How Does Fear Affect Poe's Life

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Fear, isolation, and madness are all motifs of the works of Edgar Allen Poe. In his book Danse Macabre, Steven King writes that “Death in the horror movies is when the monsters get you.” For Poe, it can be reasoned that the monster of his movie was his past. His poems and short stories are undoubtedly reflective of the things he experienced in his life. He often reverted inward for solutions, as do the characters of his works, which could account for his deep understanding of the human mind. Nothing is more telling of a writer’s emotions than their work and the choices their characters make in it. Poe wrote with his understanding of fear at the forefront of his mind. He knew how to draw a reader in and shock them, while at the same time not scaring them away. He wrote in a way that perfectly balanced fear, among other things, with curiosity, allowing you to feel the emotions of the characters. In The Masque of the Red Death Poe writes “But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away.” He authored his stories so that he unlocked the door, but let you decide if you wanted to open it. And when there was nothing…show more content…
Never formally adopted by the Allens, he always felt a sense of isolation. The experiences of his childhood bled into his writing through many of his characters. It was that isolation that lent to the development of Poe’s character Rodrick in The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe writes “Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual.” In many respects, this description of Rodrick mirrored that of Poe himself. He used the innate human fear of being alone to not only develop characters, but also to establish mood and connect with the reader who can unquestionably relate to the feeling of loneliness on some
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