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Edgar Allan Poe Internal Conflict

Decent Essays
“Being scared is part of being alive. Accept it. Walk through it,” (Sharma). Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories have similar theme to the quote because Poe uses fear and being scared in almost every short story he has made. Poe makes his characters scared as they are alive and living throughout his stories. Poe uses numerous examples of internal conflict to express the theme of escape. Going into shock, the man is panicking after being sentenced to death. The narrator says, “The dread sentence of death—was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears” (Poe 1). This shows, the man starts to become fearful to point where he can not hear anymore and escaping will be difficult. The man has a fear of waking up in the darkness after he faints. For example, the story states, “It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see” (3). This proves, the man has a fear of the dark and can not escape if he can not see where he is at. After almost falling into a pit, the man is now terrified of the pit and is afraid of falling in. For instance, the story states, “I put forward my arm and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular pit” (5). If the man did fall in, he would have not been able to escape, but since he did not, the man stays away from it out of fear. Using examples of internal conflict, Poe expresses the theme of escape. Poe having many examples of external conflicts, expresses the
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