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Edgar Allan Poe – scary writer
December 30, 2019 December 30, 2019 by Ihor
Edgar Allan Poe was a bizarre and often scary writer. People throughout history have often wondered why his writings were so fantastically different and unusual. They were not the result of a diseased mind, as some think. Rather they came from a tense and miserable life. Edgar Allan Poe was not a happy man. He was a victim of fate from the moment he was born to his death only forty years later. He died alone and unappreciated. It is quite obvious that his life affected his writings in a great way. In order to understand why, the historical background of Poe must be known.
Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His parents were touring actors and both died before he was three years old. After this, he was taken into the home of John Allan, a prosperous merchant who lived in Richmond, Virginia. 1 When he was six, he studied in England for five years. Not much else is known about his childhood, except that it was uneventful. In 1826, when Poe was seventeen years old he entered the University of Virginia. It was also at this time that he was engaged to marry his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.
He was a good student, but only stayed for a ear. He did not have enough money to make ends meet, so he ran up extremely large gambling debts to trying make more money. Then he could not afford to go to school anymore. John Allan refused to pay off Poe's debts, and broke off his engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster. Since Poe had no other means of support, he enlisted in the army. By this time however, he had written and printed his first book, Tammerlane, and Minor Poems (1829). 2 After a few months though, John Allan and Poe were reconciled.
Allan arranged for Poe to be released from the army and enrolled him at West Point. During this time, his fellow cadets helped him publish another book of poetry. However, John Allan again did not provide Poe with enough money, and Poe decided to leave this time before racking up any more debts Still, Poe had no money and necessity forced him to live with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, in Baltimore, Maryland. None of his poetry had sold particularly well, so he decided to write stories. He could find no publisher for his stories, and so resorted to entering writing contests to make money and receive exposure.
He was rarely successful, but eventually won. His short story, MS. Found in a Bottle was well liked and one of the judges in the contest, John P. Kennedy, befriended him. 3 It was on Kennedy's recommendation that Poe became assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, published at Richmond by T. W. White. It was at this time that Poe went through a period of emotional instability that he tried to control by drinking. This was a mistake because he was extremely sensitive to alcohol and became very drunk just from one or two drinks.
In May of 1836 Poe married his cousin, Virginia and brought her and her mother to live with him in Richmond. It was during this time that Poe produced a number of stories and even some verse. 4 Over the next few years, Poe went from good times to bad. He had become the editor of magazines and had written books, but none of these were paying off enough. He would always be laid off the editorial staff for differences over policies. He was doing so poorly that by the end of 1846 he was asking his friends and admirers for help. He was then living in a cottage with Mrs. Clemm and Virginia.
Virginia was dying of consumption and had to sleep in an unheated room. After six years f marriage she had become very ill, and her disease had driven Poe to distraction. Virginia died on January 30, 1847, and Poe broke down. It is here that much is learned about him and why he wrote the way he did. All of his life he had wanted to be loved and to have someone to love. Yet one by one, he kept losing the women in his life. His mother, Mrs. Allan, and now Virginia. He had wanted to lead a life of wealth and luxury and still, despite his tremendous talent, was forced to live as a poor man.
When he reached manhood, after a sheltered childhood and teenage years, is life seemed to be caught up in failures. So, he did what most people do. He found a way to escape. His method was writing. He found so much in common with his characters, that his life began to emulate theirs. Although it is probably the other way around. How tragic that the one thing that he was good at never seemed to do him any good. No matter what he wrote, he just kept sinking further and further into an abyss. This abyss could be called death or ultimate despair.
When we read Poe's stories, we often find ourselves wondering how such a mind could function in society. This quotation from American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, very accurately describes the landscape of Poe's stories: The world of Poe's tales is a nightmarish universe. You cross wasted lands, silent, forsaken landscapes where both life and waters stagnate. Here and there you catch sight of lugubrious feudal buildings suggestive of horrible and mysterious happenings…… The inside of these sinister buildings is just as disquieting as the outside.
Everything is dark there, from the ebony furniture to the oaken ceiling. The walls are ung with heavy tapestries to which mysterious drafts constantly give 'a hideous and uneasy animation. ' Even the windows are 'of a leaden hue,' so that the rays of either sun or moon passing through fall 'with a ghastly lustre on the objects within. ' ……. it is usually night in the ghastly (one of his favorite adjectives) or red-blood light of the moon that Poe's tales take place-or in the middle of terrific storms lit up by lurid flashes of lightning.
None of Poe's characters could ever be normal, since they lived in this bizarre world. All of his heroes are usually alone, and if they are not crazy, they are on their way to becoming so rapidly. This leads one to wonder, just how lucid Poe was when he wrote these stories. Was he crazy or just upset and confused? Most texts and histories of Poe have it that he was influenced not only by his life, but by other writers. These include Hawthorne, Charles Brockden Brown, E. T. A. Hoffman, and William Godwin to name a few. Many of his stories show similarities to the works of the aforementioned.
Therefore another point is brought up, was Poe writing these stories as he result of a tortured existence and a need to escape, or was he writing to please readers and critics? In letters he wrote, he often pokes fun at his stories and says that they are sometimes intended as satire or banter. Also in his letters, he describes horrible events seemingly without any concern. So who can tell how he really felt since he might not have been totally sane and rational at the time. Even though Poe writes such bizarre tales he is never quite taken in with them. He fears but is at the same time skeptical.
He is frantic but at the same time lucid. It is not until the very end that Poe was consumed by something, and died. It might have been fear or something worse, something that could only be scraped up from the bottom of a nightmare. That is what killed him. Poe's stories contain within them a fascination for death, decay, and insanity. He also displays very morbid characteristics and in some cases, sadistic. His murderers always seem to delight in killing their victims in the most painful and agonizing way. Still, terror seems to be the main theme. That is what Poe tries to bring about in his stories.
For example, in The Fall of he House of Usher what kills Roderick Usher is the sheer terror of his sister who appeared to have come back from the dead. According to Marie Bonaparte, one of Freud's friends and disciples, all the disorders Poe suffered from can be explained by the Oedipus Complex and the trauma he suffered when his mother died. The Oedipus Complex is best described as a child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex. The desire includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parent's death.
In fact, upon examining the omen in Poe's stories, we find that they bear striking resemblance to the mother that Poe never had. So one gets a glimpse at how Poe's life, filled with insurmountable obstacles and full of disappointments, indeed played a role in his writing. A good comparison would be Vincent Van Gogh. He also endured hardship and died at an early age. Poe was only forty when he passed away. Insignificant in his lifetime, it was only after his death that he was appreciated. He is now acclaimed as one of the greatest writers in American history. It is indeed a pity that he will never know or care.
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Edgar Allan Poe and His Life Story
Edgar Allen Poe was a very famous poet and writer,Poe created many poems and stories such as The Raven, The Tall -Tale Heart, The Fall of The House of Usher and many more. (tompson 1)Edgar lived from 1809 to 1849. He was born on January 19,1809, in Boston Massachusetts but grew up in Richmond Virgina but through his many travels he lived in half a dozen eastern cities. He lived a short and tragic life. His first career was to study in law but soon went against his family and started a career in acting. His critic reviews were poor. Many critics thought his technique was bad.
Edgars father was an actor by the name of David Poe and his mother also an actress by the name of Elizabeth. edgar was the second of three children, about the time that the third child was born Edgars father died. After his father had died Edgars mother and her two yougest children went to Richmond, his brother William already had been settled with relatives in Baltimore. Poes mother was in the lastest stages of her diesease, struggling with two kids, she died. Edgar and , an infant, Rosalie, were orphaned. Poe finally was hit with the reliazation of his parents death.
In 1811on a visit of generousity, Mrs. Francis Allen learned of the situation of the Poe babies. Mrs. Allen had no babies of her own and to that she took home handsome little Edgar. Mr. John Allen didnt aprove of a permant adoption but he began to in time support the child, and became proud of his good looks and intelligence. When Edgar was six years old Mr. Allens bussiness took them to Scotland, they lived there for about five years. Edgar persued his education at the Irvin Grammer School in Irvin, Scotland. After many journeys throughtout his hildhood Edgar and the Allens returned to Richmond, Virgina.
There at the age of 11 Mr. Allen enrolled Edgar into the English and Classical School attended by sons of the more fashionable families of Richmond. There Edgar began to feel the difference between himself and the others at this school. To this Edgar the sense of injury made its self evident at home with fits of temper and rebellion for which there seemed to the family , no justification. Mr. Allen did not put up with such behavior , Mr. Allen repeatedly reminded Edgar about his "disreputable" parentage.
In Edgars college years his growing antagonism between father and son, Mr. Allen was willing to send Edgar to the University of Virgina. Edgar had gone to the university to in fact get away from the Allen house hold. This indescribable social college campus set Edgar in for a major turn around , Edgar began to gamble to where he couldnt pay off debts he incountered, when Edgar drank is sent him into a wild statof excitement. Edagr was then pulled out of the University for such behavior. Mr. Allen then out him in a low, routine job at hjis counting house. This was very humiliating or Edgar and he just couldnt bear it anymore , the answer, to leave home.
He left to Boston where he manage to publish a collection of his poems, desperate for money, he then joined the army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. Army barracks were no place for this young noblemen. Poe turned to his foster father for reconciliation, Mr. Allens then purchased Edgar out of the army, which was possible at that time. Shortly after he publisheds another set of his writings. Little more then a year after Poe decided consider a military career, he gained admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York.
Edgar was of two minds about the Academy: an army career was suitable for a Virginia gentleman he longed to be, but the discipline was uncongenial. The second mind won, and Edgar deliberately provoked expulsion by cutting all drills and classes. This was it for Mr. Allen. Mrs. Allen death removed Edgars friend in the house. Edgars love life began with a woman named Sarah Elmira Royster, they got engaged but never got married because sarahs dad disapproved of the marriage . Edgar went to Charlottesville but said he would write to her everyday.
Her father intercepted every letter he wrote her and everyday since sarah never got the letters of course she never wrote back and everyday that Edgar never got a letter from her he got more and more depressed. John Allen broke off the engagement . (tompson5) In the two years after his final rupture with Mr. Allan, Poe lived for a considerable time in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Maria (Poe) Clemm. She was a poor seamstress, but she welcomed Poe into her home and took care of him. Outwardly, it was a do-nothing period for him, but inwardly it was significant.
He wrote a group of npublished short stories. Even more importantly, he began to dramatize himself as one whom "unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster". He probably had an inherited emotional instability which fed his feeling of persecution. Once established in his job, he brought Mrs. Clemm and her daughter, Virginia, to live with him. A little later he married his cousin, Virginia, who was some years younger than he. From that time on, the three formed a household. Throughout all his vicissitudes, the two women, his wife, Virginia, and her mother were unfailingly devoted to him.
Much f the time, Mrs. Clemm kept boarders to make a home for Poe and Virginia. Mrs. Clemm found no fault in him; at his worst, to her he was "poor Eddie". Her motherliness cradled all his weaknesses and eccentricities. (He called her "Muddie. ") In her way, Virginia was equally devoted. She was sweet and gentle, but rather simple-minded. She could not follow the wild flights of Poe's erratic genius, but she gave him an adoring, unquestioned admiration which was incense to his spirit. She found a childish pleasure and absorption clipping and pasting the long scrolls on which he wrote.
Poe, in turn, showed his best self to them. Here, where there was no will beside his own, where two loyal satellites revolved about the central sun of his ego, he was at his best and gentlest. He was affectionate toward Mrs. Clemm and increasingly tender and loving to Virginia, an invalid who was slowly dying of tuberculosis. The pathetic little family made its last move to a tiny cottage in Fordham, then a village about thirteen miles from New York. Mrs. Clemm set about making the place habitable, setting aside the best room of four as "dear Eddie's" study.
They managed hrough the summer, but as autumn came on, there was not even fuel to warm the house. Virginia grew steadily worse. Poe sank deeper into melancholia. In the depth of winter, Virginia died. With the loss of his wife, Poe's last hold on reality vanished. He worked feverishly at writing a book, Eureka, which he believed would be an expression of profound truth. It was more nearly a curious hodge-podge of unproven scientific statement and wild imagining, springing from his disturbed state. He wandered from one city to another, drifted back to Richmond and on to Baltimore, where he died.
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Gothic Elements In Edgar Allen Poe's Writings
Edgar Allan Poe was perhaps one of the most widely read and influential writers in Americas narrative history. He was born in Boston in 1809 to a family of traveling actors. His name at birth was simply Edgar Poe, but after the early death of both of his parents, he was taken in by the Allans. Thus he obtained the adopted name of Allan which he used as a middle name. From June 1815 until July 1820 Edgar was in England with the Allans, and from February until December 1826 he studied at the University of Virginia.
Nevertheless, he met his first and last love, Elmira Royster, while he was studying. He asked her to marry him twice, and even though he was accepted both times he never married her. His stay at the University of Virginia was cut short by his wild lifestyle, which involved a great amount of gambling. However, his life was not one of total happiness. Edgar Allan Poe was an epileptic, manic-depressive, and a neurophiliac. Perhaps his life of sorrow is what made him the great writer which everyone knows him as He is a figure who appears once an epoch, before passing into myth.
Edgar Allan Poe can be called a gothic writer by his unique use of medieval settings, murky atmospheres, and mysterious and violent incidents. Poe was a very talented writer with a vigorous imagination. Along with his immense writing ability and intense imagination; Poe had a seemingly boundless vocabulary. He mostly wrote poems and tales of dark and terror-causing subjects. Poe wrote many poems, and to the English language The Raven is one of the most recognized. He also published one novel along with the stories which he contributed to his many journals. Poe wrote sixty-eight tales during his lifetime, but only a few are known by everyone.
Edgar Allan Poes writings still hold their uniqueness in our literature through their possessions of shady surroundings and somewhat weird characters and events. In many of his poems Edgar Allan Poe placed the characters or events in somewhat medieval settings. His use of unique places stands out particularly in his world famous The Raven and also in Ulalume. In The Raven the poet is grieving the death of his lover Lenore in a chamber. Throughout the poem the narrator questions a raven which has flown into his chamber if he will ever see his lost love again.
After every question that he asks, the bird simply replies nevermore. In Ulalume the poet is in a spirit-haunted woodland. Ulalume is the name of the poets long dead love. In the poem the poet visits the tomb of his dead lover, yet he cannot figure out what demon made him come back to the gravesite. Poe also used medieval settings in some of his tales. The events in the tales happen all in the same placea remote, inaccessible surroundingbut the place each time is newly and splendidly decorated. The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado are two excellent examples of his use of giving his tales unique settings.
In The Fall of the House of Usher the mansion appears to have a dull and mystic vapor when looked at through water. In the tale the fungi covered front of the mansion and the names of the characters give the story its unusual setting. In The Cask of Amontillado Montresor encaves Fortunado in a crypt to slowly die. After becoming drunk by Montresors wine, Fortunado finds himself in one of the tombs that hold Montresors ancestors. He awakens just in time to see the last of the bricks go in place to encase him in the cellar.
Edgar also used a gloomy atmosphere in a majority of his poems and tales. The City in the Sea, Dream-Land, and A Paean are just of few of his poems that possess his one-of-a-kind atmosphere. In The City in the Sea Death reins in the town. The town itself is actually founded by Death. In Dream-Land the land is made of lonely lakes and swamps. The land in the poem is ruled by a phantom called Night. In A Paean the girls friends are pleased that she died. The entire poem reflects on the secret pleasure of the characters about the death of the rich and beautiful young girl.
Poe used the same type of atmosphere in most of his tales; especially in The Premature Burial and The Fall of the House of Usher. In The Premature Burial the author mentions several accounts of people being buried alive. The entire tale is supposed to reveal the terror which goes along with being buried before death. The House of Usher looks out upon a black and lurid tarn and is surrounded by decaying vegetation. The tale shows how the sickness of Lady Usher plays on Roderick Ushers nerves and leads him to dying from fright when he realizes he has buried his sister prematurely.
Along with his use of medieval settings and gloomy atmospheres, Edgar Allan Poe also used accounts of violent actions throughout his works. The Black Cat and Annabel Lee serve as good examples of his use of barbaric actions. In The Black Cat the narrator tries to kill a cat with an axe but his wife intervenes. He then buries the axe in her head. In Annabel Lee the girl is taken and killed and buried in a tomb by the sea. The narrator mourns the loss of his beloved Annabel Lee throughout the entire poem. Perhaps the most known use of Poes use of violent actions comes from his tales.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, William Wilson, and The Tell-Tale Heart stand out as good examples of the use of savage actions. William Wilson is a story about the life and crime of the narrator which takes the name of the tale. He tries to seduce the wife of a host who is throwing a party and is caught by the host. This time, however, he drags the offender into an antechamber and kills him with his sword. Even though the character only commits one crime, it leads him to suicide. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue a woman and her daughter have been murdered, and the narrator is attempting to find the bodies, when he finds a clue.
But a large amount of soot was lying in the fireplace, and they soon found the corpse of the daughter thrust up the chimney, head downward. He also finds the body of the mother in an alley close to the house with the head cut off. In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator is driven mad the eye of his landlord. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. In his devious plan to kill the old man, the narrator chops the body of the man into small parts and conceals them under the steps inside the gentleman's house. Edgar Allen Poes unique writing ability earned him the fame he sought after all of his life.
However, this fame did not come until after he was well into his grave. Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country: he had readers in England, and in several of the states of continental Europe: but he had few or no friends. Many people wondered what Poe died from, but the same idea was shared by everyone: Poes death is almost a suicide-a suicide a long time in preparation.
Poe was known to have a drinking problem as a result of his manic-depressive character. Alcoholism probably led him to his suicide, but no one knows the exact cause of his passing. Many people ask what caused the horror that made Poe what everyone knows him by. There are several ideas that explain the problem. Poe faced the death of several close people in his early years of life. Some believe that the loss of his parents, foster-parents, and friends started the gloomy shadow that would forever follow him.
