Poes Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Love and Hate

Poe explores the similarity of love and hate in many stories, especially The Tell-Tale Heart and William Wilson. Poe portrays the psycholo ical complexity of these two supposedly opposite emotions, emphasi!in the ways they eni matically "lend into each other. Poe#s psycholo ical insi ht anticipates the theories of $i mund %reud, the &ustrian founder of psychoanalysis and one of the twentieth century#s most influential thinkers. Poe, like %reud, interpreted love and hate as universal emotions, there"y severed from the specific conditions of time and space. The 'othic terror is the result of the narrator#s simultaneous love for himself and hatred of his rival. The dou"le shows that love and hate are insepara"le and su ests that they may simply "e two forms of the most intense form of human emotion. The narrator loves himself, "ut when feelin s of self-hatred arise in him, he pro(ects that hatred onto an ima inary copy of himself. )n The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator confesses a love for an old man whom he then violently murders and dismem"ers. The narrator reveals his madness "y attemptin to separate the person of the old man, whom he loves, from the old man#s supposedly evil eye, which tri ers the narrator#s hatred. This delusional separation ena"les the narrator to remain unaware of the paradox of claimin to have loved his victim.
Self vs. Alter Ego

)n many of Poe#s 'othic tales, characters wa e internal conflicts "y creatin ima inary alter e os or assumin alternate and opposite personalities. )n William Wilson, the divided self takes the form of the narrator#s ima ined dou"le, who tracks him throu hout *urope. The rival threatens the narrator#s sense of a coherent identity "ecause he demonstrates that it is impossi"le for him to escape his unwanted characteristics. The narrator uses the alter e o to separate himself from his insanity. He pro(ects his inner turmoil onto his alter e o and is a"le to for et that the trou"le resides within him. The alter e o "ecomes a rival of the self "ecause its resem"lance to the self is unmistaka"le. $uicide results from the delusion that the alter e o is somethin real that can "e eliminated in order to leave the self in peace. )n The +lack ,at the narrator transforms from a entle animal lover into an evil cat-killer. The horror of The +lack ,at derives from this sudden transformation and the cruel act-the narrator#s killin of his cat Pluto-which accompanies it. Pluto#s reincarnation as the second cat haunts the narrator#s uilty conscience. &lthou h the narrator wants to for et his murder of Pluto, allows appear in the color of his fur. The fur sym"oli!es the suppressed uilt that drives him insane and causes him to murder his wife.

The Power of the Dead over the Living

Poe often ives memory the power to keep the dead alive. Poe distorts this otherwise commonplace literary theme "y "rin in the dead literally "ack to life, employin memory as the tri er that reawakens the dead, who are usually women. )n .i eia, the narrator cannot escape memories of his first wife, .i eia, while his second wife, the lady /owena, "e ins to suffer from a mysterious sickness. While the narrator#s memories "elon only to his own mind, Poe allows these memories to exert force in the physical world. .i eia dies, "ut her hus"and#s memory makes him see her in the architecture of the "edroom he shares with his new wife. )n this sense, 'othic terror "ecomes a love story. The lovin memory of a rievin hus"and revives a dead wife. .i eia "reaks down the "arrier "etween life and death, "ut not (ust to scare the reader. )nstead, the memory of the dead shows the power of love to resist even the permanence of death. Motifs 0otifs are recurrin structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text#s ma(or themes.
The Masquerade

