26 pages • 52 minutes read
The Premature Burial
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Themes
The Line Between Truth and Fiction
Poe’s “The Premature Burial” explores the theme of truth versus fiction. The story highlights the way in which perceptions of reality can be distorted by fears and anxieties, and how beliefs can be shaped by the stories people tell themselves and others. Despite the narrator’s conviction that “in these accounts [of historic tragedy] it is the fact—it is the reality—it is the history which excites” (Paragraph 1), the story suggests that the truth is elusive and subjective, and one’s understanding of reality is often shaped by internal struggles and perceptions.
While the narrator is convinced that truth is more terrifying than fiction, his personal fictions cause him the most suffering: “In all that I endured there was no physical suffering but of moral distress an infinitude” (Paragraph 25). Throughout the story, there is a lack of a tangible, verifiable cause of his suffering. While the narrator attempts to ground his fears in terrifying historical cases of premature burial, his perception is distorted by his unrealistic certainty that this will happen to him. When discussing premature burial, he claims that “all narratives upon this topic have an interest profound; an interest, nevertheless, which, through the sacred awe of the topic itself, very properly and very peculiarly depends upon our conviction of the truth of the matter narrated” (Paragraph 21). There is a sense in which this conviction is a fiction; just as the Latin word fictus means “to form,” the narrator forms his fears from supposedly true events. He invents a narrative about premature burial that fuels his phobia and catalepsy.
After the turning point of the story, in which the narrator overcomes his condition in a crisis moment, he declares:
I discarded my medical books. ‘Buchan’ I burned. I read no ‘Night Thoughts’—no fustian about churchyards—no bugaboo tales—such as this. In short, I became a new man, and lived a man’s life. From that memorable night, I dismissed forever my charnel apprehensions, and with them vanished the cataleptic disorder, of which, perhaps, they had been less the consequence than the cause (Paragraph 45).
Ultimately, none of the facts about premature burial have changed; all that changes is the narrator’s perspective on the reality of premature burial. Once he has experienced his phobia and realized its fictional nature, this minimal risk no longer terrifies him.
It might appear that the narrator discovered the truth that despite historical accounts of premature burial, it is unlikely to happen to him. However, he has not escaped fiction in favor of truth. In the end, the narrator reflects on the power of imagination to influence the physical world, despite one’s use of reason. He observes, “There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell” (Paragraph 46). If the imagination has the power to create a living hell, it also has the power to form or fictionalize a way out of that hell.
In the end, the line between truth and fiction is not always clearly delineated. The story suggests that rationalization can function as a form of fictionalization; it allows one to form a narrative about events that, via the power of the imagination, can either create a living hell or allow one to escape it.
Conquering Fear or Else Succumbing to It
Related to the theme of truth versus fiction is the theme of either being overcome by fear or overcoming it. In “The Premature Burial,” the ability to overcome fear is not rooted in control or mastery of external elements. As the story progresses, the narrator makes it clear that he cannot control his fear and his catalepsy:
Upon awaking from slumber, I could never gain, at once, thorough possession of my senses, and always remained, for many minutes, in much bewilderment and perplexity—the mental faculties in general, but the memory in especial, being in a condition of absolute abeyance (Paragraph 24).
Often, he struggles to gain control over his emotions and his reason when he wakes up, remaining in a disoriented state for a period of time. His catalepsy also causes him to lose consciousness, sometimes for months at a time. This lack of control deepens his fear and causes him to become hopeless: “But, alas? what avails the vigilance against the Destiny of man? Not even these well-contrived securities sufficed to save from the uttermost agonies of living inhumation, a wretch to these agonies foredoomed!” (Paragraph 33). The tangible safeguards that he puts in place to protect himself do nothing to assuage his fear.
Instead of overcoming his phobia by gaining a sense of control over it, however, the narrator reaches a turning point in managing his condition when he suffers a crisis in which he feels completely powerless. Becoming convinced that he is uncontrollably immersed in his deepest fear helps him conquer it and cures his catalepsy. As he wakes in the boat that he thinks is a grave, he lacks all control, including his memory of how he got there; this echoes the earlier lines in which he refers to his difficulty in orienting himself and controlling his senses when he emerges from sleep. His complete lack of control immerses him in his greatest fear, as he feels abandoned for dead and trapped in his tomb: “The tortures endured, however, were indubitably quite equal […] to those of actual sepulture. They were fearfully—they were inconceivably hideous; but out of Evil proceeded Good [...] My soul acquired tone—acquired temper” (Paragraph 45). This powerlessness—this moment of being overcome by fear—allows him to triumph over it by surviving it.
The narrator closes the story with final, foreboding thoughts: One must suffer fears to put them to sleep, “or […] perish.” This experience does not mean that death no longer frightens him, but it makes it less menacing. As he observes, it is not absurd to fear the grave, but one cannot truly live with these worries at the front of the mind: “Alas! the grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful—but […] they must sleep, or they will devour us—they must be suffered to slumber, or we perish” (Paragraph 46). Ironically, however, a close reading of the story reveals that one must perish, in a sense, to put terror to sleep. To continue living, the narrator must act out his terror of premature burial by being fictionally buried; he must relinquish all control and believe in his own demise to overcome his fear of it.
Fear of the Unknown
The theme of fear of the unknown is central to the story’s plot, as the narrator’s phobia is fueled by his inability to understand or fully control the circumstances of his own death. His fear is rooted in the uncertainty of what lies beyond death and the possibility that his own death may be a traumatic and painful experience. Furthermore, in addition to the unknown of death itself, the narrator also obsesses over the vague and unknown boundary between life and death:
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? We know that there are diseases in which occur total cessations of all the apparent functions of vitality, and yet in which these cessations are merely suspensions, properly so-called. They are only temporary pauses in the incomprehensible mechanism. A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels. The silver cord was not for ever loosed, nor the golden bowl irreparably broken. But where, meantime, was the soul? (Paragraph 3).
In Gothic literature, the soul is often portrayed as a mysterious and powerful force that exists beyond the physical realm. It is frequently associated with themes of death, decay, and the supernatural, and is often portrayed as being trapped or tormented in some way. “The Premature Burial” extends these preoccupations of the genre to the fear that the soul disappears into some unknown realm—so that that the soul may indeed be lost and never return.
Moreover, the text contrasts the darkness of death and the unknown with the light of the soul:
I grew sick, and numb, and chilly, and dizzy, and so fell prostrate at once. Then, for weeks, all was void, and black, and silent, and Nothing became the universe. Total annihilation could be no more […] Just as the day dawns to the friendless and houseless beggar who roams the streets throughout the long desolate winter night—just so tardily—just so wearily—just so cheerily came back the light of the Soul to me” (Paragraph 23).
This quote highlights, again, the debilitating power of the narrator’s fear. His sense of disorientation is so overpowering that he cannot stand, and he interprets this as the possibility of losing the light of the soul to the cold, numb, silent void of death. The story highlights the power of terror and the feeling of being unable to control or understand one’s circumstances; the narrator experiences this as an abyss that lacks light, feeling, and hope, similar to his expectation of how death must feel. When he emerges from this state, he experiences a renewal akin to that of his soul’s returning to his body. The story suggests that while people seek to understand and control the unknown, some aspects of existence are beyond understanding or control; however, it infuses the Gothic context with optimism by highlighting the return of joy and hope to the weary narrator.
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By Edgar Allan Poe