His life became stricken with suicide attempts, delirium, and failing romantic entanglements after the death of his wife Virginia. Poe faced long periods of bankruptcy and little or no fame. Others believe that his lack of money and popularity caused the problem. Perhaps his manic-depressiveness caused him to drink so much. Whatever the cause of his death may be, it led to birth of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century. Edgar Allan Poes use of ancient settings, sorrowful atmospheres, and odd and brutal actions have made him the greatest of gothic writers.
The Tell-Tale Heart – Mind Games: The Narrators Madness
Through the first person narrator, Edgar Allan Poes "The Tell-Tale Heart" illustrates how mans imagination is capable of being so vivid that it profoundly affects peoples lives. The manifestation of the narrators imagination unconsciously plants seeds in his mind, and those seeds grow into an unmanageable situation for which there is no room for reason and which culminates in murder.
The narrator takes care of an old man with whom the relationship is unclear, although the narrators comment of "For his gold I had no desire" (Poe 34) lends itself to the fact that the old man may be a family member whose death would monetarily benefit the narrator. Moreover, the narrator also intimates a caring relationship when he says, "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult" (34). The narrators obsession with the old mans eye culminates in his own undoing as he is engulfed with internal conflict and his own transformation from confidence to guilt.
The fixation on the old mans vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees very gradually I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old mans eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill.
In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye. The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the mans "Evil Eye" (34). Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man.
The narrator shows his contrariety when he confesses he loves the old man, but he is still too overwhelmed by the pale blue eye to restrain himself from the all-consuming desire to eliminate the eye. His struggle is evident as he waits to kill the old man in his sleep so that he wont have to face the old man when he kills him; but on the other hand, the narrator cant justify the killing unless the vulture eye was open.
The narrator is finally able to kill the man because "I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old mans face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot" (35). The mission of the narrator begins with meticulous planning and confidence, but ultimately his guilty conscience creates his downfall. For seven days, the narrator watches the old man while he sleeps and he even "chuckled at the idea" that the old man knows nothing of the narrators "secret deeds or thoughts" (35).
The narrators comments show his confidence and audacity, even pride, in his plan to kill: "Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph" (34-35). The narrators assurance in his evil deed continued even when the police came to check on the old man and investigate the loud noises neighbors heard the night before: "I smiled,for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome" (36).
However, the narrators mind is quickly consumed with guilt, which creates his delusion of hearing the old mans heartbeat taunting him from under the flooring. His paranoia makes the heart beat "louder louder louder! " and in his state of delirium he confesses to killing the old man in hopes of ridding his life of the menacing heartbeat: "I felt that I must scream or die! and now []" (37). The narrator sets out to rid his life of the fear he created by obsessing over the mans eye, but once that fear is destroyed, another fear that of the heartbeat is created and becomes more overwhelming than the first.
In playing mind games with himself seeing how far he can push himself to triumph over his own insanity the narrator slips further into a fantasy world. His overriding confidence in killing the man ultimately turns into overriding guilt even as he justifies in his mind the savage killing, chopping up the body and placing it under the floorboards. The narrators imagination creates his need and plan to destroy the eye, but it then creates the need to save himself from the heartbeat that drives him over the edge.
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Edgar Allan Poe – American writer
Edgar Alan Poe was an American writer, known as a poet and most famous as the first master of the short story, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre. The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early child hood. Raised by John Adam, A successful businessman of Richmond, Virginia.
Taken by the Allan Family to England, at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school upon returning to the US in 1820, he ontinued to study in private school. He attended the university of Virginia for a year but in 1827 his foster father displeased by the young mans drinking and gambling he refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties intensely, quit the job, and went to Boston. Published his first book in 1827, Tamerland and Other Poems, in 1827, the book was published anonymously. Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the U. S. Army and served a two-year term.
In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he effected reconciliation with Allan, who secured him an ppointment to the U. S. Military Academy. After only a few months at the academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her 11year old daughter, Virginia Clemm. The following year his tale "A MS. Found in a Bottle" won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor.
From 1835 to 1837 Poe was an editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his young cousin. Throughout the next decade, much of which was marred by his wife's long llness, Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, may have contributed to his early death. The story a Tell-Tale Heart, by Edger Allan Poe is about a crazy man who has an obsession on another persons eye.
The man is crazy, but thinks that his sickness has sharpened his senses. He claims he can hear everything from heaven and earth and also many things in Hell. With all these self proclaim heightened senses the man wonders why is he considered mad. The crazy man lived with an elderly man. They were somewhat roommates. A specific characteristic of the elderly man drove the man he lived with crazy. It wasn't bad habits or anything that you would think that would bring bickering between roommate. It was something that even the elderly man had no idea of. It was the elderly man's eye.
His eye was kind of deformed, but to the roommate it was the sign of evil. He has been disgusted of the eye for the longest of time, but has never done anything that will harm the man. After time, the disturbed man plotted against his elderly roommate. During the week that action was going o take place the roommate was being extremely kind to the elderly man. His objective was to get rid the evil eye from his life. In a swift instent, in the bedroom of the old man, the disturbed roommate killed the man and rid himself of his "evil eye". His covering up of the incident was, in his opinion, true generous.
The body was dismembered by every part and there was no mess. In the killers mind he wondered how a person who devised such a plan and cover up his tracks so well could be branded crazy. The next afternoon police came to the house. A shriek was heard and foul play was a suspicion. As before the man overed his tracks with virtually no flaw. No evidence of a violent disturbance was seen and an excuse for the absence of the elderly man was made. The man was very confident that his innocence would not be questioned in their mind. In the beginning of the story the man talked of how his sickness sharpened his senses.
This might have proven to be right because while the investigation was going all right the man heard the beating of the elderly man heart under the floor and it drove him mad. The confession came out. Edgar Alan Poe has cast a long shadow. He has probably had a greater influence than any other American writer. Although Poe's tales and poems range from masterful to ludicrous, Poe exerted his most significant influence as a man who understood the temper of his times, and foreshadowed so much of the future of literature. His wide-ranging tales and his broad criticism sought a method for American literature where none had prevailed.
Poe deliberately sought great variety in his tales. A review of his more than seventy pieces of fiction testifies not merely to his range, but also to the significant popular genres he created or made his own which today form the staples of American fiction. Poe's greatest influence comes about in the murder mystery. Although murders in fiction existed before Poe, his preoccupation with the ingenious solution of the crime established in his tales of ratiocination (the process of exact thinking) changed the emphasis from the acts to getting the facts.
Poe's cerebral and eccentric detective Dupin ("the ingenious are always fanciful and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic") Because of the power of Poe's narrative voice, many a tale is indelible. Poe's imaginative sociology in "The Man of the Crowd" will tell you more about loneliness in the crowd than David Riesman did. The psychological analysis in "William Wilson" is an excellent nd frightening exploration of split personality two generations before Freud.
One would think that Poe would be best remembered for his powerful tales, but much of his international reputation rests on his critical acumen that pointed in equally new directions. Poe was among the first to discern the tendency of the age toward "the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused" In a famous critical piece, Poe recognized Hawthorne as one of our "few men of indisputable genius;" he went on to formulate his famous conception of the short story, which must be designed for "a single effect" and every word of which must be made to count.
Poe's method leads to the symbolist poetry of Mallarme and to Rimbaud and the dream inspired surrealists Poe's brooding heroes and symbolic houses lead to the decadent heroes, new Roderick Ushers with their concern for the artificial detail of their shut-in paradise, reflected earlier in such Poe tales as "The Mask of the Red Death" and "The Philosophy of Furniture".
Poe is returned to America through French symbolism, and so made digestible to such important American poets as T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. In opposition to the romantic stress on the expression of personality, Poe insisted on the importance not of he artist, but of the created work of art. He stands as one of the few great innovators in American literature that took his place in international culture as an original creative force.
I disagree with the author that wrote that criticism. One thing is writing is imagination and not fears. Poe has many great tales and poems, in the stories that we read in class did not have to do anything with his fears. Poes life or any ones life would not influence their writing. The stories he wrote are incredibly creative and he has wide imaginations. I like his stories and I look forward to read more stories that he wrote.
Characterization Of Montressor
In The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, the dark side of human nature is exemplified through the character of Montresor and his victim, Fortunato. Montresor is a manipulative and vengeful person. These characteristics lead to the death of Fortunato, a man who has wronged him. Through the acts, words, and the thoughts of the character, one is able to see him carry out his plan for revenge. upon each other by chance, or so it is made to seem. The setting is lively and jubilant at the carnival. It then moves to the catacombs of Montresors home.
It is a place of doom where The story takes place in Italy at a carnival where Montresor and Fortunato happen skeletons lie against damp walls covered in nitre. Montresor dons a mask of black silk and a heavy knee length cloak (76-77). Montresors clothes seem to indicate his wanting to conceal himself so he can carry out his devious plan. On the other side of the spectrum, Fortunato wears a tight fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells (76). His clothing seems to indicate his trusting but foolish nature.
The clothing of both characters seems to set the mood for what types of characters they were. However, Montresors true character is indicated through his words. From the start of the story his vengeful nature sets the tone for the acts that will follow. One of the first things that Montresor narrates to the reader about Fortunato is that he must not only punish but punish with impunity (75). Montresor is also manipulative, as he tells Fortunato that he will have someone else taste the Amontillado, knowing that by doing this Fortunato will feel compelled to taste the wine himself.
As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If anyone has a critical turn I is he. He will tell me (76). In addition to being manipulative and vengeful he also displays condescending traits. Montresor addresses Fortunato in the catacombs saying, your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy as once I was. You are a man to be missed (77). Montresors actions also lend to his vengeful and manipulative nature. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home to carry out his plans.
First he caters to Fortunatos ego by saying that someone else was as good a judge of wine as he (76). Then Montresor tricks Fortunato into believing that there lies an expensive bottle of wine in the depths of his catacombs. When they finally reach their destination, Montresor shackles him to the wall, constructs a tomb around him using bricks, and leaves him there to die. It is indicated in the past that Fortunato has hurt Montresor many times, The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge (75).
However, insults or unkind acts were actually mentioned in the story. It was exactly the opposite; Fortunato was friendly and helpful towards Montresor. From the very beginning of the story, one can obviously see that Montresor thinks that he has been wronged by Fortunato. His plan for vengeance is easily seen through his actions and his thoughts. He had a weak point-this Fortunato-although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared (76). This line shows that Montresors plan was well thought out. There is no indication of what Fortunato thinks about Montresor.
It can only be assumed that he trusts him because he follows him into the catacombs, and up until the last moments before the last brick is put into place, he still holds onto the idea that Montresor is playing a joke on him. Ha! Ha! Ha! he! He! He! a very good joke, indeed-an excellent jest (80). Montresor is successful in his plan for vengeance. He succeeds in having Fortunato follow him into the catacombs and in no time at all he had him up against the wall. Throwing the chain around him was easily accomplished in seconds (79).
Then tier by tier, Montresor constructed Fortunatos tomb of bricks around him. When Montresor called out to him, he heard nothing and thus his plan was complete. In pace requiescat! (80). The final lines definitely indicate again the success of Montresors plan. Throughout the entire story one could see how Montresor completely manipulated Fortunato and lead him to his demise. His vengeful nature made him unable to rethink the evil deed he had just committed. His only concern was to avenge the insults that he perceived. He succeeded in taking someones life without ever revealing his dark side to anyone.
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Edgar Allan Poe – one of America's famous poets
Edgar Allan Poe was one of America's famous poets, fiction short-story writers, and literary critics. He is known as the first master of short story form especially in tales of horror, and mystery. The work he produced was considered to be some of the most influential literary criticism of his time. His poems made him one of the most famous figures in American literary history. His influence on literature is seen in all literature books in schools everywhere.
Some of his famous writings is that of "Annabel Lee"; his detective story, "The Murders in Rue Morgue"; "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are the best among his horror stories; and The Raven one of his best poems which among all these, made him very famous in 1845. "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Masque of the Red Death", made him a forerunner of symbolism, and impressionism. Poe antagonized many people with a scathing campaign against an American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for supposed plagiarism.
Later that year Poe admitted to being drunk, which further separated him from the public. Poe's later years were full of economic hardship and ill health. Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. He was orphaned at the early age of two, his father deserted the family and his mother died all before he was three in 1811, then Poe became a ward and was raised as a foster child by John Allan, a wealthy merchant of tobacco, and his wife Frances in Richmond, VA but they never legally adopted him. Taken by the Allan family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school.
In 1826 Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. where he acquired gambling debts that John Allan refused to pay. Eventually, Poe was forced to withdraw from the university, and Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart. His relationship with Allan was declined and he moved from his foster father and enlisted in the army. Also in 1827, he went to Boston where he wrote his fist book "Tamerlane and other poems" that he sold for $. a copy but it didn't sell.
He served a two year term while waiting for an appointment to the US Military Academy. While temporarily reconciled, Allan secured him an appointment to the academy. In 1830 Poe entered the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, where he excelled in languages but was expelled in 1831 and now his foster father disowned him permanently. Later on sometime after 1831 he moved to Baltimore where he lived with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter- his cousin, Virginia Clemm. March 27, 1834 John Allan dies leaving Poe with nothing.
In May of 1836 he married Virginia, his 13-year old cousin. For 10 years Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals and contributor to magazines in several cites on the pay of $10 a week, so he was unable to support his family, his aunt, Virginia, and himself. Lots of time they went without eating. But it was in one of those that his story "The Fall of the House of Usher" first appeared in 1839. He unsuccessfully tried to found and edit his own magazine which would have granted him financial security and artistic control in what he considered a hostile literary marketplace.
The last years of Poe's life was a tragic period. In January of 1842 Virginia broke a blood vessel while singing, and died of tuberculosis on January 30, 1847 after five years of illness. Then Poe himself became ill, he had a deadly addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs which probably contributed to his early death. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured , and was accepted anew by the fiance he had lost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. Poe was only 40 when he died in 1849.
Newspapers gave the cause of death as "congestion of the brain" and "cerebral inflammation", which my sources said was terms that suggest doctors didn't have a definitive explanation but they thought it was a severe neurological disorder. Another doctor from the University of Maryland Medical Center reviewed his case and was assigned to make and explain a diagnosis based on available facts and he came to the conclusion that it was a rabies infection. The case was known to be a antique because of the lack of lab data. Back then they didn't have CT scans, or MRI's.
Before his death he was seen passing through Baltimore in later September 1849 and vanished. He turned up on Oct. 3 muttering incoherently and dressed in filthy, strange, and unusual clothing. He was taken to Church Hospital then known as Washington Medical College on Broadway where he spend four days where his doctor put very simply: "talking with spectral and imaginary objects on the walls". So in other words he was crazy, delirious and other times he was either in a coma. Despite the widely held belief that Poe was in a drunken stupor, he showed no signs of alcohol when he was admitted to the hospital.
According to medical records he had abstained from drinking after and few months earlier attending a temperance league in Richmond. One theory says his condition seemed to improve for a time, but by the evening of his third day he became combative calling out the names of family, friends and somebody named Reynolds and had to be restrained. Another theory says that he was found unconscious and remained unconscious. Bout both theories state that he died on the fourth day, October 7th at 5 am. His last words were said to be "Lord, help my poor soul".
He was buried near his grandfather in the Presbyterian cemetery. It was obvious that Poe was in a depressing situation most of his life. His life was exaggerated and exposed in a embarrassing manner. He was hurt by his enemies and I think he was ashamed of himself or wanted more of his life. Poe was hounded by economic troubles, haunted by nightmares and visions, he had many fears, and a ot of imagination which he expressed in his stories. It has been 150 years since Poe's death but since his death, but he has had more books published than any other American author. I think he will always be remembered.
The Life of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allen Poe, the greatest American teller of mystery and suspense tales in the 19th century was a tormented artist. He struggled to become the accomplished author he is known as today. Poe is now acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers, but in his own unhappy lifetime, he struggled to make ends meet. When he was 17, Poe entered the University of Virginia. Allan, his step father, gave Poe only a small allowance, and the young man soon began owing money. He gambled and ran into greater debt. By the end of the year he owed 2,500 dollars.
He was nervous and unstable, and he began to drink. Despite his frequenting liquor, he could never hold it well. He would easily become ill from the alcohol. Allan angrily withdrew Poe from school, and a few months later Poe left home. For the next four years Poe struggled to earn a living as a writer. He returned to Mrs. Clemm's home and submitted stories to magazines. His first success came in 1833, when he entered a short-story contest and won a prize of 50 dollars for the story "MS. Found in a Bottle.
By 1835 he was the editor of he Southern Literary Messenger. He married his cousin Virginia, who was only 13, and Mrs. Clemm stayed with the couple. The Poes had no children. This success would not last. Poe's stories, poems, and criticism in the magazine, The Southern Literary Messenger soon attracted attention, and he looked for wider opportunities, not a good choice. From 1837 to 1839 he tried free-lance writing in New York City and Philadelphia but earned very little. Again he tried editing. His work was praised, but he was still paid little.
His fforts to organize his own magazine were unsuccessful. For the next two years he turned again to free-lance writing. For one of the most well-known and talented writers of our time, Poe had to struggle for any kind of monetary reconcilement for his genius works. The papers he worked for gained many readers who would buy only for Poe's stories. It seems to me amazing that after seeing the response to his works when published in the newspapers, they wouldn't offer him more money for his presence at their company. They obviously didn't realize what they had.
The short biography of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and lived in six Eastern cities. His father was David Poe, a Baltimore actor. His actress mother, Elizabeth came to the United States as a kid. The parents were not that talented; they played small roles in rather third-rate theatrical companies. Because they both had small parts they barely managed to make a living. Edgar was the second of their three children. When the third child was born, the father died, or disappeared, and Mrs. Poe went to Richmond with the two youngest children.
