The Premature Burial
I think what Edgar Allan Poe is describing is very legitimate. For one thing I sort of cheated and looked up "catalepsy" on Google and there is such thing. Second, I do believe people would think that people with catalepsy would be considered "dead" because there was very little medical advancement at that time; in fact I would say little to none. What I thought was interesting about this story written by Poe, is the narrative. Usually we get the narrator doing, being or seeing something scary but in this one Poe takes a psychological twist and adds experiences of other characters to the story. What Poe does is actually super clever; he leads you to believe that he was buried alive when he wasn't. PLOT TWIST! He was just chilling on a boat, no big deal. This shock of being shaken up by a friend makes him realize that his fear of death and being buried alive is silly. Actually a sort of nice ending.
The Monkeys Paw
Be careful what you wish for (literally). This is the story of a nice small family that wish for more than what they need. In actuality, this family looks like they have it all; a nice house and nice family members. The monkey paw is stolen from a family friend who got is by being in exotic countries. The Sergeant-Major tells them the monkey paw grants wishes but at a terrible price. The White family doesn't heed his warning! It's like people back in the day couldn't care less! If someone told me that monkey paw granted wishes BUT at a terrible price I would burn that monkey paw myself and dump the ashes in a river. Seriously, the White family was just careless. Then they wish for 200 pounds. Really? I would never wish anything on the monkey paw but if I were to, I would have gone higher that just 200 pounds! But anyway their wish comes true all right; but not like they expected at all. The Whites son dies in a freak accident and what does the company the son worked for pay the parents? 200 pounds, just like they wished for huh? This story is SUPER super natural because we have clear evidence of the son coming back from the dead like the parents wished for and no it wasn't a cataleptic attack haha! The sons body was horribly mangled. Moral of the story (for me anyways) was to be grateful for what you have and live life a day at a time.
I also looked up catalepsy too. I think its crazy how you could be looked at as dead but not really be dead. Like you said, there wasn't as much education as there is now to determine a person not being really dead. For example, putting your fingers on your wrist or neck to feel a pulse. I just couldn't imagine waking up looking up into darkness. I wouldn't be able to do anything to save myself. It would be horrible just laying down and basically witnessing my death.
ReplyDeleteThat's why those coffind with the bells were created!
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DeleteWell I didnt look up catalepsy but I did look up what the signs he was having were, and its called Cotards delusion, everything he was explaining was real, in his mind, its actually a delusional disorder that people had back in the 1700's, they thought they were dead, some people even starved themselves to death because in their reality "mind" they thought they were dead, guess next to look up is catalepsy :)
ReplyDeleteI never knew about Cotards! Sounds just like catalepsy.
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