"Were I called on to define very briefly , the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the sences perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.'The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist'." In this quote, Poe express the reason of the themes and motifs he uses in his writing, and the reason why most 'Artists' express themselves; to recereate nature, human nature.
The themes that are usually found in Poe's stories are: madness, death and revenge, but the reason why he uses them is always hidden under a "mask". We can clearly notice them, and reason might be realated to what is not said; in this case, Poe uses the change from person to animal or vice versa to show the reason the main character does. In this case, his thesis is that if we are all animals in the bottom, and if there is a reason that could unloose the reason, the instics would be the lead of our actions. The clear example of this would be the story called "The Cask of Amontillado" where the main character, Montesor, says that he will have a revenge because of something Fortunato did him ( this depends on the reader), and when he finds him drunk he takes advantage of it and kills Fortunato and some others. The example shows what a man did to someone of a reason we do not understand, but there are other stories where Poe expose their reason. It is the case of "Hop Frog" where the king hits Trippetta, Hop frog's crush, creating the need of revenge. In the story it is shown at the climax where Hop frog decides to kill everyone. I think that Poe tried o explain that humans have limits and that there is always something that would lead us to revenge, to justice.
On the other hand, the motifs that are found in Poe's stories are mainly an expression of the 7 sins; wine, masks, murder, and they are the cause of the actions the main character does in the story. In this case, we could relate them to the themes and the way they show they changed the human nature up to the animal perspective. An example of this is when Hop frog decides to revenge Trippetta, while the king's party while there were all drunk and while he was hiding under a mask. In this case, the mask represets also a metaphor where the human ends and changes up to an animal, but the change also means the return to the origins, of who we really are. In the other story, "The Cask of Amontillado", the murder is also made whileFortunato was drunk and in somewhere where Montesor could hide easyly; a carnival. The reason Montesor did it while he was like this, is because it was the moment his victim was not prepared for it. Poe, in this case tried to show that humans are always wearing a mask, hiding who they really are and in the worst moment, show who they really are.
In conclusion, the reason why Poe choose the themes and motifs is because they show his perspective about human nature, and as some psychologists say, they show what are we cappable to do in any situation that changes our ideal world; in this case the result was tragic, but "fair".
