The Premature Burial

Poe’s “The Premature Burial” explores the theme of truth versus fiction. The story highlights the way in which perceptions of reality can be distorted by fears and anxieties, and how beliefs can be shaped by the stories people tell themselves and others. Despite the narrator’s conviction that “in these accounts [of historic tragedy] it is the fact—it is the reality—it is the history which excites” (Paragraph 1), the story suggests that the truth is elusive and subjective, and one’s understanding of reality is often shaped by internal struggles and perceptions.

While the narrator is convinced that truth is more terrifying than fiction, his personal fictions cause him the most suffering: “In all that I endured there was no physical suffering but of moral distress an infinitude” (Paragraph 25). Throughout the story, there is a lack of a tangible, verifiable cause of his suffering. While the narrator attempts to ground his fears in terrifying historical cases of premature burial, his perception is distorted by his unrealistic certainty that this will happen to him. When discussing premature burial, he claims that “all narratives upon this topic have an interest profound; an interest, nevertheless, which, through the sacred awe of the topic itself, very properly and very peculiarly depends upon our conviction of the truth of the matter narrated” (Paragraph 21).