The Premature Burial

Infobox Book |
name = The Premature Burial
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Illustration for "The Premature Burial" by Harry Clarke, 1919.
author = Edgar Allan Poe
country = flagicon|USA United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror short story
publication_type = Periodical
published_in = "The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper"
publisher =
media_type = Print (Magazine)
pub_date = 1844
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Premature Burial" is a horror short story on the theme of being buried alive, written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1844 in "The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper." Fear of being buried alive was common in this period and Poe was taking advantage of the public interest.

Plot summary

In "The Premature Burial," the first-person unnamed narrator describes his struggle with "attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy," a condition where he randomly falls into a death-like trance. This leads to his fear of being buried alive ("The true wretchedness," he says, is "to be buried while alive."). He emphasizes his fear by mentioning several people who have been buried alive. In the first case, the tragic accident was only discovered much later, when the victim's crypt was reopened. In others, victims revived and were able to draw attention to themselves in time to be freed from their ghastly prisons.

The narrator reviews these examples in order to provide context for his nearly crippling phobia of being buried alive. As he explains, his condition made him prone to slipping into a trance state of unconsciousness, a disease that grew progressively worse over time. He became obsessed with the idea that he would fall into such a state while away from home, and that his state would be mistaken for death. He extracts promises from his friends that they will not bury him prematurely, refuses to leave his home, and builds an elaborate tomb with equipment allowing him to signal for help in case he should awaken after "death".

The story culminates when the narrator awakens in pitch darkness in a confined area - he has been buried alive, and all his precautions were to no avail. He cries out and is immediately hushed; he realizes that he is in the berth of a small boat, not a grave. The event shocks him out of his obsession with death.

Analysis

Fear of burial alive was deeply rooted in Western culture in the nineteenth century, [Meyers, Jeffrey: "Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy." Cooper Square Press, 1992. p. 156.] and Poe was taking advantage of the public's fascination with it. [Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing". Yale University Press, 1987. p. 58-9] Hundreds of cases were reported in which doctors mistakenly pronounced people dead. [ [http://www.members.tripod.com/DespiteThis/death/prebur.htm Premature burial in the 19th century] ] In this period, coffins occasionally were equipped with emergency devices to allow the "corpse" to call for help, should he or she turn out to be still living. [Meyers, Jeffrey: "Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy." Cooper Square Press, 1992. p. 156.] It was such a strong concern, Victorians even organized a "Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive". [ [http://www.members.tripod.com/DespiteThis/death/prebur.htm Premature burial in the 19th century] ] Belief in the vampire, an animated corpse that remains in its grave by day and emerges to prey on the living at night, has sometimes been attributed to premature burial. Folklorist Paul Barber has argued that the incidence of burial alive has been overestimated, and that the normal effects of decomposition are mistaken for signs of life. [Barber, Paul. "Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality." Yale University Press, 1988.] The story emphasizes this fascination by having the narrator state that truth can be more terrifying than fiction, then reciting actual cases in order to convince the reader to believe the main story. [Quinn, Arthur Hobson. "Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography". Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. ISBN 0801857309 p. 418]

The narrator in "The Premature Burial" is living a hollow life. He has avoided reality through his catalepsy but also through his fantasies, visions, and obsession with death. He does, however, reform - but only after his greatest fear has been realized. [Selley, April. "Poe and the Will" as collected in "Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu", edited by Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, Inc., 1990. p. 96 ISBN 0961644923]

Burial while alive in other Poe works:

*"Berenice"
*"The Cask of Amontillado"
*"The Fall of the House of Usher"

Adaptation

*B-movie director Roger Corman filmed an adaptation of "The Premature Burial" (1962) starring Ray Milland and Hazel Court.
*The film "Nightmares from the Mind of Poe" (2006) includes "The Premature Burial" along with The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado and The Raven.

References

External links

* [http://poestories.com/text.php?file=premature Full text on PoeStories.com] with hyperlinked vocabulary words.
* [http://www.prairieghosts.com/grave_horror.html From Beyond the Grave] (includes a section on belief in premature burial)
* [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/19th/belgian/wiertz_burial.jpgPainting] by Antoine Wiertz depicting a person buried alive.
* [http://www.poenightmares.com/ "Nightmares from the Mind of Poe"] full text, summary and film information.