The story unanimously voices Poe's obsessive concern with premature burial. Dwelling on humanity's fear of being buried alive, Edgar Allan Poe provides not only examples of such dire practices, but engages the protagonist in a similar one as well. The story finishes with a plot twist – eerily claustrophobic and abnormally real for the narrator. And despite the fact that horror gives way to the voice of reason in the end, perhaps it is better to buy some cord and a small bell, just in case. -