Regardless of what people think Poe did or didn't do, he changed the face of literature through some of his short horror stories. Two of his stories that have been discussed in this article are "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher". In these two stories, Edgar Allan Poe gave it a horror reading, with descriptive locations, such as "damp and dark" and "evil atmosphere". Besides the stories giving off a feeling of horror, they also contain characters with disturbed psyches. The mentally disturbed character in “The Cask of Amontillado” was Montressor. He took revenge by murdering Fortunato, which ruined his self-esteem. He locked Fortunato alive in the catacombs and left feeling sorry for him, but knowing what he had done and having to live with it. In "The Fall of the House of Usher", Roderick Usher was distracted by his thoughts knowing that he had buried his sister alive in the vaults of their house. She came out of the envelope, Roderick and the narrator placed her in and attacked Roderick in his bloody