â€Å"I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture ... ... he starts to think more of how he may die. When he is finally pushed over the edge of the pit, which could be considered being pushed over the edge of insanity, everything comes rushing back to reality when he is grabbed by a General. â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum†, all have common motifs; death, fear or terror, and madness. Each story has their own special way of showing the three different motifs. In all three stories these three motifs were connected in some way. Someone was afraid of something or someone, which drove them mad, which led them to kill someone. In the case of â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† death was caused by revenge, and hate. Death, fear and madness are all common themes in a lot of Poe's work. They add depth and different perspectives to look at things from. They all make the stories what they are.