The Importance Of Houses In Edgar Allen Poe's Stories

Edgar Allen Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 1809. Poe was one of the best authors in American history. He wrote many stories and poems, but was very poor. Poe’s life could be remembered as death. His mother “Elizabeth Poe” died when he was 2 years old, from a disease known as tuberculosis. But his mother wasn’t the only one that Poe loved died from this disease, his adopted mother and his beloved wife died from this also. Poe’s life was sad and dark, so that’s how he wrote his stories, based off of how he felt. Poe written most of his stories to take place in either a mansion or castle, which symbolizes wealth. Poe never really liked rich people, doing to the fact he was poor. The way Poe describes the houses in his stories create a dark tension

In some stories the characters’ names are signs of symbolism. For example “Prince Prospero” of “The Masque of the Red Death”, in which Prospero sounds like Prosperity which means wealth. So as in “Cask of Amontillado” a character named “Fortunato”, which sounds similar fortune which means luck, but to later find out he wasn’t very lucky. In all of Poe’s stories the character is rich, and each lives in a big house, mansion, or castle. Also in each of his stories they die. Prince Prospero dies from the red death, Roderick from “Fall of the House of Usher”, dies from being scared to death, and Fortunato dies from being stoned in and suffocating. In each of these stories there is some type of cruelty to another thing or person. The character from “The Black Cat” tortured and killed his pets, including his favorite pet a cat named “Pluto” and his wife. In “Fall of the House of Usher”, Roderick buries his wife “Madeline” alive. In “Masque of the Red Death”, Prospero along with the rest of the ball drops dead from the masked figure, but Prospero being first. And in “Cask of Amontillado”, another character “Montresor” buries his friend “Fortunato” in with