To develop connections among a number of Poe stories, specifically how he suggests the thin line between sanity and madness?

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2004

Answers

The melancholic fascination, fearful obsession as THE central focus of one's will and experience is a deliberate placing of the poetic genius outside the trap of this life and the normal and break through barriers of perception. He "walks the line" himself, sanely, shakily and experiencing success, failure or self-destruction. Trying to reconcile himself Poe plunges into those realms opened by the new Romantics.

Find madmen, men driven by things outside themselves, by the crushing emnity of life, nature or enemies. The inner foe is always the worst, betokening the victory of self destruction of the extreme emotion over the acute rational.

Tell Tale Heart- madman. The Black Cat- Alcoholic. Reason overthrown, both lose.

Pit and Pendulum- soldier prisoner. descent into the Maelstrom- fisherman. Skills with reason win, though not easily or totally.

All experience the shock, the terror, the challenge to survival. Some plunge into the vertigo of self-defeat. Others maintain their reason and will- the triumph. Pride and absorption into the experience is a dangerous commonality, the lure of vertigo and despair.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2004