Poe's short story

Poe's short story

Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his horror story. He has written masterpiece stories like "The Black Cat", "The Purloined Letter", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The fall of house of Usher", "The Gold Bug" and many other.

The most interesting thing about these story is that not a single word is unnecessary. it helps in building environment of horror, terror and supernatural elements. Gothic elements are also important characteristics of his stories.

The Black Cat is a story in which Narrator kills an old man only because he dont like his vulture eye. He himself confesses that this old man has never done any wrong thing to him. For many days Narrator observes that man during night as a part of planing and later on executes the plan.

The Fall of house of Usher is mysterious story with heart beating horror.

The Purloined Letter is a bit different than other stories. it is about the stealing of important letter and detective Dupin's search for it.

The cask of Amontillado is a story in which one friend buries other alive behind the wall because other had done something to him earlier. This story is example of height of cruelty and revenge.

 Poe portrays the psychological complexity of these two supposedly opposite emotions, emphasizing the ways they enigmatically blend into each other. Poe’s psychological insight anticipates the theories of Sigmund Freud.Poe, like Freud, interpreted love and hate as universal emotions.

Self vs. Alter Ego

In many of Poe’s Gothic tales, characters wage internal conflicts by creating imaginary alter egos or assuming alternate and opposite personalities. In “William Wilson,” the divided self takes the form of the narrator’s imagined double, who tracks him throughout Europe. The rival threatens the narrator’s sense of a coherent identity because he demonstrates that it is impossible for him to escape his unwanted characteristics. The narrator uses the alter ego to separate himself from his insanity. He projects his inner turmoil onto his alter ego and is able to forget that the trouble resides within him. The alter ego becomes a rival of the self because its resemblance to the self is unmistakable. Suicide results from the delusion that the alter ego is something real that can be eliminated in order to leave the self in peace. In “The Black Cat” the narrator transforms from a gentle animal lover into an evil cat-killer. The horror of “The Black Cat” derives from this sudden transformation and the cruel act—the narrator’s killing of his cat Pluto—which accompanies it. Pluto’s reincarnation as the second cat haunts the narrator’s guilty conscience. Although the narrator wants to forget his murder of Pluto, gallows appear in the color of his fur. The fur symbolizes the suppressed guilt that drives him insane and causes him to murder his wife. (Sparknote)

Love and Hate, power of living over dead  is brilliantly captured in the story. Animals as a symbol also plays vital role in the stories.