| The Premature Burial |
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| 1962 films | |
| 1844 short stories | |
| short stories by edgar allan poe | |
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In "The Premature Burial," the first-person narrator describes his struggle with his fear of burial alive. He begins by mentioning several real-life events which both horrify and fascinate, including the Passage Of Berezina , the Earthquake Of Lisbon , and the Black Hole Of Calcutta . However, he states that "the true wretchedness… {Link without Title} to be buried while alive". He then gives several examples of people being accidentally buried alive, stating the person, the circumstances, and the outcome. 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, he was 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. In the end, the narrator learns a valuable lesson that allows him to overcome his fears. Poe wrote frequently on death as a phenomenon that can be experienced or accessed by the living. His stories about burial alive include " The Fall Of The House Of Usher " and " The Cask Of Amontillado ." " The Pit And The Pendulum ," while not about premature burial ''per se'', features a narrator in a similar situation. B-movie director Roger Corman filmed an adaptation of "The Premature Burial" in 1962. Fear of burial alive was relatively common in the nineteenth century. Hundreds of cases were reported in which doctors mistakenly pronounced people dead. Victorians even organized a ''Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive'' and equipped their coffins with emergency devices should they awaken after burial. {Link without Title} 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. Nonetheless, Poe was hardly alone in his fascination with premature burial. REFERENCE
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