In "The Premature Burial," Poe presents a character who is terrified of being buried alive. He states that he suffers from a condition called catalepsy, which causes him to sometimes become unconscious in ways that resemble death. He is worried that people will mistake him for dead when away from his home. The character describes the idea of death as:
"The unendurable oppression of the lungs—the suffocating fumes from the damp earth."
Poe uses imagery to gives us a vivid description of what being buried alive feels like. He describes the feeling of pressure on your lungs, the suffocating fumes and the dampness of the Earth.