The oldest boy, William Henry, had already been left with relatives in Baltimore. Mrs. Poe was in the last stages of tuberculosis. Weakened by the disease and worn out with the struggle to support her children, she died. Edgar, two years old, and the infant, Rosalie, were left as orphans. It was pure luck that Mrs. Frances Allan, the wife of a merchant in Richmond learned about the Poe babies. She had no children of her own and liked handsome little Edgar a lot more than his sister. She took him home with her, and another family took his little sister Rosalie.
Mrs. Allan would have liked to adopt Edgar, but her husband was unwilling to commit himself. At that time people thought acting was immoral. John Allan could not help regarding the little son of actor parents as a questionable person to inherit his name and the fortune he was busy accumulating. He was willing however, to support the child, and in time came to be proud of Edgar's good looks and intelligence. When Edgar was six years old, Mr. Allen's business took him to Scotland, the country from which he had come originally. The family stayed in Scotland and England for five years.
Edgar was eleven when the Allans returned to Richmond. Richmond in back then in the 1820's was a good place for a boy to live. It was still a small enough town for the fields, swamps, and woods to be close by. Boys swam in the river and in the little creeks, they fished, they tramped through the thick woods, looking for wild muscadines and chinquapins. In spite of the growing tension between foster father and son, Mr. Allen was willing to send Edgar to the University of Virginia. Edgar, in turn, was eager to go, to escape the Allen household if for no other reason.
The student life of the University was more social than academic. The young men drank too much, gambled too much, fought for the sheer enjoyment of violence, and rampaged over the campus at all hours. This was the worst possible environment for young Poe with his emotionally unstable temperament. He was unusually susceptible to alcohol; one mild drink sent him into a state of wild excitement. He gambled recklessly, incurring debts he could not begin to pay. Mr. Allan's pride and thrift could not tolerate such conduct. He pulled Edgar out of the University and set him to work at a lowly, routine job in his counting house.
This was a humiliation Edgar could not bear; his answer was to leave home. He went to Boston, where he managed to publish a collection of his poems in pamphlet form, Tamerlane and Other Poems. Desperate for money, he joined the army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. Army barracks were no place for a young "aristocrat. " Poe turned to his foster father with penitent letters, pleading for reconciliation. Mr. Allen yielded sufficiently to purchase his release from the army, which was possible at that time. Shortly afterward, a new volume of his poems was published in Baltimore, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems.
A little more than a year after his release from the Army, the young poet turned again to the idea of a military career. He passed entrance examinations and gained admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Poe knew than an army career was suitable for a Virginia gentleman he longed to be, but the discipline was too hard for him. Two years after his final dispute with Mr. Allan, Poe lived for a while in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Maria (Poe) Clemm. She was a poor seamstress, but she welcomed Poe into her home and took care of him.
In 1833 The Saturday Visitor of Baltimore announced a literary contest with prizes of fifty dollars for the best short story, and twenty-five dollars for the best poem. Poe submitted a group of stories, Tales of the Folio Club, and a poem, The Coliseum. One of the stories, MS. Found in a Bottle, won the story prize, and his poem would have won the poetry prize except that the judges decided not to award both prizes to the same contestant. The prize money was not important, but one of the judges, novelist John P. Kennedy, took an interest in Poe and befriended him by helping him sell a story to the new Southern Literary Messenger of Richmond.
Poe joined the editorial staff of the magazine and soon became its editor. A number of his stories appeared in its pages. Once established in his job, he brought Mrs. Clemm and her daughter, Virginia, to live with him. A little later he married his cousin, Virginia, who was some years younger than he. From that time on, the three formed a household. He has many problems with drinking and therefore his job was on and off. Soon after moving to New York, his poem, The Raven, was published in the New York Evening Mirror. It was reprinted in a number of magazines, and at once became extremely popular.
The Raven is not by any means Poe's best poem. With The Raven, Poe reached the height of his fame. Poe was the originator of the American short story. There had been other short works of fiction, but Poe perfected the short story as an art form. Conan Doyle was influenced by him, particularly in their early writing, before each had found his individual style. Poe led in his methods of analysis in his detective stories. No one has outdone him in creating an atmosphere of morbid horror in such tales as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart. The best of his poetry is pure magic.
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The Tragedy of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the leading figures of American literature. He is known as a poet and a critic, but is most famous as the first master of the short story form, especially tales of the mysterious and gruesome. In Poes poems, like his tales, his characters are tortured by nameless fears and longings. Today Poe is acclaimed as one of Americas greatest writers, but in his own unhappy lifetime he knew little but failure. Poe had an unstable family life. The insecure place he held at home interfered with his emotional stability. He was born as the son of actors.
The two were not notably talented; they played minor roles in third-rate theatrical companies. (Buranalli 7) Between them they barely managed to make a living. Poe was the second of their three children. About the time the third child was born, the father died, or disappeared, and Mrs. Poe went to Richmond, Virginia with the two youngest children. The oldest child, William Henry, had been left in the care of his grandparents in Baltimore shortly after his birth. Mrs. Poe was overtaken by a fatal illness (tuberculosis). Devastated by the disease and worn out with the struggle to support her children, she died.
Edgar, two years old, and the infant, Rosaline, were orphaned. Poe was taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy merchant. His wife, Frances Allan, had no children and wanted to adopt Poe as her son. Mr. Allan was unwilling to commit himself to a step of such permanence. The acting profession was despised at the time and was even considered immoral. (Meyers 11) Mr. Allan thought the little son of actor parents was a questionable person to inherit his name and the fortune he was busy accumulating. He was however, willing to support the child, to please his wife.
Family was of the greatest importance in Richmond, the place where Poe spent most of his boyhood. Poe felt the difference between the children at school and himself. He was not close to his (foster) father, like other boys were. Mr. Allans unwillingness to adopt him bothered him greatly. It hurt him that he was not wanted enough by his father to legally be his son. He acted out in fits of temper and rebellion. His family did not understand his reasoning for being so upset. Mr. Allan was a hardheaded businessman with no patience for Poes reasonless actions.
He handled the situation by reminding the boy of his disreputable parentage; he reproached him for lack of gratitude for his home. (Buranelli 37) Mr. Allan had from time to time engaged in extra-marital relations. Some of his natural children were then living in Richmond and the knowledge of this, in one way or another, seemed to have become known to his wife. Her sorrow was great. When Edgar learned of his foster fathers affairs, he took sides with his mother. Mr. Allan was cold to Poe and it was seldom that they got along.
Poe was eager to escape the Allan house, and was relived when he was sent off to the University of Virginia. His foster father provided him with considerably less than the amount necessary to pay his way. In order to maintain his position he began to gamble heavily, this only led him to greater debt. By the end of the year he owed 2,500 dollars. He was nervous and unstable, and he began to drink. Mr. Allans pride and thrift could not tolerate such conduct. Without delay, he pulled Poe out of the University and set him to work at a lowly, routine job in his counting house.
Poe despised his job and his foster father, so he left home. After this point the only time Poe communicated with his foster father was when he needed money or needed to be bailed out of a difficult situation. Mr. Allan reluctantly helped him, until the death of Mrs. Allan. When Mrs. Allan died his foster father remarried and disowned Poe. Although Poe had no support from his (foster) family, he still made a success of himself. He was praised in his time, as he is now, but he was never paid much for his work. His career started when he won a story contest for the MS. Found in A Bottle in 1833.
The prize money was not much, but one of the judges, novelist John P. Kennedy, had an interest in Poe and befriended him by helping him sell a story to the new Southern Literary Messenger of Richmond. Poe joined the editorial staff of the magazine and soon became its editor. A number of his own stories appeared in its pages. He was shown to be an able editor and perceptive literary critic. He made a name for both himself and the magazine. Unfortunately, Poe was an alcoholic. He was dismissed from the Messenger for intoxication, taken back, and again dismissed for the same reason.
Poe looked for work in a publishing house or with a magazine, but had no luck because during this time there was a financial panic and various magazines were compelled to cease publication. He successfully published a long sea story, called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. This story was so convincing in its detail that some critics were sure it was the record of an actual voyage. (Carlson 78) After two years, Poe began editing again, this time for Burtons Gentlemens Magazine. A contract for a Monthly feature set him to writing some of his stories of horror and the supernatural.
These stories were collected and published under the title, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840, followed by The Prose Romances of Edgar Allan Poe. The same year Burton's was sold (the name was changed to Grahams Magazine) Poe became editor of its successor. Under his management, it became perhaps the most important American magazine of its day. (Carlson 84) In it was printed his first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. In 1843, his story, The Gold Bug, won a $100 prize from the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper.
This brought him considerable publicity. The next year, he left Graham's Magazine. Soon after, his poem, The Raven, was published in the New York Evening Mirror. It was reprinted in a number of magazines, and at once became extremely popular. Poe himself often read it to groups, with the lamps turned down until the room was almost dark, while his voice took on an appropriately eerie tone. (Meyers 152) With The Raven, Poe reached the height of his fame. Nevertheless, his reputation brought him little money, and the family remained desperately poor.
Few free-lance writers can make a living by writing only; most depend upon editorial and other positions. Poe worked briefly on the Evening Mirror, the Broadway Journal, and wrote a series of sketches for Godey's Lady's Book. He was successful in getting such editorial jobs, but he never held them long. Alcoholism and mounting mental disorder made Poe quarrelsome and unreasonable. (Carlson 209) He was known to often have outbursts of senseless rage. His childish tantrums and his hostile verbal attacks offended the very persons who could have helped him most in his career.
When Poe lost his wife, his last hold on reality vanished. He worked feverishly at writing a book, Eureka, which he believed would be an expression of profound truth. The book was a strange jumble of unproven scientific statement and wild imaginings, springing from his disturbed state. It is known that Poe was the originator of the American short story. There had been other short works of fiction, but Poe perfected the short story as an art form. Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling, and Conan Doyle were all influenced by his writing. Poe was most popular for his detective stories.
No one has outdone him in creating an atmosphere of morbid horror in such tales as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart. It is sad that, though his talent was recognized and appreciated, he was never in very good financial state. Poes love life was just as depressing as his professional and family lives were. His romances all ended in despair. He met his first love, Sarah Elmira Royster, while he was attending the University of Virginia. She lived on a nearby street, so he visited he often. Before Poe left the University he was engaged to Elmira.
Their affair was not made known to the adults of either household. Mr. and Mrs. Royster learned of the love affair and brought pressure to break off the match. Poes letters to his sweetheart were intercepted and Elmira was forbidden to write. The attentions of an eligible young bachelor, A. Barret Shelton, were pressed upon her, and she was finally sent away for a while into safekeeping. (Buranelli 94) On September 22, 1835, Poe married his first cousin Virginia Clemm. She was only about thirteen years old at the time. Virginia was unfailingly devoted to him.
She was sweet and gentle, but rather simple-minded. She could not follow the wild frights of Poes erratic genius, but she gave him an adoring, admiration. He showed his best self to her. In January of 1842 Virginia started showing symptoms of tuberculosis. She grew sicker steadily for five years, while Poe sank deeper into melancholia. During this time Poe resorted to drinking more than ever. There is also evidence of him using opium at this time. During the winter of 1846-47, when the couple had little food of fuel, Virginia reached the end of life.
After Virginias death Poe became even more depressed and temperamental. He slept with many women in a vain attempt to find comfort for the loss of his wife. In 1849 he re-met his high school sweetheart, Elmira. They became engaged. After making wedding plans, he set out for New York City from Richmond, but disappeared in Baltimore. He was found five days after he disappeared very near death. He died without regaining full consciousness, four days later on October 7, 1849, ten days before the date he had set for his wedding.
Poes life was indeed marked by misery and tragedy. He was abandon by his father, lived in poverty as a writer, and suffered the loss of many loved ones. On the other hand, maybe it was his dreary life that caused him to escape into the imaginative fantasy world that became his writers playground. Looking at it from that perspective, perhaps his unfortunate personal life was the springboard for his success as a writer. Poe did, no matter, have great talent and will forever be remembered for his brilliance in American literature.
Edgar Allan Poe Life
Edgar Allan Poe, son of Actress Eliza Poe and Actor David Poe Jr., born 19th of January 1809, was mostly known for his poems and short tales and his literary criticism. He has been given credit for inventing the detective story and his pshycological thrillers have been infuences for many writers worldwide.
Edgar and his brother and sister were orphaned before Edgar's third birthday and Edgar was taken in to the home of John and Fanny Allan in Richmond, Va. The Allans lived in England for five years (1815-1820) where Edgar also attended school. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia. Although a good student he was forced to gambling since John Allan did not provide well enough. Allan refused to pay Edgar's debts and Edgar had to leave the University after only one year.
In 1827 Edgar published his first book, "Tamerlane and other poems" anonymously under the signature "A Bostonian". The poems were heavily influenced from Byron and showed of a youthful attitude.
Later in 1827 Edgar enlisted in the Army under the name Edgar A Perry where his quarrels with John Allan continued. Edgar did well in the army but in 1829 he left and decided to apply for a cadetship at West Point.
Before he was able to enter West Point Edgar published a book entitled "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and minor poems", this time the book was published, not anonymously, but under the name Edgar A. Poe, where the middle initial acknowledged John Allan's name. Before Edgar left West Point he received financial aid from his fellow cadets to publish a third edition of the book. Edgar called it a second edition though and it was entitled "Poems by Edgar A. Poe" in which his famous poems "To Helen" (another version was published in 1848) and "Israfel" appeared. These show of the musical effect that has come to characterize Edgar's poems.
Later Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and his first cousin Virginia. In 1832 he won a $50 prize for his story "MS. Found in a Bottle" in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. In 1835 Poe brought his aunt and cousin to Richmond where he worked with Thomas Willis White at the Southern Litterary Messenger. He also married his cousin Virginia, only thirteen years old.
Most of Edgar's work with the Messenger were of a critical nature but he also published some literary work such as "Berenice". His work with the writing and the editorial departments of the Messenger increased the circulation of the magazine. But his drinking habits forced White to eventually let him go.
Edgar moved around to New York and Philadelphia, trying to establish a name in literary journalism but without any major success. His theories on musical poems and short prose narratives which were to aim at "a certain unique or single effect" can be for example be seen in "Ligeia"(1838) and THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1839) which would eventually become one of his most famous stories.
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is sometimes considered the first detective story. Examples of his use of a rythmic and flowing language are the poems "The Raven" (1845) and "The Bells" (1849). The Raven was a symbol of "Mournful and never ending remembrance" which is not only a good description for "The Raven" but could be applied to almost all of his work.
In January 1847 Virginia Died and Edgar took this very hard but he kept on writing until the day he died in Baltimore October 7, 1849.
Edgar Allan Poe's Magnificent Style Of Writing
Through Edgar Allan Poe's magnificent style of writing, he provided the world with some of the most mystifying poems and short stories. Although not appreciated during his time, Poe has gained considerable recognition after his death. James Russel Lowell stated, in a book by Louis Broussard, "He combines in a very remarkable manner two faculties which are seldom found united: a power of influencing the mind of the reader by the impalable shadows of mystery, and a minuteness of detail which does not leave a pin or button unnoticed" (7).
Poe's controversial writing style, which has been given praise and criticism by others, can not be compared to that of any other author. Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Baltimore, Mass. , to David and Elizabeth Poe. Poe's father David married an English woman, Elizabeth, who was in the same traveling company. Poe had a brother, Henry, and a sister, Rosaline. Poe's grandfather was referred to as "General Poe of Revolutionary fame," and his great-grandfather was an immigrant laborer who supplied the Revolutionary Army with clothing (Krutch 20).
On December 8, 1811, Elizabeth Poe died of tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-four. "The image of his mother's young, still, white face was to haunt Edgar for the rest of his life" (Wright 30). When Edgar's father was plagued with tuberculosis, he was taken into the home of John, a prosperous Richmond merchant, and Francis Allan. This is how Edgar received the middle name Allan. Mrs. Allan loved Edgar, but the story seemed different with John. Although the relationship between John and Edgar appeared bitter, John Allan provided Poe with some support during Poe's adulthood.
In 1826 Poe was engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster; however, her parents broke off the engagement. Apparently, she married and her husband passed away around 1848. In 1849 Poe proposed to Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, but she was having difficulty saying "yes"; probably because her late husband's will penalized her for remarrying. If she remarried, she stood to lose control of her late husband's estate and would only receive one-fourth of the income it generated. The next stage of Poe's life was his enrollment at the University of Charlottesville. John Allan sent Poe here in February of 1826 to study law.
Allan only gave Poe a fraction of the money he needed, so Poe was forced to gamble in order to improve his finances; through his gambling, Poe only succeeded in building up massive debts. Poe's gambling debts amounted to be $2,500, that amount would have been about five year's average income at the time (Anderson 21). "Poe, deep in debt, racked with guilt about his gambling… began to drink for the first time" (Wright 31). After the University of Charlottesville, Poe went back home until March of 1827. Poe stormed out of the house with nothing but his clothes he was wearing, and took a ship to Boston.
While in Boston, he persuaded a printer to publish a small edition of his early poems called Tamerlane and other Poems (Wright 31). Although this book received only limited recognition, Poe was not discouraged. In December of 1829, Poe published a second volume of his poems, while in Baltimore, called Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. This book was a revised and enlarged edition of his first book; however, it received hardly more attention than his previous volume (Asselineau 8). Edgar A. Perry was the name that Poe used to enter the army at the age of eighteen.
For eighteen months, Poe was the model soldier, and rose to the rank of sergeant. During his tenure in the army, he began to write poetry in Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. In March of 1829, Francis Allan was on her deathbed, with tuberculosis. When Poe head of this he returned to Richmond immediately, only to find his "mother" buried. While in Richmond, John Allan offered to assist Poe in getting out of the army by hiring a substitute; although, Allan only paid twelve of the seventy-five dollars needed to hire the substitute. When Poe dropped out of the army, John Allan promised to assist him in enrolling at West Point.
