Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems are marked by dark and morbid mood, as he is largely considered the father of the psychological thriller and detective story. This macabre tone is perhaps best evident in the works that feature premature burial. Indeed, several of Poe's stories, including "The Premature Burial," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Fall of the House of Usher," feature characters that all confront the undeniable terror of being buried alive. In some way, Poe appears rather preoccupied with the idea of premature burial, and the reader wonders if these stories are simply his means of articulating his own fears about being buried alive. Certainly, many people in Poe's day experienced similar terror, but Poe's personal experience with death may have increased his fascination with this theme of death-in-life.
The most obvious story to start with when considering Poe's interest in the buried alive theme is "The Premature Burial." This is perhaps his most blatant exploration of the subject, as the character in the story is as terrified of the idea of being buried alive as Poe himself seems to be. He explains that "To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality" ("The Premature Burial" 532). Indeed, this story plainly states why one should fear such an experience, and then underscores the terror by presenting a character who is plagued with fears of being buried. Indeed the narrator is so disturbed by the mere thought that he describes his nightmares as "inconceivably hideous" ("The Premature Burial" 542). Poe paints such a vivid and terrifying portrait of what it might be like to find oneself buried alive that it seems likely that he entertained such thoughts quite often.
In "The Cask of Amontillado," Poe once again visits the death-in-life theme, but instead of simply evoking the sheer terror of the buried ali...