&t mas1uerades Poe#s characters a"andon social conventions and leave themselves vulnera"le to crime. )n The ,ask of &montillado, for -example, 0ontresor uses the carnival#s mas1uerade to fool %ortunato into his own demise. The mas1uerade carries the traditional meanin s of (oy and social li"eration. /eality is suspended, and people can temporarily assume another identity. 0ontresor exploits these sentiments to do %ortunato real harm. )n William Wilson, the mas1uerade is where the narrator receives his dou"le#s final insult. The mas1uerade is enchantin "ecause uests wear a variety of exotic and rotes1ue costumes, "ut the narrator and his dou"le don the same $panish outfit. The dou"le Wilson haunts the narrator "y denyin him the thrill of uni1ue transformation. )n a crowd full of uests in costumes, the narrator feels comforta"ly anonymous enou h to attempt to murder his dou"le. .astly, in The 0as1ue of the /ed 2eath, the ultimate victory of the pla ue over the selfish retreat of Prince Prospero and his uests occurs durin the palace#s lavish mas1uerade "all. The mysterious uest#s ruesome costume, which shows the "loody effects of the /ed 2eath, mocks the lar er horror of Prospero#s party in the midst of his sufferin peasants. The pretense of costume allows the uest to enter the "all, and "rin the uests their death in person.
Animals

)n Poe#s murder stories, homicide re1uires animalistic element. &nimals kill, they die, and animal ima ery provokes and informs crimes committed "etween men. &nimals si nal the a"sence of human reason and morality, "ut sometimes humans prove less rational than their "eastly counterparts. The (oke "ehind The 0urders in the /ue 0or ue is that the 3uran 3utan did it. The sava e irrationality of the crime "affles the police, who cannot conceive of a motiveless crime or fathom the "rute force involved. 2upin uses his superior analytical a"ilities to determine that the crime couldn#t have "een committed "y a human. )n The +lack ,at, the murder of Pluto results from the narrator#s loss of reason and plun e into perverseness, reason#s inhuman antithesis. The story#s second cat "ehaves cunnin ly, leadin the narrator into

a more serious crime in the murder of his wife, and then "etrayin him to the police. The role reversal-irrational humans vs. rational animals-indicates that Poe considers murder a fundamentally animalistic, and therefore inhuman, act. )n The Tell-Tale Heart, the murderer dehumani!e his victims "y likenin him to animal. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart claims to hate and murder the old man#s vulture eye, which he descri"es as pale "lue with a film over it. He attempts to (ustify his actions "y implicitly comparin himself to a helpless creature threatened "y a hideous scaven er. )n the ,ask of &montillado, 0ontresor does the reverse, readyin himself to commit the crime "y e1uatin himself with an animal. )n killin %ortunato, he cites his family arms, a serpent with its fan s in the heel of a foot steppin on it, and motto, which is translated no one harms me with impunity. %ortunato, whose insult has spurred 0ontresor to reven e, "ecomes the man whose foot harms the snake 0ontresor and is punished with a lethal "ite. Symbols $ym"ols are o"(ects, characters, fi ures, or colors used to represent a"stract ideas or concepts.
The hirl!ool

)n 0$. %ound in a +ottle, the whirlpool sym"oli!es insanity. When the whirlpool transports the narrator from the peaceful $outh $eas to the surreal waters of the $outh Pole, it also sym"olically transports him out of the space of scientific rationality to that of the ima inative fancy of the 'erman moralists. The whirlpool destroys the "oat and removes the narrator from a realistic realm, the second whirlpool kills him.
Eyes

)n The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator fixates on the idea that an old man is lookin at him with the *vil *ye and transmittin a curse on him. &t the same time that the narrator o"sesses over the eye, he wants to separate the old man from the *vil *ye in order to spare the old man from his violent reaction to the eye. The narrator reveals his ina"ility to reco ni!e that the eye is the ), or identity, of the old man. The eyes sym"oli!e the essence of human identity, which cannot "e separated from the "ody. The eye cannot "e killed without causin the man to die. $imilarly, in .i eia, the narrator is una"le to see "ehind .i eia#s dark and mysterious eyes. +ecause the eyes sym"oli!e her 'othic identity, they conceal .i eia#s mysterious knowled e, a knowled e that "oth uides and haunts the narrator.
"#ortunato$

)n The ,ask of &montillado, Poe uses %ortunato#s name sym"olically, as an ironic device. Thou h his name means the fortunate one in )talian, %ortunato meets an unfortunate fate as the victim of 0ontresor#s reven e. %ortunato adds to the irony of his name "y wearin the costume of a court (ester. While %ortunato plays in (est, 0ontresor sets out to fool him, with murderous results.