On July 1, 1830, Poe enrolled as a cadet officer at West Point. While enrolled at West Point, he published a third book of poems. The same thing happened to Poe at West Point as at the University of Charlottesville – John Allan didn't provide him with adequate funds. In January 1831 Poe wrote to Allan, "You sent me to W. Point like a beggar. The same difficulties are threatening me as before at Charlottesville – and I must resign" (Asselineau 8). Soon, Poe was court-martialed for neglect of duty and disobedience to orders. Poe didn't attend church on January 23, 1831; and refused to attend class on January 25, 1831.
He was not dismissed for drunkenness or rowdyism, as is often alleged" (Anderson 32). After West Point, Poe lived in obscurity in Baltimore and New York from 1831 to 1834. On March 15, 1835, Poe pleaded with Mr. Kennedy for help in obtaining a position as schoolmaster. Mr. Kennedy replied to Poe's request with an invitation to dinner. Poe's response: Dear Sir: Your kind invitation to dinner today has wounded me to the quick. I cannot come and for reasons of the most humiliating nature – my appearance. You may conceive my deep mortification in making this disclosure to you – but it was necessary.
If you will be my friend so far as to loan me twenty dollars, I will call on you tomorrow – otherwise it will be impossible, and I must submit to my fate. Sincerely yours,E. A. Poe (Krutch 44-45). Kennedy gave him clothing, food from his table, and a horse to use for exercise. He also helped Poe obtain a job as editor of the Southern Literary Magazine. Edgar Allan Poe's position at the Southern Literary Magazine paid ten dollars every week. On the twenty-second of September 1835, Poe and Virginia Clemm, his cousin, were married in Baltimore. In May of the following year they arranged for a public weeding.
On the affidavit, it declared that Virginia was "of the full age of twenty-one," although she was not quite fourteen. In 1842 Virginia was playing the harp and coughed up blood on her dress. This showed that she was in the early stages of tuberculosis. This disease, tuberculosis, had taken Edgar's father, brother, and all of the women he ever loved. Virginia died of tuberculosis on January 30, 1847. After Virginia's death, Poe had been offered a job on the New York Review. When he had arrived in the city his job seemed to have evaporated in the Panic of 1837, which turned out to be one of the country's worst depressions.
While in New York, Poe found an unbelievable offer waiting for him. This offer would allow Poe to finally publish his own magazine. A young man from Illinois, Edward Patterson, wanted to use the money he would inherit on his twenty-fifth birthday to start a literary magazine. Poe would act as the sole editor and Patterson as the publisher, and then the two men would share profits equally. Poe was cautious about this opportunity, and only agreed to the deal if it would be a "five-dollar magazine". Poe wanted the magazine to be elegant, therefore the price was twice that of any of the other popular magazines of the day (Anderson 113).
Poe's next literary tenure was in Philadelphia, which he is said to have arrived there in the summer of 1838. While in Philadelphia, Poe had a brief period of success, writing The Fall of the House of Usher. Also, while he was there, he was the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine and then Graham's Magazine. Although Poe was successful in Philadelphia, this brought him no money. In 1845 Poe reached the height of his fame. Poe was offered the editorship of Graham's Magazine, only if he gave up his irregular behavior (Nevins 287). Under his management Graham's Magazine had become perhaps the most important magazine in America.
Before Poe began at Graham's Magazine the distribution of the magazine was five thousand copies, but with Poe at the helm, distribution rose to thirty-five thousand copies. At Graham's Magazine, Poe made a salary of eight hundred dollars a year, compared to the ten dollars a week he made at the Southern Literary Magazine. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found in a terrible state, dressed in borrowed clothes and a fine malacca cane. When he was found, a note was written to J. E. Snodgrass that stated: Dear Sir, There is a gentleman, rather the worse for wear, at Ryan's fourth ward polls, who goes under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe, and who appears in great distress, and says he is acquainted with you, and I assure you he is in need or immediate assistance. Yours in haste, Jos. W. Walker (Walsh 46).
Poe was rushed to Washington College Hospital where he fluttered between violent delirium and rambling consciousness for four days. During one of Poe's stages while conscious. He told J. E, Snodgrass, "that the best thing his best friend could do would be to blow out his brains with a pistol … he was ready to sink into the earth" (Krutch 5-6). On October 7, 1849, Poe whispered, "Lord Help my poor soul," and died forty years old (Wright 35).
When Poe died he was buried in the Presbyterian graveyard where his grandparents and brother, Henry, were buried. After Poe's death Nathaniel Parker Willis said, "Poe is no more. He died at Baltimore on Sunday last, in the fortieth year of his age. He was a man of genius and a poet of remarkable power. Peace to his manes" (Carlson 33). "By knowing who one has been, one knows who one will be, and when and how one will die. Like the hero of The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe states, 'I shall perish … I must perish in this deplorable folly.
Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost…'" (Carlson 235). Poe wrote to his aunt, Mrs. Clemm: "I must die. I have no desire to live since I have done 'Eureka'" (Asselineau 42). Before Poe went on his way to start up the Stylus, he made certain arrangements. If he were to die, Rufus W. Griswold was to be his literary executor and Nathaniel W. Griswold was to be his biographer. One may conclude by statements such as these that Edgar Allan Poe had a conscious desire to make the trip into the afterworld. The cause of Poe's death is one of the most mysterious parts of his life.
Many believe that he was the victim of a gang accustomed to corral strangers and, after intoxicating them, they would use them as voters – a practice quite easy in the absence of any registration system. Poe, so the theory goes, was captured by such a gang and then abandoned on the street when they discovered the violent effect which alcohol had upon him (Krutch 6). Also, one of the more peculiar facts about Poe's death is that he was found with the possession of a fine cane. Many believe that this happens to be the cane of Poe's friend Dr. John Carter.
As the story goes, Poe went to visit his friend, and when he left, late that evening, he took the doctor's cane with him. The reason for this was because Poe could not get his supper at the fashionable Saddler's Restaurant. However, Dr. Carter's cane was never returned and Poe was found with a fine cane in his possession. Poe wrote The Fall of the House of Usher as a story of horror, and used nearly every device at his disposal to stimulate a sense of horror in the reader. Not only is the action in this story itself horrible, but the descriptions of the decayed house, the gloomy landscape, the furnishings of its shadowy interior.
All of these are used to build up the sense of something mysterious and unnatural (Woodson 23). In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe transfers to Roderick Usher his own fear of impending mental decay. The Murders in Rue Morgue appeared in the April 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine. This was a detective story "in which Poe managed to combine his characteristic macabre with a very elaborate representation of logical analysis" (Krutch 102). The main character in this story, Dubin the detective, was the basis for several of Poe's other stories.
Poe, also, wrote The Raven while living in New York around the spring of 1845. Although the success of The Raven was sudden and made Poe a celebrity overnight, he hardly made a cent on it due to the lack of copyright protection. The Tell-Tale Heart, one of Poe's most famous stories, was published in 1843. In the story, the narrator plans to kill the old man, because of his filmy, vulture-like blue eye. After seven nights, he finally murders the old man, and buries his chopped up body under the floorboard of the room.
The next day the police come over to the house to check out a call from the night before, which was placed by a neighbor who said they heard a scream. The police begin to question the narrator, and he starts to hear a pounding in his ear. He believes that the police hear this pounding, which is the beat of the old man's heart; so he screams out at length his confession (Gale 105). Another one of Poe's stories, The Pit and the Pendulum, published in 1842 told about a victim of the Inquisition who is sentenced to death. He finds himself tied face up on a wooden frame.
Suddenly, from the ceiling appears a moving pendulum, at the end of which was a razor-keen blade a foot long. With each swing the pendulum inched closer to the victim. The only way for the victim to escape is if he gets the ropes untied, so he smears food on them. This in turn attracted the rats and they began chewing away at the ropes. Just in time, he is freed and rolls out of the way. Once he escaped this danger, another one appeared; the walls began to slowly move in. As the victim is about to fall into the pit, which is in the center of the room, General Lasalle bursts into the room and rescues him (Gale 81).
Poe published A Descent into the Malestrm in 1841; this is perhaps one of the best stories Poe has ever written. The story is based on a white-haired, old-looking man who enters a malestrm while sailing with the narrator. In an attempt to save himself, the old man fights off the narrator and attaches himself to the boat. Reluctantly, the narrator dives overboard; however, the narrator is rescued by some fishermen and the old man perishes. When rescued, the narrator attempts to explain his story to the fishermen and other people, but nobody believes the account of the narrators adventure (Gale 14).
During Poe's life, he and his work received much praise. John Neal said, "He might make a beautiful and perhaps a magnificent poem. There is a good deal here to justify such a hope. " Poe later described John Neal's praise as the first words of encouragement he ever remembered to have heard (Carlson 3). In the New York Mirror there appeared a notice praising highly the style and power of intellect and imagination manifest in the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.
Also, a man by the name of P. Pendleton Cooke heaps praise on Poe's poems for their perfect rhythm and vocabulary. He identifies Poe's genius with a daring and wild imagination. Although praised by many, fellow authors criticized Poe for his eccentric life style; he also had many critics who didn't approve of his unorthodox writing style. His most notarized critic was Rufus W. Griswold, who was to be his biographer. Griswold is known, by Poe's admirers, as a slanderer of the dead and a betrayer of one who had reposed confidence in him. After Poe's death, Griswold published the "Ludwig" article.
In this article he said, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it… He had few or no friends. " This article was printed on October 9, 1849, and did irreparable damage to Poe's career. Another critic was quoted in Roger Asselineau's Edgar Allan Poe as saying, The reason for Poe's relative failure is the discrepancy between the irrational nature of what he wanted to convey and the imperturbably intellectual character of his means of expression.
In his writings, as in life, even when raving mad, he always behaved and expressed himself like an eighteenth-century gentleman (43). In conclusion, it is false to call Poe little more than an artist of nightmares, hallucinations, insane crimes, and weird beauties, little more than an intuitive poetic genius. A quote that best defines Poe is from Vincent Buranelli's book, Poe is both a dreamy fantasist and a cerebral logician. He lingers with science and is chilled by its abstractions. He resolutely closes his eyes to factual reality and examines it in detail.
He works with melancholy, and with humor; with burlesque, and with realism. He probes fascinated, into horrible obsessions, and gazes, enchanted, at eternal beauty (20-21). Poe, the dreamer, is where the analytical study must properly begin; but it must not end until it has accounted for Poe the rationalist, the scientist, the hoaxer, the humanist, and the literary and social critic (Buranelli 21). Poe is a writer of great skill, and had his life not ended so suddenly, he would have produced many more prolific stories and poems.
A Reflection of the Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is a name even the literary illiterate know, but not many people know Edgar Allan Poe the person. When reading the works of this poetic genius many might think that he had a vivid imagination or just a morbid soul. The truth is that the works of Poe are based on his own life, the life of an orphan who suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder and who eventually became diseased by alcoholism. Understanding Poe the man, who had true medical problems that caused erratic behavior and depression among many other things, is to have an understanding of the true meaning hidden behind the words of his poetry.
Poe earned his place as a major figure in American letters for his tales of the bizarre and fantastic, short stories that are structurally brilliant and considered precursors of many forms and themes in subsequent American and European literature (Bloom, Harold p. 491). Born of impoverished parents and orphaned at the age of two, Poe lived a brief and tragic life: a life whose legend has often proved an overpowering influence on the critical reception of his work (Bloom, Harold p. 491).
Before Poe was three years old both of his parents died, and he was raised in the house of John Allan, a prosperous exporter from Richmond, Virginia, who never legally adopted his foster son. Poe attended many of the best schools at that time. At the University of Virginia he distinguished himself academically, but after little more than only one year he had to leave because of financial debt and lack of adequate funds from Allan. Poe went on to enlist himself in the army where he finished and published his first poetry collection Tamerlane and Other Poems.
These works received no recognition. When his second set of works appeared in 1829, it received only slight attention. Also in 1829 Poe was honorably discharged from the army, having attained the rank of regimental sergeant major, and was then admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point (Gale Research p. 1). However because Allan would neither provide Poe with sufficient funds to maintain himself as a cadet nor give the consent necessary to resign from the Academy, Poe gained a dismissal by ignoring his duties and violating regulations.
He went on to New York after this where his third collection of works were published and then he moved on to Baltimore. Over the next few years the first of Poe's short stories appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier and his "MS. Found in a Bottle" won a cash prize for the best story in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor (Gale Research p. 2). Despite this Poe was still broke and the death of Allan didn't provide him with any legacy.
Finally things began to look up financially when he accepted an editorship at The Southern Literary Messenger. His writing for the Messenger exhibited a unique talent for criticism characterized by a probing analytical quality (Bloom, Harold p. 1). With this job Poe made himself known as a wonderful author of all types of writing and as a critic with such imagination and insight that the world has yet to see someone as brilliant as he. After his wife's death from tuberculosis in1847, Poe became involved in a number of romantic affairs.
It was while he prepared for his second marriage that Poe, for reasons unknown, arrived in Baltimore, and about one month after his arrival he was discovered in a state of semi-consciousness; he died four days later without regaining the necessary lucidity to explain what had happened during the last days of his life (Gale Research p. 2). Aside from a common theoretical basis, there is a psychological intensity that is characteristic of Poe's writings, especially the tales of horror that comprise his best and his best known works (Gale Research, p. 3).
These stories which include "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are often told by a first person narrator, and through this voice Poe probes the workings of a character's psyche (Gale Research, p. 3). This technique foreshadows the psychological explorations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the school of psychological realism (Gale Research, p. 3). The sense of despair and melancholy in his work as well as his well-known concept that the greatest theme for poetry is the "death of a beautiful woman," bear the influence of the Romantic movement (Bloom, Harold p. 1).
It was Poe's particular genius that in his work he gave consummate artistic form both to his personal obsessions and those of previous literary generations, at the same time creating new forms from which provided a means of expression for future artists (Gale Research, p. 4). It was not until the 1941 biography by A. H. Quinn that a balanced view was provided of Poe, his work, and the relationship between that author's life and his imagination (Gale Research, p. 5).
Nevertheless, the identification of Poe with the murderers and madmen of his works survived and flourished in the twentieth century, most prominently in the form of psychoanalytical studies such as those of Marie Bonaparte and Joseph Wood Krutch (Gale Research, p. 5). Added to the controversy over the sanity, or at best the maturity of Poe (Paul Elmer More called him "the poet of unripe boys and unsound men"), it was the question of the value of Poe's works as serious literature (Gale Research p. 5).
Edgar Allan Poe's personal life, especially the stories surrounding his drinking and early death, are dealt with extensively by Poe's contemporary critics as well as those writing in the twentieth century (Bloom, Harold p. 491). In their confusion of the man and his literary creations, certain critics have ascribed to Poe a morbidity of character and a cruel and unnatural temperament. (Bloom, Harold p. 491).
This critical attitude was adumbrated by the publication of Poe's letters under the direction of R. W. Griswold, his literary executor (Bloom, Harold p. 491). Griswold, for reasons unknown, sought to defame Poe by falsifying his letters and printing forged material that portrayed Poe as a bizarre and menacing character (Bloom, Harold p. 491). Although he was ultimately vindicated through the scholarship of A. H. Quinn and others, it has been the work of modern scholars to reestablish Poe's reputation based on the work and not the man (Bloom, Harold p. 491).
Death and Betrayal: The Story Of Poes Life
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born to traveling actors in Boston. He was hit hard with death at a young age as his mother and father both died within two days when Poe was only two years old. The wealthy John Allan and his wife became the legal guardians of young Edgar. When Edgar was fourteen, he met the first woman in his life, Jane Stith Stanard, the inspiration to his poem To Helen(1831). However, Mrs. Stanard passed away only a year after Poe first met her. In 1825 Poe became engaged with Elmira Royster. While he was away from her, he would write her many letters; however, Elmiras parents intercepted the letters.
Edgar wondered why she never replied, and when he went back to see her, he found out that she married someone else. This left Poe in a very depressed state. Poes relationship with the Allans was never secure, and this became evident when John Allan refused to pay Edgars debts at the University of Virginia. Edgar was then kicked out of school. In the next couple of years Poe has to fight through the death of his foster mother and his brother. Then in 1833 he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm. John Allan died a year later. He then married his cousin Virginia three years later.
Virginia then died in 1842 (Anderson 9-64). Poe was introduced to death and betrayal throughout his young life leaving him in a very depressed state, and these traits are present throughout his short stories and poems. Edgar Allan Poes life had a lot to do with his madness in his writings. This is present in Poes short story The Black Cat(1843). On the night of the day on which this most cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing.. The destruction was complete.
My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair (The Black Cat 225). This excerpt from The Black Cat typified Poes life. His life was a total destruction. While Poe was an adult, he said that the fire that destroyed the Richmond Theater and killed seventy-two people also took the lives of his parents (Anderson 11-12). However, this is not true as his mother died of tuberculosis and his father abandoned his family and his death is unknown. Poe is thought to have said this primarily because this elucidation brings forth a dramatic light (Anderson 12) on his younger years (Anderson 12).
The fire also symbolizes complete moral disintegration (Gargano 91). The only thing left after the fire was the wall with the portraiture (Gargano 91) of Pluto. The only thing that survived the conflagration would bedevil him by his ineradicable sin against his own nature (Gargano 91). In Edgar Allan Poes life everything that made him happy would be destroyed mostly from death. As an adult Poe is thought to have been impotent. The hanging of the cat in The Black Cat is used to symbolize the impotence of Poe (Hoffman 86). The hanging of the black cat comes next.
Princess Bonaparte considers the hung cat to be not in fact the victim of the impenitent narrator, but the penis of the impotent author. The cat is so emphatically a wife-substitute, though , that I find it difficult to think it at the same time a penis-substitute. I prefer to think that hanging can represent female impotence as well as male, and that Poes mad narrator is displacing onto the surrogate for his wife, whose passion, whose clutching bites and embraces menace him, the impotence which he himself cannot escape (Hoffman 86).
