Whether it's a full-blown phobia or something that just scares the crap out of you, we each have that one thing that makes us weak in the knees. Maybe it's ghosts, clowns, or even spiders (really?). For me, my biggest fear is of being buried alive. No, of course this is not rational. But in my defense, most people's deepest, darkest fears are irrational. That's part of why they scare us so much. My fear falls somewhere between a phobia and something that keeps me up on those dark, lonely nights. My fear even has a fancy name: Taphophobia.
Before the days of modern medicine, this wasn't just an irrational fear; it was a real occurrence. The hysteria was especially rampant during the 18th and 19th centuries, when cholera was at its worst and people were dying everywhere. The number of cases of people being buried alive is shocking. Can you imagine what it would be like if you were buried alive? Complete darkness, with no room to move. You had limited air and no food. You would starve to death, but quite possibly go crazy first.
The fear was only made worse by Edgar Allan Poe and his horrific works of literature. He thrived off of the hysteria, writing short stories such as his 1894 horror tale, “The Premature Burial.” His work perpetuated the publics panic. Being buried alive was a common theme in Poe's stories, as it's highlighted in his books “Berenice, “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and the short tale, “The Black Cat.”
Because of the
Introduction: Almost everyone has an irrational fear or two—of mice, for example, or your annual dental checkup. For most people, these fears are minor. But when fears become so severe that they cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with your normal life, they’re called phobias. A phobia is an intense fear of something that, in reality, poses little or no actual danger. Common phobias and fears include closed-in places, heights, highway driving, flying insects, snakes, and needles. However, we can develop phobias of virtually anything. Most phobias develop in childhood, but they can also develop in adults. If you
In The Tell-tale Heart, the narrator's victim is buried underneath the floorboards of his dwelling. Even thought he old man is dead when he is buried, the narrator believes he is still alive. Because of the presence of the police and his imagined perception of the old man's beating heart through the floorboards, the narrator has a complete psychological breakdown. He exhibits emotional and physical reactions to his phobia of being buried alive. He exhibits the symptoms of a phobia given by the DSM-IV (Let's, 2001, 1):
Poe has many unique characteristic to his writings. Having early experiences led to his stories having a Gothic writing style (McBeth). He uses realistic scientific details to make his stories more believable. Being buried alive and people being bricked up and left to die are also strong themes of his work (Poe's Lit...). The influence on imagination like graveyards, gravestones, and "bodies rising from the grave" (McBeth). Even when Poe set his horror tale in a distant land he focused less on the location than on the psychology of his characters (Poe's
Do all living things fear something? Those with minds surely have many and various fears, but even the simplest organisms must have fear, for fear is such a powerful feeling. Fear is all around us and is felt in every corner of the earth. Fear is the emotion or feeling that a living creature gets when its physical or mental life is interrupted by a change that causes the creature concern.
The theme in Poe’s short story, “The Premature burial ‘ is one of extreme fear and its effect that it can have on the human mind and the resulting quality of life. The main character narrates the story in first person and suffers from an internal conflict because he is subjected to an unusual disease he tells us, “for several years I have been subject to the disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy.” So he sporadically becomes catatonic, which leads him to develop a fear of people assuming that when he is in this state, he is dead and therefore they might mistakenly bury him alive. Consequently, he persuades his friends to promise to check whether he is alive or not and asks “that under no circumstances they would bury me until
My worst fear is getting shots. This arose when I was two years old, and had many visits to the doctor’s office because there were concerns about my respiratory system. I had to have many blood tests, which weren’t only scary, but also were painful. The blood tests came out normal, but it was later discovered I had asthma. After I had a severe reaction to tree nuts at around five, I had to have even more blood tests to determine if I had other allergies.
