Poe Essay

Bob and Rudy version    Not Bob and Rudy version

David McKnight

Hour 2

Barnes

Poe-ignant Writing

            Poe seeks to link his readers to his characters and gradually draw them into a world of darkness and insanity, as evidenced by the development of the main characters in his works, his in-depth depictions of psychological stress and gruesome portrayals of morbid scenes, and his word choice.

            In The Black Cat, the protagonist opens with the claim that, despite all appearances from the story, “mad [he is] not”. A similar claim is made by the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart, who claims that the voices he hears are merely due to his “acute hearing”. These timely utterances expedite the formation of connections between the reader and the aforementioned characters from The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart  (whom we shall henceforth refer to as “Bob” and “Rudy”) by providing the belief of sanity as a relatable trait. Poe then takes the reader, through flashbacks, to an earlier point in time, and proceeds to create a feeling akin to slowly being dragged into a muddy lagoon via retarding the temporal feel of the personality shifts of the characters. For example, Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart “by degrees - very gradually – [makes up his] mind to take the life of the old man”. Similarly, Bobthe narrator of The Black Cat "[grows], day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others”. This gradual change also feels much more believable than a simple, abrupt change, allowing the stories to feel creepier.

            Poe is portrays his sanguinary scenes in his stories horrifically to maintain an aura of disturbing horror. For instance, Bobthe narrator of The Black Cat “[takes] from [his] waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, open[s] it, grasp[s] the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut[s] one of its eyes from the socket”. Described in a like manner, Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart “drag[s] [the old man] to the floor" and "pull[s] the heavy bed over him”, and proceeds to “dismember the corpse” and “cut off the head and the arms and the legs”. Poe also delights in elaborating upon his characters’ mental anguish. When the policemen visit Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart house, Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart “gasp[s] for breath”, “talk[s] more quickly”, “pace[s] the floor to and fro with heavy strides”, “foam[s]” and “rave[s]”; regardless of whether or not Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heartactually performs these actions, his psychological instability is made clear. BobThe narrator of The Black Cat also has his share of conflicted mindsets, going from loving his cat (and other beings) to loathing them to loving them to loathing them, his movements becoming increasingly erratic with each alteration.

            Poe’s vernacular also serves to hook the reader into his stories. When Rudythe narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart is contemplating his monomania, he likens it to a “disease”; likewise does Bobthe narrator of The Black Cat concerning his alcoholism. While not many readers can relate to alcoholism, and even less to insanity, almost every person on the planet has succumbed to an illness at some point. In addition to providing a method of connection, liken diseases also contribute to the feeling of gradual declination.

            Poe’s writing style amplifies the horrors created in his stories to a ghastly effect, taking that which is already unsettling and making it downright disturbing, crafting a world of insanity to suck readers in and make them shiver.