From Poes childhood we can determine the effect of his foster fathers inability to produce a baby on his sex life (Canby 144). If Mr. Krutchs theory of sexual impotence with a consequent singularity in his relations with women, still awaits more knowledge of Poes youth, it is sufficiently substantiated in his later life and work to serve as a handle for criticism (Canby 144). The two cats in The Black Cat are very closely related. It was a black cat a very large one fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one (The Black Cat 226). The happiness of the narrator is being blocked by the two cats.
He believes that the two cats are assessing and blaming him (Knapp 146). In Poes life there were many things that prevented him from having happiness. His foster parents did not show him the love and affection that a young boy needs. Poe was miserable from the moment he became a part of their family. Also, Poes first fianc left him for someone else. The Allans and his first fiance represent the two cats in the story. Poe was introduced to death and betrayal throughout his young life leaving him in a very depressed state, and these traits are present throughout his short stories and poems.
Most of the mystery of Poe is gone; however, some is still left (Canby 144). We know, in fact almost too much about Poe or rather, too many Poes for a clear picture of the man and an easy comprehension of his work. There is no mystery left in him except the mystery of art, and yet it is as a man of mystery that he is constantly presented. Contradictory, extraordinary, perverse, he certainly is, but not mysterious except in so far as the sources of beauty are always mysterious. Few writers have left more abundant evidence of the workings of their minds.
Few writers have had the nature of their minds, with the impact of circumstances upon them, so elaborately analyzed and explained (Canby 144). Circumstances throughout Poes life are illustrated throughout the short story The Black Cat. His impotence is symbolized by the hanging of the first cat. The fire that burned down the narrators house represents the fire at the Richmond Theater. Finally, Poe was a miserable man that led a tough life and left him in eternal grievance as shown by the melancholy in his writings.
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Edgar Allan Poe Biography Essay
September 1, 2019 by Ihor
Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809, deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from tale to art. He for the most part created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time. Poe died Oct. 7, 1849. Poe's parents were touring actors; both died before he was three years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Va. , and baptized Edgar Allan Poe.
His childhood was uneventful, although he studied for ive years in England between the years of 1815 through 1920. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia, however, he only attended for a year. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his girlfriend. Having no where to turn, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however, already written and printed his first book at his own expense: Tamerlane and Other Poems, verses written in the manner of Byron.
Temporarily approved, Allan secured Poe's release from the army and his ppointment to West Point but refused to provide financial support. After six months Poe apparently contrived to be dismissed from West Point for disobedience of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed the funds for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe. Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories, all comic or satiric.
Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and arried Virginia, who was not yet fourteen years old. His contributions undoubtedly increased the magazine's circulation, but they offended its owner, who also took exception to Poe's drinking. In New York City, then in Philadelphia and again in New York Poe sought to establish himself as a force in literary journalism, but with only moderate success. He did succeed, however, in formulating influential literary theories and in demonstrating mastery of the forms he favored, highly musical poems and short prose narratives.
The tale Poe considered his finest, "The Fall of The House of Usher," which was to become ne of his most famous stories. Virginia's death in January 1847 was a heavy blow, but Poe continued to write and lecture. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. In a brief obituary the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of congestion of the brain. The short story is a prose narrative that can be told or read on a single occasion.
It is believed to be the oldest form of prose fiction. Originating with primitive accounts of supernatural encounters, short narratives ave existed in the form of parables, fairy tales, folk tales, legends, and fables throughout history. Edgar Allan Poe perfected what has come to be known as the classic form, as opposed to the later hard-boiled form developed in the 1920s. The classic form is the story in which a seemingly impossible crime has been committed and the detective relies on his or her superior perception, intellect, and often arcane knowledge to solve the mystery.
The fall of The House of Usher Edgar Allan Poes, " The Fall of the House of Usher" takes on the same basic literary themes as do most of his stories, suspense mparticular. However, he also uses the supernatural in this story as well. Poes vast description enables the reader to place himself with the narrator, and get a better feeling of what is truly going on with the story. Using a nameless narrator allows the reader to use his imagination on to what the narrator looks like; is it the reader himself? Poe? or a figment of Poes imagination?
That is to forever be unknown. However, it is also part of the reason Poes work has become the superlative of the short story. The story takes place mainly in the House of the Usher family, the exact location in is ot mentioned, however, the surroundings seem very gloomy; the house itself is described as decaying, Poe obviously was trying to give the reader a mental image of a dark, immense, house, isolated from the world. Throughout the story, Poe's imagery of the house and the inanimate objects inside serve to give a supernatural atmosphere to the story.
By giving inanimate objects almost life-like characteristics, he is giving the house a supernatural quality. This supernatural element serves to make Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" interesting and suspenseful in his treatment of the house's effect on its nhabitants. It also allows the house to become, in my opinion, the most important character of the story, although it is inanimate. However, three tangible characters play the decisive role in this story: Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher, and the un-named narrator.
Lady Madeline, the twin sister of Roderick Usher, is introduced as a character, however, never speaks a word throughout the entire story. In fact, she is absent from most of the book. Poe seems to present her as a ghostlike figure. Lady Madeline had the tendency to roam the house, not taking notice to anything, or anyone. According to the arrator, Lady Madeline "passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed [his] presence, disappeared. At the narrator's arrival, she goes to her bedroom and falls into a catatonic state.
The narrator, after the decision that she is not waking up, helps bury and put her away in a vault, however, with her reappearance, he flees. It becomes apparent that Madeline had fallen to the mental disorder which seems to plague the House of Usher. Roderick Usher, the old child hood friend of the narrator, and head of the house, plays a rather distinctive role in the story. He comes rom a rather wealthy family in which he now stakes claim to the family money. Roderick, as the narrator tells the reader, had once been an attractive man. However, his appearance deteriorated over time.
At first meeting with Roderick, the narrator spoke of the radical change in his friends appearance, to the point in which "I doubted to whom I spoke. " Roderick's altered appearance probably was caused by his insanity. The narrator notes various symptom from which he bases his opinion that Roderick is not mentally sane: excessive nervous agitation. His actions were alternately vivacious and sullen, his voice varied apidly from a tremulous indecision. Roderick's state worsens throughout the story. He becomes increasingly restless and unstable, especially after the burial of his sister.
He is not able to sleep and claims that he hears noises. Generally, Roderick is an unstable man, his capability to remain sane is far gone at the point in which he is introduced. The narrator, although he remains nameless, appears to be a man of common sense. He shows his good heartedness in going to help an old child hood friend, whom he has lost contact with prior to the letter sent by Roderick. With his arrival to the house, he observes Usher nd concludes that his friend has a mental disorder. He looks for natural scientific explanations for what Roderick senses.
The narrator's tone throughout the story suggests that he cannot understand Usher. Oddly enough, it becomes obvious in the beginning of the story that the narrator is superstitious. When he looks upon the house, even before he met Roderick Usher, he observes "There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition. " When he and Roderick go down to bury Madeline, he speculates that she may not be completely dead yet. However, rather than entioning his suspicion to his friend, he remains silent and continues the burial.
The narrator comes across as more of a practical man, trying to dismiss strange occurrences as coincidence, or natural occurrences. For example, when Roderick claims that there are ghosts in the house, the narrator feels fear too, but he dismisses Roderick's and his own fear by attributing them to a natural cause. In the end, this fear finally overcomes him. The three characters of course are unique people with distinct characteristics, but they are tied together by the same type of mental disorder. All of them suffer from insanity, yet each responds differently.
Lady Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane and continues her life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears realize his mental state and struggles very hard to hold on to his sanity. The narrator, who is slowly but surely contracting the disease, wants to deny what he sees, hears, and senses. Unlike the other two characters, however, he escapes the insanity that is, The House of Usher. In The Fall of the House of Usher has an unusual conflict occurring. Unlike most stories, the conflict does not fall etween to animate objects, instead it falls between man, and a inanimate object, a house.
Although the conflict is not coming from the house itself, however, more the supernatural beings which inhabit it. They do, however, reflect themselves upon the house. In this case, the house and its beings which inhabit it, reign over the characters. In the story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe explores the inner workings of the human imagination but, at the same time, cautions the reader about the destructive dangers which can result from it. When fantasy suppresses reality, as in Roderick's case, what esults is madness and the decay of mental stability.
Madeline's return and death reunites the twin natures of their single being. The focus of this story is the narrator's reaction to and understanding of these strange events. To look into the dark imagination where fantasy becomes reality is to evoke madness and loss of stability. The narrator has made a journey into the unknown world of the mind and is nearly destroyed by it. The Masque of The Red Death The story covers a period of approximately six months during the reign of the Red Death. The action takes place in the deep seclusion of the main charactor, Prince
Prosperos castle, in which he has invited the higher standing people of his village. Here these people will stay until the Red Death has passed the town by. In party, food, wine and dancing, they will all live, while the lower class townspeople die. The masque takes place in the imperial suite which consisted of seven, very distinct rooms. This story has no characters in the usual sense which stand out in order to give the story a more in-depth view to the characters . The only character whom speaks is Prince Prospero. His name suggests happiness and good fortune, however, ironically that is not the case.
Within the Prince's abbey, he has created a world of his imagination with masked figures that reflect his own personal tastes. These dancers are all a product of the Prince's imagination, Poe refers to them as "a multitude of dreams. " Even when the "Red Death" enters, Poe refers to this character as figure or a mummer who "was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. " The conflict in this story is very obvious. On the surface it is apparent that conflict is between the "Red Death" and the people within the castle.
However, an underlying conflict can be seen if approached correctly. In my opinion, the conflict can be seen as one between those who feel that their lives are more precious then others, therefor they try to escape death by secluding themselves from those with less money and lower social status. I find the theme of this story to be the most noticeable of all compared to other works of Poe. Poe, without question, is trying to show that no one escapes death. Human happiness, as represented by Prince Prospero, seeks to wall out the threat of death. Death comes like a thief is the night, without warning.
Obviously, this is shown in the story, for no walls, money, or ime was going to save these people from the inevitable appearance of the red death. Poe, for the most part, uses an allegory as the literary theme in "The Masque of the Red Death. " I do not see the story as one intended to scare or keep the reader in suspense, however, more to leave the reader with a message concerning death, and trying to prevent the inevitable. Very little description is used throughout the story, excluding the description the most important roles in the story; the seven rooms, and the "Red Death.
I believe this is written the way it is in order to keep the reader focused on what is important, hat is underneath the surface. The Tell Tale Heart The story covers a period of approximately eight days with most of the important action occurring each night around midnight. The location is the home of an elderly man in which the narrator has become a caretaker. The main scene takes place on the eighth night of the story, starting at twelve o clock at night and ending some time after four thirty in the morning.
This story contains a nameless narrator, an old man and the police who enter near the end of the story after the mention, that they were called by a neighbor whose suspicions had been aroused upon hearing a cream in the night. The narrator however, becomes the true focus of the tale. This narrator may be male or female because Poe uses only "I" and "me" in reference to this character. It can be assumed by the readers that the narrator is a male because of a male author using a first person point of view; however, it is quite possible that the narrator might very well be a female.
Poe was creating a story whose impact could be changed simply by imagining this horrendous and vile deed being committed by a woman. The theme of this story is based around the idea that human nature and morality can force a erson to feel a guilt so strong, that it might force you to believe things that are not so. Human nature is a delicate balance of good and evil. Most of the time this balance is maintained; however, when there is a shift, for whatever reason, the dark side tends to surface.
How and why this dark side emerges differs from person to person. What may push one individual over the edge will only cause a minor distraction in another. In this case, it is the vulture eye of the old man that makes the narrator unable to bare his presence for much longer. It is this irrational fear which evokes the dark side of the narrator, nd eventually leads to murder. The narrator plans, executes and conceals the crime. However, it is not to be concealed for long, for the constant nagging of the narrators deed is soon to evoke a confession.
The conflict in "The Tell Tail Heart" is not only between the old man and the narrator, however it is also between the narrator and his or her own self. The conflict between the narrator and the old man is more of a one sided disharmony. The narrator finds the, what is to be believed, dead eye to be intolerable, however, the old man is unaware of these feelings. The conflict is between him or her self and the eye f the old man. That dispute seems to be settled after the murder of the old man by the narrator. However, it is soon seen that the conflict, after all, was between the narrator alone, not anything, or anyone else.
The narrator thought that the murder of the old man would rid him or her of the dilemma of the evil eye, this, as was seen is not true. Even after the death, the narrator feels the presence, and hears the heart of the old man beating. As in almost all of Poes works, suspense is used plentifully throughout the story. It is used very strongly with towards the end of the story, during the part concerning the ead heart beating. Irony, however, is also used, although sparingly. The perfect murder, as it was thought by the narrator, on the contrary, it failed due to a hasty confession.
The Cask of Amontillado The story begins around dusk, one evening during the carnival season in an unnamed European city. The atmosphere is set along the lines of the period of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The location quickly changes from the lighthearted activities associated with such a festival to the damp, dark catacombs under Montressor's large estate which helps to establish the sinister atmosphere of the story. The change from he lively carnival progressing in the streets, to the menacing catacombs leaves for an interesting setting change.
Although several characters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon Montresor, the diabolical narrator of this tale of horror, who pledges revenge upon Fortunato, a long time friend of his for an insult, said long ago, that was misinterpreted. When the two meet during the carnival season, there is a warm greeting with excessive shaking of hands which Montresor attributes to the fact that Fortunato had been drinking. Montresor also appears to be happy to see Fortunato, although it is in false retense.
Fortunato's clown costume is appropriate for the carnival season. owever, also ironic, for what is to take place, is anything but a joke. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a sufficient tale of revenge. Montresor pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. He intends to seek vengeance in support of his family motto: "No one assails me with impunity. " It is important for Montresor to have his victim know what is happening to him. Montresor will derive pleasure from the fact that his victim, Fortunato, will suffer the pain of being buried alive, and be aware of the fact all along. Poe oes not intend for the reader to sympathize with Montresor because he has been wronged by Fortunato, but rather to judge him.
In structure, there can be no doubt, that both Montresor's plan of revenge and Poe's story are carefully crafted to create the desired effect of pure evil. The conflict in this story is the bond that holds the story together. As said before, the insult in-which Fortunato inflicted on Montresor sometime in the past, has led up to this night, in-which Montresor finds adequate to seek revenge. After a friendly meeting, and invite back to his home, Montresor begins to bask in the pleasure of knowing hat his foes doom in approaching. Luring Fortunato with a very fine wine, Amontillado, both men make their way to Montresors cask.
Aware of the fact that Fortunato is feeling the affects of the alcohol, Montresor makes his move. The story moves to Montresor placing the bricks tier by tier to cover the wall in-which he has chained Fortunato in. As the last brick is places, Fortunato begins to play the whole thing off as a joke, however, he soons realizes it it anything but that. It grows quite for a short time, but then Montresor hears the sinister laugh of his foe followed by no explanation. Poe, using again a ustomary literary technique, turns foreshadowing. Although there are hints of other techniques, I feel that foreshadowing is best represented.
Throughout the walk towards Montresors casks, he is constantly dropping hints on to what is about to take place " the cough is merely nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. " " True, true. " Obviously, Montresor is not intending to give away his plan, however, it seems that he is amusing himself with his clues that Fortunato is not paying any attention to. Although it is hinted in the beginning of the story about what is to be Fortunatos fate, it s never specifically stated. The clues that Montresor drops along the lines of conversation allow us to get a clearer idea of what is to take place.
The Black Cat As the story begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator pens. The story moves to the events occurring prior to his crime. The narrator tells of the events occurring, taking place mainly in his home, however, moving only seldomly to other locations, such as the local tavern. Although several haracters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon the, again nameless narrator.
He speaks of himself with the up-most regard until the events in-which he is focusing on begin to occur. It is easy to point out that the man's personality had undergone a drastic transformation which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol seemed to evoke. The reader also discovers that the narrator is superstitious. Oddly, he states that he once was especially fond of animals, and he was pleased to find a similar fondness for pets in his wife. The cat was a large, beautiful nimal who was entirely black. Pluto, as he was called, was the narrator's favorite pet.
He alone fed him, and Pluto followed the narrator wherever he went. Two minor roles are played by the narrators wife, and the local police department, whom discover the body of the narrators murdered wife. "The Black Cat" unlike "The Tell Tale Heart" does not deal with premeditated murder. It is explained that the narrator appears to be a happily married man, who has always been exceedingly kind and gentle. He attributes his downfall to perverseness. Perverseness provides the rationale for otherwise unjustifiable cts, such as killing the first cat or rapping with his cane upon the plastered-up wall behind which stood his wife's corpse.
He had no justification for this, yet proceeded to do so as he wished. It can be argued that what the narrator calls perverseness is actually the working of his conscience. Guilt about his alcoholism seems to the narrator the perverseness which causes him to kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife who had shown him the gallows on the second cat's breast. The narrators feeling of triumph after thinking he had covered his crime perfectly shows his otal disregard for the life of his loved one. Poe uses two literary techniques that in-turn make up the bulk of the story.
Foreshadowing and flashback are clearly shown throughout the story. Poe's pronounced use of foreshadowing leads the reader from one event to the next by using such statements as "one night," "one morning," "on the night of the day. " Within the first few paragraphs of the story, the narrator foreshadows that he will violently harm his wife. The most important foreshadowing clue given is the fact that the story starts off with the narrator in prison awaiting his xecution, this alone shows that sometime before the conclusion of the story that the narrators fate will take a treacherous turn.
The story itself is based upon a flashback. The narrator is writing his story as he awaits his execution, all of what is being told had already occurred. This leaves the reader to speculate the reasons why the narrator is telling his story from prison. Poe, in his tradition, allows suspense to play a role through telling the story in a flashback style. The conflict, as in "The Tell Tale Heart" is not only between the narrator and an outside character, however, it is also with himself. The obvious conflict is between the two black cats and the narrator.
