Bachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Teacher Training College in Kielce (INSTITUTE OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN CULTURE AND LITERATURE), 24 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The aim of the present study is to analyse Edgar Allan Poe’s selected short stories paying special attention to the author’s fascination with human mind and its morbid states. The introduction presents the contrast between the American author and his contemporary writers. The differences between Poe and other representatives of Romanticism are discussed. The reader is acquainted with various opinions about Edgar Allan Poe and his literary output. The author of the study discusses Poe’s personality, his lifestyle as well as his literary works, and provides the explanation why the figure of the writer aroused so much controversy among his contemporaries. The first charter describes the impact of Poe’s life experiences and his personal interests on his literature. The aim of the second chapter is to portray the American author’s fascination with human personality, mental disorders and analytical power of human mind. The last chapter investigates the two outstanding short stories by E. A. Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat. The author of the study concentrates on the motifs of madness, death wish and the disintegration of human personality in the stories in question. The last part of the study discusses Poe’s role in literature as well as the author’s contribution to creating the dark tradition in America.