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The Power of the Dead over the Living

Poe often ives memory the power to keep the dead alive. Poe distorts this otherwise

commonplace literary theme "y "rinin the dead literally "ack to life, employin memory as thetrier that reawakens the dead, who are usually women. )n ieia, the narrator cannot escape

memories of his first wife, ieia, while his second wife, the lady /owena, "eins to suffer from

a mysterious sickness. While the narrator#s memories "elon only to his own mind, Poe allowsthese memories to exert force in the physical world. ieia dies, "ut her hus"and#s memory

makes him see her in the architecture of the "edroom he shares with his new wife. )n this sense,

'othic terror "ecomes a love story. The lovin memory of a rievin hus"and revives a deadwife. ieia "reaks down the "arrier "etween life and death, "ut not (ust to scare the reader.

)nstead, the memory of the dead shows the power of love to resist even the permanence of death.

Motifs

0otifs are recurrin structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform

the text#s ma(or themes.

The Masquerade

&t mas1uerades Poe#s characters a"andon social conventions and leave themselves vulnera"le to

crime. )n The ask of &montillado, for -example, 0ontresor uses the carnival#s mas1uerade to

fool %ortunato into his own demise. The mas1uerade carries the traditional meanins of (oy andsocial li"eration. /eality is suspended, and people can temporarily assume another identity.

0ontresor exploits these sentiments to do %ortunato real harm. )n William Wilson, the

mas1uerade is where the narrator receives his dou"le#s final insult. The mas1uerade isenchantin "ecause uests wear a variety of exotic and rotes1ue costumes, "ut the narrator and

his dou"le don the same $panish outfit. The dou"le Wilson haunts the narrator "y denyin him

the thrill of uni1ue transformation. )n a crowd full of uests in costumes, the narrator feelscomforta"ly anonymous enouh to attempt to murder his dou"le. astly, in The 0as1ue of the/ed 2eath, the ultimate victory of the plaue over the selfish retreat of Prince Prospero and his

uests occurs durin the palace#s lavish mas1uerade "all. The mysterious uest#s ruesome

costume, which shows the "loody effects of the /ed 2eath, mocks the larer horror ofProspero#s party in the midst of his sufferin peasants. The pretense of costume allows the uest

to enter the "all, and "rin the uests their death in person.

Animals

)n Poe#s murder stories, homicide re1uires animalistic element. &nimals kill, they die, and

animal imaery provokes and informs crimes committed "etween men. &nimals sinal thea"sence of human reason and morality, "ut sometimes humans prove less rational than their

"eastly counterparts. The (oke "ehind The 0urders in the /ue 0orue is that the 3uran-3utan did it. The savae irrationality of the crime "affles the police, who cannot conceive of a

motiveless crime or fathom the "rute force involved. 2upin uses his superior analytical a"ilities

to determine that the crime couldn#t have "een committed "y a human. )n The +lack at, themurder of Pluto results from the narrator#s loss of reason and plune into perverseness,

reason#s inhuman antithesis. The story#s second cat "ehaves cunninly, leadin the narrator into

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a more serious crime in the murder of his wife, and then "etrayin him to the police. The role

reversalirrational humans vs. rational animalsindicates that Poe considers murder a

fundamentally animalistic, and therefore inhuman, act. )n The Tell-Tale Heart, the murdererdehumani!e his victims "y likenin him to animal. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart claims

to hate and murder the old man#s vulture eye, which he descri"es as pale "lue with a film

over it. He attempts to (ustify his actions "y implicitly comparin himself to a helpless creaturethreatened "y a hideous scavener. )n the ask of &montillado, 0ontresor does the reverse,

readyin himself to commit the crime "y e1uatin himself with an animal. )n killin %ortunato,

he cites his family arms, a serpent with its fans in the heel of a foot steppin on it, and motto,which is translated no one harms me with impunity. %ortunato, whose insult has spurred

0ontresor to revene, "ecomes the man whose foot harms the snake 0ontresor and is punished

with a lethal "ite.

Symbols

$ym"ols are o"(ects, characters, fiures, or colors used to represent a"stract ideas or concepts.

The hirl!ool

)n 0$. %ound in a +ottle, the whirlpool sym"oli!es insanity. When the whirlpool transports

the narrator from the peaceful $outh $eas to the surreal waters of the $outh Pole, it alsosym"olically transports him out of the space of scientific rationality to that of the imainative

fancy of the 'erman moralists. The whirlpool destroys the "oat and removes the narrator from a

realistic realm, the second whirlpool kills him.

Eyes

)n The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator fixates on the idea that an old man is lookin at him with

the *vil *ye and transmittin a curse on him. &t the same time that the narrator o"sesses over theeye, he wants to separate the old man from the *vil *ye in order to spare the old man from his

violent reaction to the eye. The narrator reveals his ina"ility to reconi!e that the eye is the ),or identity, of the old man. The eyes sym"oli!e the essence of human identity, which cannot "e

separated from the "ody. The eye cannot "e killed without causin the man to die. $imilarly, in

ieia, the narrator is una"le to see "ehind ieia#s dark and mysterious eyes. +ecause the

eyes sym"oli!e her 'othic identity, they conceal ieia#s mysterious knowlede, a knowledethat "oth uides and haunts the narrator.

"#ortunato$

)n The ask of &montillado, Poe uses %ortunato#s name sym"olically, as an ironic device.Thouh his name means the fortunate one in )talian, %ortunato meets an unfortunate fate as the

victim of 0ontresor#s revene. %ortunato adds to the irony of his name "y wearin the costume

of a court (ester. While %ortunato plays in (est, 0ontresor sets out to fool him, with murderous

results.