I remember reading some of Poe’s stories when I was much younger and thoroughly enjoying them. I had read “Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” but am realizing now that I definitely read the children’s versions of these stories because I would not have understood the language. Reading these stories now, along with new ones that I didn’t have any previous experience with, I found myself noticing many more common themes and types of characters. I’m not just interested in the scary story aspect anymore. 

One thing that I found continuously appearing in all of Poe’s stories was the description of architecture. A lot of this architecture is similar in the sense that it there are castles and vaulted ceilings. I was surprised by how in detail Poe went at describing the scenes, but found that it really helped put me in the story. The dark windows described, produced an eerie feeling in my from the beginning of the story and I knew it wasn’t going to end well. If there was light that shined through stained glass, it was masked by drapes and the hope was gone. The buildings had dark basements and long, narrow, winding corridors that had no sense of planning. After reading these descriptions, I felt trapped, as well as the characters. 

Poe cleverly used descriptive language to make the reader feel particular emotions. When it was dark, I felt dark, when the hallway was confusing, I felt confused, when there was a glimpse of light, I hesitated. This made my reading of the stories much more enjoyable because I leaned into this. Not only were Poe’s characters feeling these emotions, but so was I.