Fear of Fascination

Jimena Rodriguez-Benito

Ms. Reuning

Honors Literature

01/29/16

Fascination with Fear

Part A

Edgar Allan Poe writes a short story about his fear or premature burial and the tortures and suffers he goes through until he faces fear itself. The theme of the story is that if you never face your fears, fear will devour you making you perish. Once you face that fear you will live free of fear and it will forever be dismissed. The narrators faces a condition called catalepsy, this condition does not allow the person to move or speak but he is aware of his surroundings. The narrator could stay in that state from hours to months at a time. The fear that haunted him was premature burial, being buried during one of his catalepsy faces and waking up in a coffin, stuck. “It may be asserted, without hesitation, that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire complete distress, as is burial before death.” (Edgar Allan Poe) The Narrator enters a nightmare of premature burial where unseen figures take him though discovered tombs occupied by coffins. In those times in ‘history’, premature burial was common because of the lack of technology and knowledge we have now. The narrator wakes up from his dream in what appears to be a coffin, but actually is a shelf in a sailboat where he has been sleeping accompanied from his friends. He feels like he has been liberated from such an obsession of his fears, and no longer suffers of catalepsy. After he has faced his fear, he lives in tranquility.

Part B

The theme of this short story is that fears need to be faced so fear doesn't devour you. I am a tennis player, and as an athlete, decision making and risk taking is an extremely big key to being successful in a sport. Tennis players need to decide when and what shot to hit and where to hit it. I had always had the fear of losing a match having more than one match point. That fear was haunting me every match point I ever had. Very recently is when I learned to face that fear and no longer fear it. After being match point down and coming back, I lead with a match point, I worked the point, but my opponent earned it. Again I led, and missed a shot. This happened five times during the match, I ended up losing. After this loss leading by 5 match points, I no longer need to fear it, I have learned to cope with the fear and no longer give that fear any importance. The way the narrator faced his fears and no longer gave fear the importance it needs to really become a fear, I did the same and it feels so much better having faced my enemy.

Part C

Guided Analysis questions:

1. The imagery that Poe uses is very specific and very well used because it makes the reader feel, smell and see everything. For example “…—the suffocating fumes from the damp earth—the clinging to the death garments—the rigid embrace of the narrow house—the blackness of the absolute Night—the silence like a sea that overwhelms—the unseen presence of the Conqueror Worm—these things, with the thoughts of the air and grass above…” The effect this has on the reader is that it really makes the reader feel like it is happening to them. The way Poe details everything really gives the perfect sensation, smell and vision of what he is trying to explain.
2. The heart of a living cataleptic person beats softly but it is still felt. Also, the person cheeks are a little colored, and a slow, unequal, irregular action of the lungs is detected.
3. The simile used is “Just as the day dawns to the friendless and houseless beggar who roams the streets throughout the long desolate winter night—just so tardily—just so wearily—just so cheerily came back the light of the Soul to me.” The narrator suggests that his consciousness came back to him as sad and as depressing as the day that comes to the homeless.
4. What the author did to create suspense is tone, the way he used punctuation and the rhythm he created by the punctuation creates suspense.
5. The narrator is being awakened by somebody and he doesn't know who it is but he feels that the person is holding his wrist.
6. What happens in the narrator’s dream is that an unseen figure was showing and inviting him to the graves of the dead, scaring and showing him the corps in the tombs.
7. The way I would describe his mental state is that he is so fearful of being buried alive that he is obsessed with making his coffin open and reveal if any movement occurs. He is scared out of his mind and it has become a serious fear that he cannot control. Since his fears are rational, I could say that his actions are as well rational in comparison to his fears.
8. The techniques he uses are very short sentences and excessive punctuation which makes the reader read faster creating suspense.
9. He wakes up with a memory and the ability to move, he is scared to move at first, he opens his eyes and only sees dark, the idea of him being buried alive has crossed his mind, he tries to move but he feels wood close to his face. He is in a state of mind of being locked and captured in a compressed space.
10. It makes the reader read faster, take shorter breaths, speeding the readers heart rate creating suspense.
11. What has happened is that the narrator screamed for help and someone heard and answered. If i were to be the narrator, I would think that those voices are inside my head and that I am crazy.
12. The similarities in the experience is that he in a tight wooden space, where he feels claustrophobic. I do not believe that there are a lot of similarities though, I think that it is all in his head.
13. Since the night on the sailboat, he has not thought of death anymore, he is living freely and he feels like a new man. I feel that his reaction is very typical and normal for a person that faces their fears, because after they face them, they have no more fear to fear.
14. In the last sentence, Poe is saying that the only way fear will not destroy and devour us is by facing those fears, and if we don't face them, we will perish.

Work Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. Premature Burial. Place of Publication Not Identified: Read, 2012. Print.