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The Importance Of Fear In Poe's Short Stories

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Our emotions can turn fear into favorable actions. Fear can modify the way our actions conquer us. It can help us with awareness, survival, and saving us from death. Fear can also lead to paranoia and obsession. If we obsess over our fear and what’s ahead, death will overcome us and take over. Edgar Allan Poe shows the advantages and the damage of fear in the stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Masque of Red Death”, and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” In these stories, fear drives avoidance of death, deceiving the minds of the narrators. Poe uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to demonstrate how minds can be altered. Poe uses symbolism, in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, to show fear, dementing and distorting the narrator’s mind. The old man’s eye triggers the narrator to face insanity and phobia. The narrator questions his obsession, soon realizing, “ I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture…”(pg 74). The old man’s eye represents him watching over the narrator. The narrator is fearful of the judgement the man has over him. He behaves in an obsessive manner, causing him to focus only on the eye. He waits seven nights, outside the man’s home, until he decides to attack the eye. After killing the old man, guilt takes …show more content…

The narrator in the story deals with an array of traps set up to punish/kill him for the religion he believes in. “It was this - my chin rested upon the floor of the prison, but my lips and the upper portion of my head, although seemingly at a less elevation than the chin, touched nothing”(pg 66). Realizing the pit was right in front of him sparked fear in the narrator’s mind. In this story, the protagonist The narrator was able to conquer fear with hope. The whole time going through all the obstacles he was able to be smart about everything placed in front. He used his fear to benefit him, resulting in living and

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