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Mental Illness In The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe
Hladká, Alena ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
1 Abstract The focus of this thesis aims at mental illness in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, their incorporation in his short stories and their function as a means of inducing of horror in the reader. It will be attempted to establish a typology of madness based upon the insane characters from eight of Poe's stories. These stories, chosen for their clear depiction of mentally deranged characters, are "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," "Ligeia," "Eleonora," "Berenice," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "William Wilson." This thesis will consist of four main parts with a small additional chapter dedicated to the life of Edgar Allan Poe, since the author's life experience is also important for the understanding and appreciating of his work. Chapter 1 will focus on Poe's narrators in the stories "Eleonora" and "Ligeia." Their insanity, stemming from love, passion and loss, and especially from a vain attempt to achieve the ideal of beauty manifests in their later depression or drug addiction. In essence, the characters are driven mad by unhappy love. Chapter 2 will show the physical manifestation of madness into murder. It will deal with Poe's insane murderers from the tales "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." In these tales, the narrators...
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