3.4. Bills:
Throughout the six tales under study, Poe tries to present
taphephobia as a national obsessive fear rather than personal hallucinations
using different strategies in relation to his descriptive style and choice.
"The Premature Burial" in particular presents a historicized tale in which Poe
tries to transcend the aesthetic limitations of the tale to reach a richer
global dimension which is the representation of the nation and a whole age. In
this context, Poe uses a long introduction in his tale, expressing his own view
about the phenomenon and using some historical references to add authenticity
and to emphasize the fact that taphephobia is no longer a merely gothic motif
or theme but it is rather a historical, social and psychological phenomenon
that overwhelmed the American nation during the 19th C.
The popular growing diligence to find radical solutions for the
recurrence of premature internments shows how taphephobia becomes the defining
word for the American lifestyle, driving people to refashion their lives
according to their obsession. This is shown through the examples of wills that
proved that the obsession controlled even the man's last words. However, the
seriousness of this phenomenon transcends the limitation of the private life to
become an official national affair. The trepidation and panic that controlled
the American life in 19thC drove the American government to find legal solution
to prevent it. By the end of the century and particularly in 1899, an
Assemblyman Redington proposed a bill before the Senate, stipulating certain
procedures to be followed before burying in order to prevent the premature
interment. These procedures necessitate the presence of a doctor or as it is
referred to in the New York Times article "To Stop Premature Burial"
(1899) "a coroner". The bill includes also five physical signs to assure death,
including decomposition as the ultimate sign of death. The bill reflects the
popular obsession through its emphasis on the illegality of burying the corpse
before twelve hours from the times of death. The complex procedures, provided
by the bill, highlight how taphephobia was not repressed in the private
psychological
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sphere but it was rather empowered by the American trepidation to
the extent that it controlled and reshaped the American lifestyle. As Poe uses
real stories from different nations across Europe to stress that the phenomenon
is not strictly American but rather international, H. Gerald Chapin, the writer
of this bill accentuates the fact that the bill is duplicated in England with
serious attempts "to get it before the parliament".
4. Concluding Notes:
Poe's dealing with the phenomenon of taphephobia presents a
unique way to keep faithful to the gothic literary traditions and to try at the
same time to create a new style that combines literature and documentation. He
starts from a familiar phenomenon in 19th C United States to record and
intensify the horror and panic of the mass through mixing the gothic
descriptive style and the historical sources like newspaper articles and
medical journals and books. The motif of taphephobia was not treated as purely
a gothic motif, but rather as a medical, social, religious and historical event
that needs a close analysis to decode the other hidden side of the developed
new world. Poe unveils the American society, showing that under the veil of
medical and technological development, there is a decayed society, controlled
by obsessive fear and lack of rationality. Taphephobia presents a key through
which the reader discovers the deterioration of religious dogma within an era
of growing belief in scientific capacities. However, the same phenomenon shows
also that science was one of the reasons behind the developing taphephobia
through the medical mistakes that caused hundreds of premature burials. Thus,
Poe's presentation of the motif highlights that the American society is torn
between religion and science which leads to a total loss and collapse. Hence,
the phenomenon is empowered and becomes the driving force that reshapes and
refashions the American lifestyle.
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