An Existential Interparetation Of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe was a great American writer, poet and literary critic, considered as the pioneer of symbolism, the inventor of detective fiction, and also the master of horror fiction and science fiction. Above all, he made a great contribution to the new genre short stories, so as one of the great writers in American literary history, his outstanding contribution to American literature even world literature is undeniable. Until now a large number of scholars have paid their attention to Poe from different perspectives, including the theme of death, psychological approach and aesthetics, but this thesis tries to analyze Poe’s short stories with the principles of existentialism.By reading a great deal of documents, the author of this thesis explores the origins, the representatives, and the fundamental principles of existentialism, which mirrors the ideological state of western country in twentieth century. Based on the three principles of existentialism, this thesis makes a study of Poe’s three short stories, namely “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Facing different kinds of paradoxes and dilemmas, the characters of the three stories make their own choices including death to fight against the absurdity and alienation in order to realize their real existence. Therefore, Poe’s short stories show a strong existential color.