downfall of nobility in poe

First Name Last Name

Professor

Subject

Date

The Downfall of Nobility in the Works of Poe

Introduction

The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe , The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado , show the downfall of noble families or persons - The Usher 's in the former and Fortunato in the latter . Both short stories also feature eerie vaults and spaces

These settings actually helped establish Poe as a master of macabre tales (Hayes 72 ) He remains to be the master of setting the haunting

mood often characterized as gothic despite of the heavily emotional characters . Reading Poe makes the reader feel unabashedly to the characters even with the spine-tingling situation they are in Simply put - Poe 's tales are scary and sad

The demise of the noble family in these tales represents the downfall of humans in general and the peculiar setting represents the human consciousness , however to dismiss his works as simply tales of horror would be inaccurate and unjust . His short stories are as emotional as they are haunting , as frightening as they are tragic

Some critics might even argue that his characters promoted genuine enjoyment in inflicting pain to others (Hayes 68 ) Evidence of such is Fortunato 's brief though obvious satisfaction after he had left Montessor in the cellar

It seemed , however , that although Poe using the life of the nobles to depict tragedy - he also enjoyed poking fun at them (Hayes 43 ) He illustrated them as people who are...