It is stated that the conflict peeked with the minor attack of the cat on the mans hand, however, the narrator is not sure why his feelings towards the animal changed, although he believes that alcohol played a role in that. On the other hand, a conflict, the most important one at that, seems to take place in the narrator himself. Superstition mixed with the effects of alcohol seemed to place the man in a demented state. Oddly, he committed his most brutal act of killing his wife while he was not under the influence. It is not directly stated what ade the man snap as he did, possibly that is what Poe wanted, for us to decide on our own.
The wild, eerie and wildly tormented world of Edgar Allan Poe has enchanted the reader of his work since after his death.. His achievements are particularly great considering the miserable life he led, both personally and publicly. Poes stories remain different, yet similar at the same time, able to tie into each other however in a way, completely abstract from any other. Although he was never an acclaimed writer until after his death, his work up to this day and those preceding it, will be remembered as great works.
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
In the poem, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, a simple bird harasses the narrator. The bird, a raven, enters through the window that the narrator opens in order to find out who or what is tapping at the window. The narrator is obviously depressed over the loss of his love, Lenore; however other than that there are no other indications of mental illness. Some could argue that the Raven is just a figment of the speakers imagination, but upon further analysis the raven is indeed real. While reading the poem, one can find that there is physical evidence scattered throughout.
First of all, the raven flies in from the outside as poems speaker opens the window. This one thing alone proves that bird is tangible. Then as the poem progresses, the narrator always says Quoth the raven, Nevermore he never states that the raven directly says nevermore. He only quotes what the raven croaks and all quotes can be left to interpretation. In the final stanza, it is noted that the raven has a shadow, And the lamp-light oer him streaming throws his shadow on the floor. If the bird was imaginary, then the light would obviously pass through it, thus producing no shadow.
However this is not the case, in this situation. With this physical evidence alone, it can be deduced that the raven is indeed real, but the narrators mental state also contributes to this fact. The speaker, despite being depressed, describes the scene with such great detail. Anyone, who supposedly has no mental stability, does not describe things in such painstaking detail. The passage, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor, gives the reader the sense that the narrator knows exactly what he is talking about.
In the opening line of the second stanza the speaker says, Ah, distinctly I remember it. The narrator would not have the ability to say that he remembers the event distinctly, if he were not sound of mind. The speakers state of mind may alter the way that things are portrayed in the poem. An examination of the narrators relationship with the bird reveals that the bird is present, however what the raven is croaking is in the mans imagination. When the narrator hears the raven croaking all he hears is the word nevermore. He is thinking about his lost love Lenore, whom he will never see again.
So he just hears this word over and over again in his head. A glance at the questions that the speaker asks the raven reveal that they could all can be answered with never more. If the bird were imaginary, then the man would make him say more that nevermore. The man is asking questions that when answered negatively make him progressively mentally unstable. He knows the answers to these questions himself, however he is waiting for someone or something else to confirm his fears. So he uses the ravens croaking as the confirmations that he needs to get out of his denial.
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Edgar Allen Poe: Writing Style
The short story writer which I have chosen to research is Edgar Allen Poe. After reading one of his works in class, I realized that his mysterious style of writing greatly appealed to me. Although many critics have different views on Poe's writing style, I think that Harold Bloom summed it up best when he said, "Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives. " ( 7) For me, this is done through his use of setting and narrative style.
In many of Poe's works, setting is used to paint a dark and gloomy picture in our minds. I think that this was done deliberatly by Poe so that the reader can make a connection between darkness and death. For example, in the "Pit and the Pendulum", the setting is originally pitch black. As the story unfolds, we see how the setting begins to play an important role in how the narrator discovers the many ways he may die. Although he must rely on his senses alone to feel his surroundings, he knows that somewhere in this dark, gloomy room, that death awaits him.
Richard Wilbur tells us how fitting the chamber in "The Pit and the Pendulum" actually was. "Though he lives on the rink of the pit, on the very verge of the plunge into unconciousness, he is still unable to disengage himself from the physical and temperal world. The physical oppreses him in the shape of lurid graveyard visions; the temporal oppreses him in the shape of an enormous and deadly pendulum. It is altogether appropriate, then, that this chamber should be constricting and cruelly angular" (63). Setting is also an important characteristic is Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher".
The images he gives us such as how both the Usher family and the Usher mansion are crumbling from inside waiting to collapse, help us to onnect the background with the story. Vincent Buranelli says that "Poe is able to sysatin an atomosphere which is dark and dull. This is one of the tricks which he laregely derived from the tradition of the Gothic tale" (79). The whole setting in the story provides us with a feeling of melancholy. The Usher mansion appears vacant and barren. The same is true for the narrator.
As we picture in our minds the extreme decay and decomposistion, we can feelas though the life around it is also crumbling. Narration is also an element in Poe's short story style that appears to link all of the stories together. He has a type of creativity which lets the reader see into the mind of the narrator or the main character of the story. Many of the characters in Poe's stories seem to be insane. The narrator often seems to have some type of psychological problems. For exapmle, In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado, " the story opens with a first person narrator (Montresor) speaking about the planning of Fortunato's death.
By the anger and remorse that Montresor has for Fortunato, one might think that this was a recent incident. It is not until the very end of the story that we realize, that the entire event ccurred fifty years ago. David Herbert Lawrence says, "To the characters in Poe's story, hate is as inordinate as live. The lust of hate is the inordinate desire to consume and unspeakably possess the soul of the hated one, just as the lust of live is the desire to possess or be possessed be the beloved, uterly. " (33).
Poe's stories often have narrators that feel extreme hate or extreme love for another character in the story. Another example of Poe's narrative style is seen in his story entitled," The Black Cat", where the narrator seems to have an obsession with pets. He has one "special" pet which is a black cat. Although their original relationship with each other is one of respect and love, the situation soon changes. The narrator becomes somewhat possessed with the hate for the car. He turns against his wife and stabs his cat in the eye.
By the end of the story, he killed his wife in an attempt to kill the cat. Afterwards, the narrator does not even feel remorse for the wrongful death of his wife. Instead, he is just happy that the cat dissapeared. This is just another instance in which the reader wonders what s the driving force begins the narrator's insanity. Buranelli, "In both Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and his "The Black Cat", the barrators act without conscience. There are no doubts, hesitiations or second thought to impede the narrative. Both narrators just sought revenge" (77).
Even though there are many more elements to Edgar Allan Poe's short stories than just his creative use of narration and setting, these are characteristivs which has attracted the most attention. Poe has a way of writing in which he does not have to reveal too much, or paint a pretty picture or the reader in order to attract his attention. In D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature, the author states, "Poe's narrowness is like that of a sword, not that of a bottleneck: it is effective rather than constricting.
Nothing adventitious is in his great stories, only the essentials, the mininum of characterization, plot, and atmosphere. By ridding himself of everything except what is precisely to the point, he achieves unity of effect. " (66). There is also a prominent distinction between right and wrong in Poe's tories. Viscous characters tend to come to a bad end. This lets the reader accept these endings as a triumph of good over evil. As stated by Buranelli: "He has created a universe, given it psychological laws without denying the existence of the moral law, and peopled it with characters appropriate to such a universe.
Puttng overt mortality out of bounds helps to give him uniqueness" (74). After researching Edgar Allan Poe more in depth, I now have a much greater respect for him and a slightly different perspective of his stories. While it is still evident to me that narrative style and setting have a great eal to do with the development of Poe's short stories, I also realise now that we can't overlap and intertwine with other aspects of the story, making them equally as important.
I will end with a quote found in Vincent Buranelli's Edgar Allan Poe: "Even though Poe is often looked upon as a gifted psychopath who is describing with consumate artistry his personal instablities and abnormalitiesm the fact remains that his superiority is more than a matter of art. There is a violent realism in his macabre writings unequaled by the Americans who worked in the same genre. "
Edgar Allan Poe – America writer
Edgar Allen Poe by, Brandon Derr January 15, 1999 Edgar Allen Poe, an America writer, was known as a poet and critic but was most famous as the master of short stories, particularly tales of the mysterious and the macrabe. The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have continued to be popular and many American and European writers have declared their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early childhood and was raised by John Allen, a successful business man of Richmond, Virginia.
Taken by the Allen family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private schools. He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster father, angry by the young man's drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties violently, he quit the job as a clerk, thus estranging Allen, and went to Boston. There his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), was published anonymously.
Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the United States Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he completed a agreement with Allen, who secured him an appointment to the United States Military Academy. After only a few months at the Military Academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her eleven-year-old daughter, Virginia Clemm.
The following year his tale "A MS. Found in a Bottle" won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. From 1835 to 1836, Poe was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his young cousin. Throughout the next decade, much of which was linked by his wife's long illness, Poe worked as an editor for several periodicals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, recorded by contemporaries, may have contributed to his early death.
Poetry and Essays Among Poe's poetic output, about a dozen poems are exceptional for their perfect literary construction and for their haunting themes and rhymes. In "The Raven" (1845), for example, the narrator is astounded by depressed omens of death. Poe's extraordinary manipulation of rhythm and sound is particularly evident in "The Bells" (1849), a poem that seems to echo with the chiming of metallic instruments, and "The Sleeper" (1831), which reproduces the state of drowsiness. "Lenore" (1831) and "Annabel Lee" (1849) are verse lamentations on the death of a beautiful young woman.
In the course of his editorial work, Poe functioned largely as a book reviewer and produced significant body of criticism; his essays were famous for their sarcasm, wit, and exposure of literary pretension. His evaluations have withstand the test of time and have earned for him a high place among American literary critics. Poe's theories on the nature of fiction and, in particular, his writings on the short story have had a lasting influence on American and European writers. Stories Poe, by his own choice, was a poet, but economic necessity forced him to turn to the relatively profitable genre of prose.
Whether or not Poe invented the short story, it is certain that he originated the novel of detection. Perhaps his best-known tale in this genre is "The Gold Bug" (1843), about a search for buried treasure. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), "The Mystery of Marie Roget" (1842-1843), and "The Purloined Letter" (1844) are regarded as forefathers of the modern mystery , or detective, story. Many of Poe's tales are distinguishing by the authors unusual grotesque inventiveness in addition to his marvelous plot construction.
Such stories include "The Narrative of Arthur Gorden Pym" (1838), noted for its blend of factual and fantastic material; "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), in which the piercing gloominess of the character is accented equally with plot and characterization; "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842), a exhilarating tale of cruelty and torture; "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), in which a deranged murderer is subconsciously haunted into confessing hisguilt; and "The Cask of the Amontillado" (1846), an eerie tale of revenge.
June 23, 2019 June 20, 2019 by Avalon Avalonovych
Few American authors have obtained the level of popularity that Edgar Allen Poe has risen to. This popularity and his trademark macabre writing style have made some of his literary works such as The Raven a long-time classic in literature. This work in particular, exhibits some characteristics of folklore. Folklore has long been associated with oral passage, custom-related themes and unknown authors; however, I believe that there are exceptions to the typical definition and that almost all literary works, old and new, have at least a trace element of folklore contained within them.
The Raven is a poem that, which at first glance depicts a man reading a book (about "forgotten lore") in his bedroom late at night that seems to be on the edge of sanity. After a series of tappings at his bedroom door he later finds a bird perched above his door. He asks the bird several questions, all of which are answered with, "nevermore." After reading the poem carefully it is apparent that the man is mourning over his beloved Lenore. The man believes the raven will end his sorrow, "respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore." (Nepenthe is a reference from The Odyssey of a drug that prevents grief) In the end the bird ends up robbing the man of his hope, "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted nevermore!"
There are several superstitious references throughout the poem, the first and most obvious is the raven. The raven can also be classified as a myth or legend – the taker of souls and deliverer of death. The raven has long been associated with both evil and death. Why would Poe choose a raven as the messenger of nevermore? I believe the bird was chosen because of its ability to fly and ascend into the heavens and its legendary status as a "soul taker." Poe writes, "And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul out of that shadow that lies floating on the floor; Shall be lifted – nevermore." There is an old superstition that anyone who falls under a raven's shadow will have his soul taken from him. It is that superstition which Poe uses to doom the man in his bedroom. The man will forever dwell in misery and lost hope.
The raven is not the only mythological reference throughout the poem. Poe makes a reference to Pallas, which is another name for the Greek goddess of warfare Athena. Poe writes, "Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door – perched, and sat, and nothing more." The image of the raven perched on the goddess of war fills the mind with images of violence, loss of hope, doom, and insanity, which seems to be part of the theme in the poem. There is another reference made to a mythological character, Pluto. Pluto, according to legend, is the god of the underworld or Hell. The man believes that the raven "wanders from the Plutonian night's shore." This further perpetuates the underling theme of darkness and doom.
Color is a symbolic part of the poem. There are several references made to the color black, which is tied customarily to funeral attire, evil, death, and the over-all fear of the night. There is one particular reference made to a dirge, which implants dark images in the readers mind. The black raven, which is part of the evil and dark motif in the poem, robs the man of his soul on a late bleak December night. Late bleak December is synonymous with frigid cold, pain, depression, and an overall lack of color. This (late bleak December) is a description of the inhospitable climate in which the misery associated with the raven thrives. The use of color is powerful throughout the poem and could lead to a tremendous amount of interpretation.
The Raven incorporates myths, legends, superstitions, and a motif making it one of Poe's most interesting pieces. The poem is written in a way that leaves the ending up to the interpretation of the reader. Does the man die or does he go insane? My personal interpretation is that the man will dwell in constant state of morning for Lenore. Had Poe not incorporated the myths, superstitions, legends, and the symbolic motif of the raven the poem would not have had the same impact. It is those ingredients that give the poem flavor, set the mood, and provide titillating imagery.
Categories Essay, The Raven Tags Edgar Allan Poe, Lenore Leave a comment
June 20, 2019 by Avalon Avalonovych
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells —
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells !
This quote from Edgar Allen Poes The Bells, is one poem that had great influence on early 19th century literature. During the early 1800s , writers Poe, Irving, and Cooper display characteristics of Romantic writers.
Cooper diplays characters with honest expression to their feelings. This appeal to emotion rather then reason is one characteristic of Romanticism. Deerslayer raised the Indian in his arms, and carried him to the lake..and took the head of his wounded adversary in his own lap, and endeavored to sooth his anguish in the best manner he could. This appeal to emotion rather then reason is one characteristic of Romanticism. Another is Coopers interest in nature, he describes the beauties of the American wilderness It was already quiet near the point. He was entirely on his own resources, and was cheered by no friendly eye, emboldened by no encouraging voice.
Another important influential writer of the early 1800s is Irving. His essay Early Life In Manhattan shows an interest in the unusual. Romantic writers were always persuing the strange and out-of-the-way, seldom did they write on the average and the ordinary. As he satirized housewives and homelife of that time he grabbed the attention of many readers. The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the discipline if mops and brooms and scrubbing brushes; and the good housewives of those days were a kind of amphibious animalhistorian of the day tell us townswomen grew to have webbed fingers like tat of a duck. Irving also mocks the behavior of the young boys at tea parties. wealthy gentlemen, with their brains in their pockets, nor amusing conceits and monkey divertissements of smart young gentlemen with no brains at all. Irvings style was to look at the customs and traditions of an era and to view the strange characterics and mannerisms in his writings. He was very influential. Irving made people really look at their behavior and traditions that they follow.
The third writer who was part of the Romantic movement is Edgar Allen Poe. He was mostly famous for writing about the strange and unusual by exploring the dark areas of his mind. In The Fall of the House of Usher the setting symbolises how he really feels inside. As I read the story I was really able to feel the sadness. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens. The setting is gloomy, the story does not have one happy word, expression, or feeling in it. The setting the windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within an air of stern, deep and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all. Poes interest in the strange and unusual and his appeal to emotion rather then reason which have a predominant effect are what make his work some of the greatest examples of Gothic Romanticism.
All of these writers had such profound influences on literature. Cooper, Irving, and Poe all went against what was the norm and wrote on how they were feeling. Their true inside emotions were expressed through their literature. These writers were all so very different from each other. From their writing style, to the topics they wrote on, Cooper, Irving and Poes similar characteristics are difficult to find, but they do come together at one point. Cooper, Poe, and Irving, all display characteristics of Romantic writers.
Categories Poems Tags Edgar Allan Poe, Romanticism, Thomas Cooper, Washington Irving Leave a comment
Edgar Alan Poe – American writer
Taken by the Allan Family to England, at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school upon returning to the US in 1820, he continued to study in private school. He attended the university of Virginia for a year but in 1827 his foster father displeased by the young mans drinking and gambling he refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties intensely, quit the job, and went to Boston. Published his first book in 1827, Tamerland and Other Poems, in 1827, the book was published anonymously.
Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the U. S. Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he effected reconciliation with Allan, who secured him an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. After only a few months at the academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her 11year old daughter, Virginia Clemm. The following year his tale A MS. Found in a Bottle won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor.
From 1835 to 1837 Poe was an editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his young cousin. Throughout the next decade, much of which was marred by his wife's long illness, Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, may have contributed to his early death. The story a Tell-Tale Heart, by Edger Allan Poe is about a crazy man who has an obsession on another persons eye.
His eye was kind of deformed, but to the roommate it was the sign of evil. He has been disgusted of the eye for the longest of time, but has never done anything that will harm the man. After time, the disturbed man plotted against his elderly roommate. During the week that action was going to take place the roommate was being extremely kind to the elderly man. His objective was to get rid the evil eye from his life. In a swift instent, in the bedroom of the old man, the disturbed roommate killed the man and rid himself of his evil eye. His covering up of the incident was, in his opinion, true generous.
The body was dismembered by every part and there was no mess. In the killers mind he wondered how a person who devised such a plan and cover up his tracks so well could be branded crazy. The next afternoon police came to the house. A shriek was heard and foul play was a suspicion. As before the man covered his tracks with virtually no flaw. No evidence of a violent disturbance was seen and an excuse for the absence of the elderly man was made. The man was very confident that his innocence would not be questioned in their mind. In the beginning of the story the man talked of how his sickness sharpened his senses.
