Fear and Horror in the Works of Poe Essays

Fear and Horror in the Works of Poe Essays Fear and Horror in the Works of Poe Essay Fear and Horror in the Works of Poe Essay â€Å"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity†. This quote by Edgar Allan Poe portrays his true feelings, emotions, and his psychological state towards people and society because he could not handle the reality he was living in. Since there were so many deaths revolving around his life, he could not help but feel lonely and depressed all the time. Perhaps his tragic life enabled him to write stories such as â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†. Through these stories, he was able to show the readers the violent and cruel actions a man can do just to satisfy their own desires. Poe established an atmosphere of fear and horror in both stories by using the setting, mood of the character and story, and the mental state of the characters. First of all, both stories make it easy for the characters to kill because of the setting. In the story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart†, the readers do not know much about the old man, and his relationship with the narrator. However, it is clear that he dislikes the â€Å"Evil Eye† and wants to get rid of it. The setting of this story is just a room in the old man’s house, but Poe successfully creates a dark and scary mood by making the readers imagine what is happening. Moreover, killing the â€Å"Evil Eye† or the old man in a dark room on his bed made it effortless for the narrator to murder him. Thus, the setting in the story actually helped the narrator to kill the man with ease. On the other hand, in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, the story takes place in a carnival in Venice where people should be enjoying their time by merry-making. Usually, people who seek revenge would kill someone in a silent or rainy night so that there would be no witnesses , but Montresor decided to do it when people less suspected it. Carnivals are places where you can celebrate your freedom, and for that reason, you can do whatever you want. However, it is ironic that Fortunato loses his freedom :