3.2. Wills:
In "The Premature Burial", Poe shows one aspect of the narrator's
obsession by describing his manic behavior, taking oaths from his friends to
bury him after being sure that he is really dead. This aspect presents a common
behavior among victims of taphephobia,
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who try to find consolation by asserting in their wills to be
buried after certain days in order to prevent the horror of premature burial.
George Washington presents one example of well known historical figure who
insists in his will in 1799 to be buried days after his actual death to prevent
the premature burial (The Papers of George Washington). Yet, there are
other 19thC non American figures who were as well controlled by their phobia.
Lord Chesterfield, the Polish composer Frederic Chopin and the Danish author
Hans Christian Anderson were, like Washington, obsessed with the horror of
premature burial and tried to assure in their wills that they would not be
buried alive. Another remarkable example is the instance of Harriet Martineau,
the English first female sociologist, who suffers from unbearable obsession of
being interred alive. In her last moments, she left 10 pounds to her doctor to
check the mutilation of her head before burial (Premature Burial and How It
May be Prevented 154).
Putrefaction and wills presented two common ways to prevent the
premature burial and despite the fact that putrefaction in particular is
considered as the surest sign of death as Jean Jacque Bruhier asserted in his
book Dissertation sur l'Incertitude des Signes de la Mort (1745), a
more radical solutions are necessitated in order to assuage the obsessive fear.
Different articles, essays and pamphlets were written to warn people about the
occurrence of such experiences. These writings guide the mass to a well defined
symptoms of death and inspire physicians and inventors to innovate more
effective tools.
3.3. The rise of Safety Coffins Industry:
As has been mentioned before, "The Premature Burial" is
distinguished from other tales by its historical dimension since Poe tries to
add historical validity to the tale in addition to its dominating horror. In
addition to his use of real accidents as a strategy to intensify the terror of
the reader and to suggest that the phenomenon of taphephobia is a historical
event that marked the 19th C, Poe uses the safety coffins as an example of the
historical authenticity of the tale and as a reflection of the seriousness of
the obsessive fear that controls the mind of
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a nation during a whole century. In his tale "The Premature
Burial", Poe describes the use of the safety coffin as the ultimate level of
the terror, experienced by the narrator who sees the safety coffin as the
surest way to prevent his premature burial. Poe presents the safety coffin in
details, emphasizing the complexity of such invention that reflects the degree
of trepidation and panic that invade the American psyche during the 19thC. He
defines the safety coffin as an invention that consists of several
[...] [A]rrangements for the free admission of air and light, and
convenient receptacles for food and water, within immediate reach of the coffin
intended for my reception. This coffin was warmly and softly padded, and was
provided with a lid, fashioned upon the principle of the vault door, with the
addition of springs so contrived that the feeblest movement of the body would
be sufficient to set at liberty. Beside all this, there was suspended from the
roof of the tomb, a large bell, the rope of which, it was designed, should
extend through a hole in the coffin, and so be fastened to one of the hands of
the corpse" ( CTP 259).
This detailed description of the safety coffin that would be used
by the protagonist in case of being interred alive during a trance, emphasizes
the historicity of the tale since the description quoted above mirrors one of
the common designs of safety coffins in United States during 19th C. The
design, chosen by the narrator to prevent his premature burial, presents one of
the sophisticated , complex design developed in the 19thC and particularly in
1829 by the German inventor Dr Johann Gottfried Taberger who included the
elements of rope and bell to the primary design of the safety coffin,
introduced by Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick in the 18th C. Besides, the detailed
description of this invention reflects how the phenomenon of taphephobia
develops from a personal fear to a national obsessive trepidation that consumes
the American psyche and that refashions the American lifestyle. The description
provided by Poe presents one of the hundreds of designs developed in 19th C, in
attempt to find solution
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for the rising phobia. Hence, taphephobia becomes a source of
inspiration and safety coffins become a whole industry and a source of wealth
for many businessmen.
The Americans' growing obsession and their hopeless attempts to
find a solution to be 'saved by the bell'9 inspire inventors to
create further designs and models of safety coffins in order to provide a total
protection from premature burial. Multiple designs were offered by inventors
like Franz Vester (model of 1868), whose experience of burying himself in his
new design of safety coffin presented a fertile source of exclusive, phenomenal
news. Besides, other inventors like Albert Feabnaught, William H. White and
Hubert Deveau started to add other accessories to the basic, primary design of
safety coffin like fans, alarms, pipes transcending the essence of the
invention from a necessity to a luxury (United States Patent Office).
This wide range of safety coffins that varied from simple ones with only a tube
to guarantee the entrance of air to the casket to the most complex ones in
which bells, food and drinks are included, shows how the concept of death in
general and the tradition of burial in particular are commercialized since
professional undertakers, companies and industries of safety coffins
flourished. As has been described in Poe's tales, the idea of burying a dead
relative becomes a complex process since the entire society was consumed by the
irrational obsession of premature burial. Hence, death and burial transforms
from a familial, sad event to an event that necessitates professional
intervention of sophisticated, expensive inventions. In his book The Right
to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law, Timothy Sandefur states
that by 1881, the National Burial Case Association was founded by American
coffin makers to set fixed prices for coffins, monopolizing the funeral market.
He further accentuates the importance of this industry by declaring that "[it]
takes in about $ 25 billion per year" (150).
9 "saved by the bell" is an American expression that
refers to someone saved by the last minute. This expression is originally
created in 17th C with the appearance of the phenomenon of premature burial and
developed in the 18th C with the creation of safety coffins, characterized by
the presence of a bell that would warn the grave digger that the victim is
buried alive.
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