The Two Stories Written By Edgar Allan Poe

In "The fall of the House of Usher" one of the characters also "feels the taste of madness". "The writer spoke of acute bodily illness - of a mental disorder which oppressed him - and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady", - describes him his friend - the narrator (Poe, 1960: 114). The reasons for this mental disease are not clear. Unlike "The Black Cat", in "The Fall of the House of Usher" there is no any distinct character that represents unusual forces.

On the otherhand The Cask of Amontillado describes Carnivals have been around for centuries. During the period in which Poe wrote this tale, the carnival was in a grotesque time. Freak shows were beginning to establish and the public was beginning to see a more dark and sinister setting for their carnivals (Freak Shows, Carnivals, and Fairs: Roaming Entertainment of Antebellum America). The use of a carnival setting allowed the reader to envision a dark, macbre-like setting that would be the perfect lead into the dark, dank catacombs.

However, the "House of Usher" itself has some power on its inhabitants: it influences the consciousness and behaviour of characters; they cannot leave it and are doomed to die, being prisoners of this house. In fact, the house creates a special world full of fear. What is more, it collapses right after the death of its last inhabitant - Usher. ("While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened - there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind - the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight - my brain reeled as I saw the mighty ...