The Literary Works of Edgar Allen Poe Analytical Essay by Calwriter

This paper examines how the themes of death and horror are explicitly expressed in Poe's story, "The Cask of Amontillado" and how, similarly, artistic expression of the same themes is illustrated in his poems, "The Bells" and "The Haunted Palace." The author posits that, in these literary works, the themes of death and horror are contained, and what makes these works distinct from Poe's other works is that it represents two symbols of "truths" about human nature. It looks at how the theme of horror is illustrated by the protagonist's or Voice's (in the case of the poems) descent towards insanity, while the theme of death is best represented by the commitment of murder or simply a depiction of the individual's effort to conceal or escape his insanity through death.