Poe's cerebral and eccentric detective Dupin (the ingenious are always fanciful and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic) Because of the power of Poe's narrative voice, many a tale is indelible. Poe's imaginative sociology in The Man of the Crowd will tell you more about loneliness in the crowd than David Riesman did. The psychological analysis in William Wilson is an excellent and frightening exploration of split personality two generations before Freud.
Poe is returned to America through French symbolism, and so made digestible to such important American poets as T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. In opposition to the romantic stress on the expression of personality, Poe insisted on the importance not of the artist, but of the created work of art. He stands as one of the few great innovators in American literature that took his place in international culture as an original creative force.
Edgar Allan Poe: Reflection of His Pessimistic Moods in His Work
Throughout literature, an author's works almost always reflect their mood and character. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer whose short stories and poems reflected his pessimistic moods. One of Poe's poems, "The Raven," is about a raven that flies into the home of a sad and lonely man. This poem best expresses Poe's sense of despair and gloominess because the literary elements used in the poem are a constant reference to them. An example that portrays "The Raven" as a reflection of Poe's despair and gloominess is the poem's setting.
The poem takes place in a haunted house uring a violent storm. For example, in the poem it says, "On this home by horror haunted," and ".. tempest tossed thee here ashore. " The time and place of the poem deliver a feeling of negativity and pessimism to the reader. Poe's use of a depressing and negative setting for "The Raven" illustrates his despair and gloominess. Another example that illustrates the poem as an expression of Poe's mood is the raven itself. A raven is a large bird of the crow family with lustrous black feathers and a straight, sharp beak.
Poe could have used any bird, however e wanted the reader to experience the gloom and despondency that he experienced. Therefore he wrote about a raven. Finally, Poe's use of assonance throughout the poem also contributed to the poem's illustration of despair and gloominess. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sound. For instance, at the end of each stanza it says, "Quoth the raven, Nevermore," "This is it and nothing more," or a phrase ending with the word more. The repetition of these sounds emphasize the words that contribute to the mood of the poem. Nevermore is a negative word meaning never again.
The aven only said this word. Poe emphasizes nevermore because it helps accentuate the depressed and despaired mood of the poem. "The Raven" best reflects Edgar Allan Poe's sense of despair and gloominess because the literary elements of the poem constantly refer to his sadness and gloom. The setting , a major character, and Poe's use of assonance, assist in portraying his pessimistic moods. They each deliver negative feelings to the reader, emphasize the mood of the poem, and illustrate Poe's feelings of despair and sadness. Therefore "The Raven" best expresses Poe's mood.
The writer Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allen Poe who was best known for his poems and short fiction, deserves more credit than any other writer for his transformation of the short story from anecdote to art (1996 Groiler Multimedia). He virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. Edgar also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time – with important theoretical statements on poetry and the short story, that has had a world wide influence on literature.
In this paper I will try to capture the life of Edgar Allen Poe through his childhood and the loss of both his biological parents before the age of three ( Edgar Allen Poe, Buranelli 36). Edgar Allen Poe attended school for 5 years in England, but only briefly in the U. S. at the university of Virginia, due to large gambling debts incurred that his foster farther John Allen refused to pay(Buranelli, 88). His farther also prevented Edgar from returning to the university of Virginia and broke off his engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster( Buranelli, 102).
This Paper will reflect the ups and downs of Edgar's lifelong dream of becoming a journalist and publisher(Life of Edgar Allen Poe, James Molloy). Edgar worked many jobs that provided no future for him most noticeably as a writer for the Philadelphia Saturday courier which also published two of his stories, both comic and satric. Edgar also took on a related job as an editor of the southern literary messenger in Richmond VA in 1835( Edgar Allen Poe, Joseph Lonely 65).
Edgar's life has taken him from many places such as Virginia, Philadelphia, Maryland and overseas to England. Edgar's life tour came to an abrupt end on a Baltimore street in 1849 where he was found unconscious. In a brief obituary the Baltimore clipper reported Poe had died of "congestion of the brain", two years after his wife Virginia's death in January 1847 which caused a heavy mental blow to his ability to write and lecture.
The Life Of Edgar Alan Poe a Biography
He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as of The Raven and Other Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a respected critic and writer. After his wife died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel even faster as he moved about from city to city, lecturing and writing, drinking heavily, and courting several older women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being found semiconscious in a tavern – possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that he was a habitual drunkard and drug addict.
Admittedly a failure in most areas of his personal life, he was recognized as an unusually gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not always appreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre, he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction, and he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American creative artists.
Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second of the three children of David Poe and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, both of whom were rofessional actors and members of a touring theatrical company. Eclipsed by his more famous wife, his own promising career ruined by alcoholism, Poe's father deserted the family when Edgar was still an infant; nothing conclusive is known of his life thereafter. While appearing professionally in Richmond, Virginia, Poe's mother became ill and died on December 8, 1811, at the age of twenty-four.
Her three children, who would maintain contact with one another throughout their lives, were sent to live with different foster families. Edgar became the ward of John Allan, a successful tobacco merchant in Richmond, and his wife Frances, who had no children of their own. Although never formally adopted by them, Poe regarded the couple, especially Mrs. Allan, as parents, and he took their surname as his own middle name. In 1815, business reasons led Allan to move to England for what would be a five-year stay.
Both in London and then in Richmond after the family's return, Poe was well educated in private academies. In 1825, he became secretly engaged to a girl named Elmira Royster. The engagement, opposed by both families, was subsequently broken off. In 1826, Poe entered the University of Virginia, newly founded by former President Thomas Jefferson. He distinguished himself as a student, but he also took to drinking, and he amassed gambling debts of $2,000, a significant amount of money at the time, which John Allan, although he had recently inherited a fortune, refused to honor.
After quarreling with Allan, Poe left Richmond in March 1827 and sailed to Boston, where, in relatively short order, he enlisted in the United States Army (under the name Edgar A. Perry, and claiming to be four years older than his actual age of eighteen) and published a pamphlet called Tamerlane and Other Poems, whose author was cited on the itle page only as "a Bostonian. " This little book did not sell at all, but its few surviving copies are among the most highly prized items in the rare-book market; one accidentally discovered copy, bought for a dollar, was recently auctioned for $150,000.
Poe's military career went more successfully. After two years, he had been promoted to sergeant major, the highest noncommissioned rank. He was honorably discharged in 1829, and decided to seek an appointment to West Point in the hope of becoming a career commissioned officer. He entered West Point in May of 1830, but chafed under the regimen and, after eliberately missing classes, roll-calls, and compulsory chapel attendance, was expelled in January 1831.
He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as of The Raven and Other Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a respected critic and writer. After his wife died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel even faster as he moved about from city to city, lecturing and writing, drinking heavily, and courting several older women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being found semiconscious in a tavern – possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that he as a habitual drunkard and drug addict.
Admittedly a failure in most areas of his personal life, he was recognized as an unusually gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not always appreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre, he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction, and he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American creative artists. In 1829, Poe had published a second collection of verse, which attracted little more attention than its predecessor.
A third volume, funded through contributions from fellow cadets, appeared in 1831. Among its contents was "To Helen," which had been inspired by Jane Stanard, the mother of one his Richmond schoolmates. Poe referred to her as "the first, purely ideal love of my soul. " Also in 1831, Poe went to Baltimore, where he moved in with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm, his father's sister, who was to be the most deeply devoted of his several mother-figures, and her eight-year-old daughter Virginia. It was in this period that he began to achieve wider recognition as a writer.
In 832, he published five tales in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. In 1833, he entered a competition sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter (sic), winning the second prize in poetry for "The Coliseum" and the first prize in fiction for "MS. Found in a Bottle. " In 1834, the publication of "The Visionary" in Godey's Lady's Book marked the first time that his fiction appeared in a magazine of more than local circulation. Frances Allan had died in February 1829, and John Allan, who was by this time permanently alienated from Poe, had remarried in October 1830.
On Allan's death in 1834, Poe received nothing. Effectively disinherited, unsuited for business or the military, Poe turned to journalism, the one avenue likely to afford a successful career to someone of his interests and abilities. Through the recommendation of the novelist John Pendleton Kennedy, who had been one of the judges of the Saturday Visiter contest, Poe began in March 1835 to contribute short fiction and book reviews to the Richmond-based Southern Literary Messenger.
In a period of American literature not notable for them, Poe exhibited coherent aesthetic principles and high critical standards, and within months his vigorous and uncompromising reviews egan to increase the Messenger's circulation and to enhance its reputation, prompting its publisher to make Poe his principal book reviewer and editorial assistant. By the end of the year, Poe, who had moved to Richmond with Virginia and Mrs. Clemm, was named editor in chief. In May of 1836, he secretly married Virginia, his first cousin, who was then not quite fourteen years of age.
Dissatisfied both with his salary and with limits on his editorial independence, he resigned from the Southern Literary Messenger in January 1837. Struggling to support Virginia and Mrs. Clemm through freelance writing, he moved his family first to New York and then to Philadelphia as he sought another editorial position. Despite financial difficulties, Poe was able in this period to advance his own writing career, publishing reviews, poems, and especially fiction in various journals and in several volumes.
In 1839, he began to write regularly for Thomas Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, contributing a feature article and a number of book reviews each month. Once again, Poe's editorship brought dramatic advances in both quality and circulation, but he was dismissed from this osition in June 1840 after once again quarreling with his publisher. Failing in attempts to found his own journal, in 1841 Poe became an editor of Graham's Magazine, a new journal formed by George Graham through a merger of his magazine The Casket with the Gentleman's Magazine, which he had bought from Burton.
Once more the pattern played itself out: the magazine thrived under Poe's direction, he wanted a higher salary and a freer editorial hand, and he left his position–although this time on relatively good terms with the publisher. Poe's personal fortunes once more suffered reverses as his writing career dvanced. In January 1842, Virginia suddenly began to hemorrhage from the mouth, the first indication that she had contracted tuberculosis. She was seriously ill for a time, and would never again be truly healthy. Poe also had renewed difficulties in his attempts to find steady employment.
But in 1843 he published several works, including "The Tell-Tale Heart," in James Russell Lowell's short-lived journal The Pioneer, and in June of that year his story "The Gold-Bug" won a $100 prize in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. Widely reprinted, it made Poe famous with a broad fiction-reading public, but he did not become financially secure. Owing to lax copyright standards at the time that allowed for widespread reprinting–a condition that Poe himself editorialized about–writers did not profit directly from the popularity of their work.
In 1844, Poe moved to New York, where he lectured on American poetry and contributed articles to newspapers and magazines. The year 1845 would bring both triumphs and the beginning of a final downward spiral in Poe's life. His poem "The Raven" appeared in the New York Evening Mirror in January, and was an instant success with both readers and critics. He began writing for the Broadway Journal, became its editor in July, and shortly thereafter fulfilled a longstanding dream by becoming its owner as well.
But a series of articles in which he groundlessly accused Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism did harm to Poe's reputation, and Virginia's health problems became severe. Financial difficulties, his worry over Virginia, and his own precarious physical and emotional state caused him to cease publication of the Broadway Journal after less than six months as its proprietor. He moved out of New York City to a cottage in then-rural Fordham (now a heavily urban section of the Bronx), where in the midst of poverty, ill health, and Virginia's now grave illness, he still somehow continued to earn a small income writing reviews and articles.
A satirical piece on fellow writer Thomas Dunn English provoked from its subject a scurrilous personal attack in the Evening Mirror, which led Poe to sue the publication. Although he would win the suit and collect damages the following year, the whole episode was a great strain upon Poe's already fragile nervous system. On January 30, 1847, Virginia died, plunging Poe into an emotional and physical collapse that lasted for most of the year.
In 1848, he was briefly engaged to marry Sarah Helen Whitman, a widowed poet several years his senior, but their relationship was tense and strained, and the engagement was broken off. He went to Richmond in the summer of 1849, hoping to find financial backing for yet another journal, and while there he was reunited with and re-engaged to Elmira Royster, his first love, now herself a widow. He sailed from Richmond to Baltimore, where on October 3, 1849, he was found outside a olling place (it was election day), in a state of delirium and wearing shabby and ill-fitting clothing.
He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he raved feverishly for several days before dying on October 7 at the age of forty. Neither the circumstances that had led to his condition nor the exact cause of his death have ever been satisfactorily determined. Poe's posthumous reputation sustained grievous and long-lasting damage from a libelous biography by Rufus Griswold, whom Poe himself had appointed his literary executor, and rumors, mostly unfounded, circulate to this day about Poe's mental state and personal habits.
Edgar Allan Poe was not a happy man
He was a good student, but only stayed for a year. He did not have enough money to make ends meet, so he ran up extremely large gambling debts to trying make more money. Then he could not afford to go to school anymore. John Allan refused to pay off Poes debts, and broke off his engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster. Since Poe had no other means of support, he enlisted in the army. By this time however, he had written and printed his first book, Tammerlane, and Minor Poems (1829). 2 After a few months though, John Allan and Poe were reconciled.
Virginia was dying of consumption and had to sleep in an unheated room. After six years of marriage she had become very ill, and her disease had driven Poe to distraction. Virginia died on January 30, 1847, and Poe broke down. It is here that much is learned about him and why he wrote the way he did. All of his life he had wanted to be loved and to have someone to love. Yet one by one, he kept losing the women in his life. His mother, Mrs. Allan, and now Virginia. He had wanted to lead a life of wealth and luxury and still, despite his tremendous talent, was forced to live as a poor man.
When he reached manhood, after a sheltered childhood and teenage years, his life seemed to be caught up in failures. So, he did what most people do. He found a way to escape. His method was writing. He found so much in common with his characters, that his life began to emulate theirs. Although it is probably the other way around. How tragic that the one thing that he was good at never seemed to do him any good. No matter what he wrote, he just kept sinking further and further into an abyss. This abyss could be called death or ultimate despair.
Everything is dark there, from the ebony furniture to the oaken ceiling. The walls are hung with heavy tapestries to which mysterious drafts constantly give a hideous and uneasy animation. Even the windows are of a leaden hue, so that the rays of either sun or moon passing through fall with a ghastly lustre on the objects within. ……. it is usually night in the ghastly (one of his favorite adjectives) or red-blood light of the moon that Poes tales take place-or in the middle of terrific storms lit up by lurid flashes of lightning.
Therefore another point is brought up, was Poe writing these stories as the result of a tortured existence and a need to escape, or was he writing to please readers and critics? In letters he wrote, he often pokes fun at his stories and says that they are sometimes intended as satire or banter. Also in his letters, he describes horrible events seemingly without any concern. So who can tell how he really felt since he might not have been totally sane and rational at the time. Even though Poe writes such bizarre tales he is never quite taken in with them. He fears but is at the same time skeptical.
For example, in The Fall of the House of Usher what kills Roderick Usher is the sheer terror of his sister who appeared to have come back from the dead. According to Marie Bonaparte, one of Freuds friends and disciples, all the disorders Poe suffered from can be explained by the Oedipus Complex and the trauma he suffered when his mother died. The Oedipus Complex is best described as a childs unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex. The desire includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parents death.
In fact, upon examining the women in Poes stories, we find that they bear striking resemblance to the mother that Poe never had. So one gets a glimpse at how Poes life, filled with insurmountable obstacles and full of disappointments, indeed played a role in his writing. A good comparison would be Vincent Van Gogh. He also endured hardship and died at an early age. Poe was only forty when he passed away. Insignificant in his lifetime, it was only after his death that he was appreciated. He is now acclaimed as one of the greatest writers in American history. It is indeed a pity that he will never know or care.
Edgar Allan Poe, A Great Author
Many a great author have come to inhibit to the world distinguished literary merit, some to be considered masterpieces of novelty, others to be frowned upon for not meeting the requirements of civilized society. Edgar Allen Poe was one of the authors frowned upon because his talent of writing was based on bringing out the fears and deep suspense of which a single person can barely hold on to.
Quoth the raven, Nevermore take into account the essence of this single phrase used in Poes writing, so simple; and yet so strategically placed as to pull the reader deeper and farther into Poes own imagination; as to for just a moment cause the reader to be Poe, see as Poe, think as Poe, and for even shorter a moment experience the fear and enthrallment that Poe faces while writing his novels.
Edgar Allen Poe had a way to manipulate the mind, to cause what people feared and loathed to come to life; but at the same time keep a distinctive grasp on any who read his literature, once a story or poem was began it was a trap that pulled you in and held on, the only way out was to finish the whole way through.
Somehow, Poe initiated a method of incorporating suspense and trickery into his novels and poems, a reader may be anxious to get to the end and find out what was the final occurrence was; while at the same time the reader knew that paying attention to the story carefully, was of vital importance to understand why, what happened at the end happened. Edgar Allen Poe was quite good at using guilt as a side effect; he would cause the antagonist of his stories to think of themselves as the better people when they would commit deeds of revenge and or trickery.
But what normally began as pride or reason for the deed would quickly be reversed within time to guilt and pain. Poe had a way of describing the pain of others, especially guilt he would find distinctive phrases and or words that would describe pain as unending and inescapable, to a point of anxiety where you dont think you can take much more and just at that exact moment; at the apex of the climactic sequence Poe would deliver an astonishing blow that would cause you to slow back down and relax at the stories end.
I have been a great fan of Edgar Allen Poe ever since I read the Tall Tale Heart, in the fourth grade to do as a book report. The one and only thing I have ever found negative in Poes literature is how confusing he makes his stories to be. I have discovered in such stories as The murders in The Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Mystery of Mary Roget and others, Poe must write his works with a certain eloquence and properness that can most likely be appealing to only him and a distinct few others.
