Thomas Fasano
Professor W.V. DeTora
English 1002-13
3/5/2015
Reading Response for “Poe and the Horror Story”

Edgar Allan Poe, the most well-known and popular American writer to live, is famous for writing horror stories that install fear and excitement into the minds of the readers. Many of his stories consist of “narrators who have committed some horrible crime, such as horror, or who reveal some terrible secret about taboo subjects, such as incest or necrophilia” (133). Through this horrific acts and unexpected plot twists, Poe aims to surprise and excite his readers. His stories usually involve surprising irony, corrupted characters, and dark settings. Many readers have mixed feelings towards Edgar Allan Poe’s writing, but everyone can agree that without Poe’s horror stories, the horror genre would never be the same. Edgar Allan Poe and the dark content included in his stories are explained greatly in the article “Poe and the Horror Story.”
(Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008) According to the article, “Poe and the Horror Story,” Edgar Allan Poe is described as the greatest writer of horror stories that creates terror in the imagination of the readers. Using man’s darkest and disturbing secrets, he creates characters of evil intention. Most of Poe’s work revolves around “the psychological studies of guilt, obsession, and compulsion” (133). The characters in his stories act on impulse; they do not think of the consequences that may occur. Most of Poe’s work involves a dark setting, whether it is a crypt like in “The Cask of Amontillado,” or a pitch-black chamber, as in “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Just the locations of the events that take place are enough to create fear in the reader, as well as cause them to fell as if they were in the story. Lastly, most of Poe’s work end in a surprising plot twist. In