In “The Premature Burial”, Edgar Allen Poe illustrates a narrator who explores his fear of being buried alive. Throughout the short story Poe makes the theme clear by illustrating that fears can be overcome as long as you focus on the darkest parts in life. Poe demonstrates the theme through conflicts with the narrator and his fear. During the short story, the narrator is absorbed by his fear. The narrator has a medical disorder called catalepsy. This physical condition can make a person not move or speak for several hour or even months. This condition haunts him everyday. He is afraid of being with people because if the catalepsy gets to him while with people they can confuse him with being dead and then bury him alive. For him “no event
Fear is something that large amounts of people have encountered at least once at some point in their lives. It has been said to have caused a variety of outcomes, many of them being largely negative. Therefore, it is a common human response to react to fear by counteracting it with positivity and/or success. The idea people have of what fear is depends on the person. In the article “How Fear Works”, for example, fear is defined as a “chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals” (Layton 1). The website “Psychology Today” defines fear another way, calling it “a vital response to physical and emotional danger” ("Fear Paranoia”). There are several other definitions people have on the
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“Your assignment is to write a persuasive essay and present it to the class in a week. You will be graded based on how convincing it is. Today we will be choosing topics,” announced Mr. Bowerbank, my 7th grade English teacher and ruler of classroom 110. My class simultaneously groaned at the prospect of work. I simply lifted my head with intrigue as it was already May and about time we had our first essay. He then proceeded to give examples of topics we could choose and gave us some time to think before we had to tell him our topic. My classmates were already rushing to tell the teacher their idea lest someone else steal it. That meant the usual abortion, death penalty, or drug use topics were out. I really couldn't think of anything and the teacher was slowly making his way through the remaining students like an executioner beheading criminals in a line. I have always thought that he would make a marvelous supervillain if he had a curly mustache, a tophat, and a cape. Eventually my name was called. I slowly dragged myself over to his desk. Even sitting down, he still seemed to tower over me. “What is your topic Cindy?” As usual in such desperate times, my mind turned to food. “Waffles are better than pancakes.” I figured that a waffle was just a differently shaped pancake with a nicer texture. “Hmm. Excellent topic. I look forward to your essay!” I survived to live yet another day.
Death is a familiar thing to most of us, whether you’ve had a loved one pass or have seen a lot of pain. The reason I picked this topic is because of all the ways and things that can happen, in our lifetime, what is the most scariest thing people have trouble with and death popped into my head. I asked the question, ‘Are you afraid of dying?’ My belief was that the youth would be less likely to be fearful of dying compared to the older populations I interview and researched. I believed that the youth would see it as a long time away and would be more focused with living rather than focusing on something they can’t control. I believe that the elderly would have a bigger problem with death because of all the problems that come with old age. As you age everything becomes closer and is more realistic.
Fear is the number one obstacle everyone must overcome at some point in their life. When the word fear is brought up I like to think of past situations that I experienced. There are many different methods used to conquer and learn from our fears such and exposure therapy, having a growth mindset, and thinking positive. For example, when I was younger fear was my worst enemy, School was the main reason that caused my fear. My fear of failure was my biggest obstacle growing up so I used that as a method to learn from my fears.
Fear is something every single human being has at some point in their life. When you are in dangerous, threatening, or scary situations, fear is what your body will feel. It is the ability to identify danger and make a choice to either confront that fear or flee from the situation like for example, if you were to break a vase, you would hide from your parents. That choice is completely up to the victim, and depends on the person. Although fear is handled differently by every person, it is a common emotion that everyone feels. Some seek out to overcome their fears, and seek the feeling of adrenaline they get from overcoming. Others flee the situation and don't think twice about trying to overcome their fear. In worst case scenarios people freeze
There is an important event that happens in every person’s life. That important event may be a number of things. Such as someone winning the lottery or even having a tragic loss in the family. My important event in life was the day I conquered my fear of heights. Everyone has some type of fear or phobia that absolutely petrifies them. Whether it’s a fear of snakes, swimming, or even germs, it can be conquered as I discovered.
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