Perplexed Poe Essay
Poe is a very complicated author. His literary works are perplexed, disturbing, and even grotesque. His frequent illnesses may have provoked his engrossment in such things. In 1842 Dr. John W. Francis diagnosed Poe with sympathetic heart trouble as well as brain congestion. He also noted Poe's inability to withstand stimulants such as drugs and alcohol (Phillips 1508). These factors may have motivated him to write The Tell-Tale-Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Black Cat. All of these stories are written in or around 1843, shortly after Poe became afflicted.
His writing helped him to cope with his troubles and explore new territory in literature. Poe's interest in the supernatural, retribution, and perverse cause them to be included in his burial motifs; therefore sustaining his interest. There is a common thread laced through each subject, but there is variation in degrees of the impact. The supernatural is the phenomena of the unexplained. With this comes an aura of mystery and arousal of fear. Death in itself is the supreme mystery. No living human being can be certain of what happens to the soul when one dies.
It is because of this uncertainty that death is feared by many. These types of perplexing questions cause a reader to come to a point of indifference within one of Poe's burial motifs. One is uncertain of how the events can unfold, because a greater force dictates them. Reincarnation in The Black Cat is a supernatural force at work. There is some sort of orthodox witchcraft-taking place. The whole story revolves around the cat, Pluto, coming back to avenge its death. One can not be sure how Pluto's rebirth takes place, but it is certain that something of a greater force has taken hold.
The cat's appearance is altered when the narrator comes across it the second time. There is a white spot on the chest "by slow degrees, degrees nearly imperceptibleit had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinct outlineof the GALLOWS" (Poe 4). Foretelling the narrator's fate a confinement tool appears on the cat's chest. This also foreshadows the cat's confinement in the tomb. It reappears like a disease to take vengeance on a man that has committed horrid crimes.
"I was answered by a voice within the tomb! By a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and quickly swelling into one long, loud and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman–a howl–a wailing shriek, half of honor and half of triumph (Poe 6). Pluto is like Poe's reoccurring illness it keeps coming back just when he thinks it is gone. This can be related to the ever-looming question of why people become afflicted with disease. Is it punishment for wrongdoing? Some religions find this to be the answer. Poe's intrigue in reincarnation may have been in that of his own immortality. Metaphysical events take place in The Tell-Tale-Heart.
The perpetrator is driven by some unknown source to reveal his evil deed. The paranoia he feels is very real to him. "I fancied a ringing in my ears[it] became more distinctI found that the noise was not within my earsIt is the beating of the hideous heart [of the old man]" (Poe 3). Ringing is heard only in the man's head, but because a impetus has compelled him to believe otherwise he is inclined to reveal his misdeed. The source of the man's "voices" is from a force within himself. One's soul is an unexplainable power, which governs over the body. The murder of the old man is committed in passion.
Disregarding any rational thoughts the narrator is engaged in his own desires. His unconcern for mankind causes his own insanity. Even he can not live with his actions. The mind as a supernatural force, that dictates life, can only cope with so much. Poe himself experiences hallucinations from his illness, and abuse of alcohol. Years of defilement caused his body, and mind to break down. At one point in time Poe raved "for protection from an imaginary army of conspirators disguised as 'loungers'" (Mankowitz 232). Constant weight on ones mind can lead to insanity. Human beings can lose control of their lives.
The Tell-Tale-Heart illustrates the human spirit as a mysterious and unexplainable force. Poe's life was full of turmoil, which inevitably caused his madness. The enveloping force of evil drives Montressor to commit murder in The Cask of Amontillado. If supernatural is used in its broadest sense to mean "unexplained" then the force that impels Montressor's lack of humanity is indeed supernatural. Evil, as a uninhibited force propels the callous, vile act. When evil is introduced as a possible catalyst one can, at least in some sense, comprehend what drives Montressor's act of revenge.
With out this force revenge is less likely to be taken to the extremes in this story. Fortunato, the unsuspecting victim, is blindly led to his death via a premeditated plan. Montressor guides him on the journey, patronizing him all the way. The torture that is put upon him is horrendous. He is entombed alive, and left to die. The mind can be a torturous device when all hope is stripped away. Fortunado must wait for death, all the while reliving his regrets. Montressor states "a brief moment I hesitate–I trembledBut the thought of an instant reassured me.
I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied" (Poe 8). For an instant his humanity is unveiled, but quickly covered again. He has no problem leaving his victim in the catacombs to die. Poe does an excellent job creating a character of evil. Many of his literary works deal with the origin of evil. Montressor's need for revenge causes him to give himself to the dark side. Perversity is a theme that exists within the three stories at hand. When one takes pleasure in something that is knowingly wrong it is perverse. It exhibits a blatant lack of humanity.
Delectation in the grotesque is also sinful. Committing or witnessing acts of mutilation or murder is depraved. Someone has to be out of balance to seriously consider such ignominious acts. Poe uses perversity to shock, and disgust the reader. Reading about such atrocities brings the reader to a different level of cognition. One sees into the mind of a character that is distorted, and gets a direct show of what is motivating him or her. The main character in The Black Cat kills his wife without any compunction. After he "buried the axe in her brain," his only apprehension is of how to conceal the crime (Poe 3).
He states "many projects entered my mind," attesting to his search for the perfect burial place. The man commits a bloody, brutal murder of a loved one, but is only concerned with himself. Delight is actually taken in the death, because he is able to get a good night sleep. "The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little;" he has no regrets and nothing to fret about. Pleasure is obtained from the death, not the act, but the rewards of it. Hiding the body in the false chimney illustrates his lack of respect for his wife. He is pleased with himself for finding such a clever hiding place, but she is not attributed a proper burial.
Perversity embodies this man. He is disturbed. Montressor, in The Cask of Amontillado, is a pervert. He enjoys watching Fortunato suffer. Pleasure seeps from his spirit when Fortunato exclaims "Ha! ha! ha! –he! he! –a very good joke indeed–an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about itLet us be gone" (Poe 7). The man is using his last fragment of hope, but Montressor plays with him. He likes to hear the suffering in the voice of his victim. He gets off on causing pain. Replying to Fortunato's plea he mimics "Yes, let us be gone," with contempt in his voice (Poe 7).
Montressor has broken another man's spirit, and taken away his life. This makes him happy, because he has upheld a troublesome family motto "Nemo me impune lacessit" ("No one assails me with impunity") (Poe 4). A twisted outdated motto causes the death of Fortunato. The burying of a live body conjures up images of desperation and hopelessness of the victim. Montrtessor has all of the power. He picks the time and place where Fortunato will meet his end. Obvious disregard of life is maniacal. The perpetrator in The Tell-Tale-Heart states clearly that he enjoys the act of killing.
In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him, I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far gone" (Poe2). This sick individual not only kills the old man, but he "dismembers the corpse. [He] cut off the head and the arms and the legs" (Poe 2). He seems to take pride in his clever cover up of the annihilation bragging "There was nothing to wash out –no stain of any kind –no blood spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all -ha! ha! " (Poe 3). This man is a true sociopath, and psychotic. Any act one can imagine being grotesque he has committed.
This is a person who is not in his right mind. His acts are shocking and almost unbelievable, but not quite. There are deranged people who commit vile, meaningless acts of violence just because. The scariest part about this perversity is that it does happen, people can be this repugnant. The ultimate payback for wrongdoing is retribution. It is a means by which one releases anger. When revenge is taken, the outcome is satisfaction. Power is definitely associated with it. The need to be the dominating figure in a relationship fuels the desire.
Sometimes retribution is directed at personage who has little to do with what is being avenged. The person may be representative of a greater cause. He or she is just an outlet for abuse. It feels good to get even with someone, even if it is not the source of the problem. Poe has many problems that he can not fix. This angers him. He does not understand why he is afflicted with so much grief. The Black Cat is a story that revolves around revenge. It is a more complex then first observed. The man is not lashing out at his animals because they have done something to offend him.
The abuse is given because the animals can not fight back. They are defenseless against the brute force. He is really angry at society, but can not tap the proper channels to vent his rage. "I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my At length, I even offeredpersonal violence" (Poe 1). He has grown cold throughout the years losing the lust for life he once had. He needs to seek refuge from the outside world. "My disease grew upon me-for what disease is like Alcohol (Poe 1).
Alcohol gives him a place to hide and, contributes to his lunacy. Under the influence he becomes a monster. Poe himself "uses alcohol as an anesthetic to ease other problems, both physical and emotional" (Mankowitz 236). He feels isolated from society parallel to the nameless man in this story. Deliberately sinning allows the man to feel power. He is in control of his actions. I "hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin" (Poe 2). Challenging a system of beliefs questions its existence. He is almost daring a higher power to punish him.
This will let him know if there is something to believe in. He is a lost soul among many that is yearning for something to believe in. Poe is facing death, because of all of the pain he has gone through he too questions God. How could God let him suffer, and take his life so soon? He can not answer this, but his stories do scream the question. Retribution against death is a focus in The Tell-Tale-Heart. The old man is symbolic of death. "He had the eye of a vulture–a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold (Poe 1). The vulture is a bird that only preys upon the dead.
Blood running cold is associated with a corpse; therefore, death. His words prove that the eye is expiration looking him in the face. "He was still sitting up in bed listening; –just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to death watches on the wall" (Poe 1). Killing the old man is retribution for fear of death. He is a constant reminder of the perpetrator's greatest fear. Wondering when cessation is going to occur can drive a man insane. "His eye would trouble me no more," illustrates that the man has defeated death (Poe 2). This is ironic because death will always triumph in the end.
The killing may give the man temporary solace from his fear, but it can not last. Poe's illness causes him to constantly deal with the coming of his end. He too wishes there were something he can do to ward it off. Obviously this is not possible. The Cask of Amontillado revels in revenge based on upholding one's family motto. Fortunato disrespected Montressor, "the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but heventured upon insult" (Poe 1). Montressor is an extremely proud man. He takes the comments to heart, and is disturbed by them. His need for revenge is innate.
The need is genetic, based on the family motto, which states "No one assails me with impunity". He is compelled to commit murder to honor his family name. Montressor must seek his resolution very mechanically. "A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong" (Poe 1). Fortunado must not know that he is seeking revenge, but when the plot is revealed it is imperative that he takes credit for the act. Montressor's act of murder is calculated; thus, chillingly horrifying. The organization insures that Fortunado is doomed.
Poe's interest in burial motifs allows him to explore the same themes, but using different premises. Poe's free and out of the ordinary style is very successful in incorporating the supernatural, perverse, and retribution into his work. He maintains his interest as well as the reader's by including subjects that are not prevalent. It is shocking, disturbing, and challenging to read. Some of Poe's literature has obvious relations to his own life, and how he coped with the problems that faced him. Having problems in ones life can escalate the soul to accomplish great things. Poe's lifestyle is very much a part of style.
Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most successful writers of all time. He is known for his tales of the mysterious and macabre. He is reported to be the first master of the short story form (Edgar Allen Poe). About 12 of his works are known for their flawless literary construction. Poe had a rough childhood which definitely contributed to his writing. Poe was born in January 19th of 1809 in Boston. Poe was the son of David Poe, an actor and Eliza Poe, an actress. Poe also had a sister. At age three Poe was orphaned when he father disappeared one night and never returned and his mother died of tuberculosis.
Poe then went to a foster house where he was adopted by John and Fanny Allen. Poe then at age six moved to England where he attended private schools. As a teen Poe was very gifted in foreign language. He wrote some of his early works in both French an Latin. At age fifteen Poe had already written enough works to publish a book but John would not allow it. Poe was also very fit as a teen. Poe was supposedly a very fast swimmer and runner. It is reported that Poe once as a teen swam the James river from Lundhams Wharf to Warwick Bar which is six miles against a strong current (Woodberry 20).
At 15 Poe was the Lieutenant of the Junior Morgan Riflemen. Poe was then reviewed by the famous Marquis De Lafayette. Poe's grandfather General Poe is where Poe most likely got his military influence from. In 1826 Poe enrolled into the University of Virginia. Poe wanted to become a translator. Poe was considered to be "precisely correct" (Moldavia). Poe also loved debating. The student life at the University of Virginia in 1826 was very chaotic. In one student riot the students threw bottles and bricks at the professors.
In Poe's letters to John Allen he often talked of violence on campus. He once wrote of how a student was struck on the head with a stone and then pulled out a gun and killed his attacker(Moldavia). By the end of the year Poe had started to develop gambling debts. Poe blamed his gambling debts on John Allen saying that he did not provide enough for him to live on. Therefore gambling was the only way to survive. I think that it would have bean quite possible for Poe to get a job. Before the year was over Poe had developed gambling debts exceeding 2,500 dollars (Moldavia).
When Poe went back to Richmond where John lived for the summer he expected John to pay of his debts. John would not pay of the debts and made John work as a clerk at his firm to pay them off. In 1827 Poe moved out of Johns house. In a letter to John Poe wrote, "I have heard you say when you little thought I was listening and therefor must have said it in ear that you had no affection for me" (letters 203). Poe then resorted to gambling again and became even more into debt. Poe then moved to Boston under the alias of Henri Le Renett (Moldavia).
Poe then managed to published his first book Tamerline and Other Poems under the pen name of a Bostonian. Later in 1827 Poe enlisted into the United States Army where he stayed or two years. In 1829 Poe wrote his second book Aarat, Tamberline, and Other Poems by Edgar A. Poe. After Poe left the Army Poe reconciled with Poe's father and convinced John to send Poe to West Point Military Academy. Poe only stayed at Westpoint for a year a which he was dismissed for neglect of duties. John then disowned Poe forever.
In 1831 Poe moved back to Baltimore to live with his cousin and aunt. In 1831 Poe also wrote his third book Poems by Edgar A. Poe with financial help from his friends at Westpoint. In 1832 Poe won a contest with "AMS found in a bottle". Then in 1836 Poe married his cousin Virginia Clem whom Poe had bean living with. Virginia was only thirteen when Poe married Virginia. Shortly after Poe had married Virginia she contracted the deadly disease tuberculosis. Virginia then died ten years later. With the death of Poe's wife Poe became very depressed.
Poe then became addicted to many drugs, mainly opium and laudanum. It is also reported that he used morphine (Mankowitz 259,729). It is said that Poe used these drugs and drank so much because his nervous system was becoming extremely sensitive and it would rid him of the pain (Black). Poe did try to quit drinking many times but he was never successful. In a letter on July 22,1848 Poe wrote, "It has bean a long while since any artificial stimulus has passed my lips" (Letters 239). Poe also to go mad. Poe's madness was mainly credited to brain lesions or scars in the brain.
A good example of Poe breaking down is when he arrived at John Sartains office begging him for protection from an imaginary Army. Poe then shaved of his mustache so that they would not recognize him (Mankowitz 232). Poe describes his illness in a letter on August 7, 1849, "I have suffered worse han death-net so much from cholera as from its long continued consequences in debility and compression of the brain" (Letters 365) Poe's condition continued to grow worse. Poe was brought to the Washington Hospital of Baltimore on the night of October 6, 1849 after being found in the middle of the road (Moran 78).
Poe then recited his final poem. Father I firmly do believe I know, for death who comes for me from the regions of blast afar where there is nothing to deceive hath left his iron gates ajar and rays of truth you cannot see are flashing through eternity (Moran 24) Poe died the following morning. It is reported that Poe ended up dying of Lobar pneumonia complicated by transient retardation or depression which is excessive nervous prostration affecting the brain and resulting from exposure and encephalitis or inflammation of the brain (Scarlet 365).
With Poe's burial there has bean a lot of mix up. Poe was originally buried next to his grandfather General Poe in Westchester. A headstone was not placed on his grave because it had bean run over (Parker). Then in 1875 they decided to move Poe to Baltimore where a monument would be erected over his grave. When they went to dig up Poe to move him, since there weren't good markings on the grave, they dug up Pvt. Philip Mosher who was on the opposite side of Poe's grandfather and moved him (Parker).
They know that Poe isn't buried in Baltimore because when Poe was supposedly dug up the coffin description didn't match the description of Poe's coffin. When Thomas G. Scarf first discovered of the Poe burial mix up he questioned the church committee and they said, "Does it matter, we did find a skeleton and some persons said it looked like Poe. We honor the memory of Poe and his works" (Scarlet 373,374). Now all that lies on Poe's headstone in Westchester is a number eight engraved on a stone. Of Poe's entire life "The Raven" is said to be Poe's best known and written work.
It is said to have his favorite theme the death of a beautiful women. "The Raven" was first published in the American Review on the first of February, 1845 on pages 143-145. It has also bean published in numerous other literary publications. The story of the Raven is about Poe and his lost wife. Poe uses a great amount of symbolism in the raven to express his feelings. For start the raven is a symbol of mournful and never-ending sadness. This is said to not only be a description of the "The Raven" but the description of the majority of his work.
Poe also talks of the Balm In Gilead which is a fictitious place in the old testament where there is no suffering. Poe also refers to a bust of pallas above his chamber door. Pallas was the Greek God of Wisdom. Poe also refers to the Plutonium shores which is referring to Hell. There are also a lot of themes in "The Raven" that relate to Poe's life. In "The Raven" Poe talks a lot of loneliness. Poe suffered from loneliness and depression, both clinical and chemical. It is also said that Poe had a bust of Pallas over his door when he lived in New York city (The Raven).
Poe also writes of imagining that there is someone at his door when he said, "Here I opened wide the door, darkness there and nothing more". This can be incorporated with is madness. Poe also talks of a beating heart when he writes, "to still the beating of my heart". This can be compared to his own erratic heart. Poe has also bean accused of plagiarism in writing "The Raven". Supposedly he stole the purple curtains that appear in "The Raven" from Elizabeth Barrel Browning. It is also said that Poe took the idea of a talking bird from Charles Dickens Barnaby Ridge (A Look At The Raven).
Whether these accusations are true or not we will never no but certainly the majority of "The Raven" is 0riginal work. In Baltimore, Maryland, since 1949, Poe's grave has bean visited by a mysterious man every year on Poe's birthday in the early hours. The man, described as an elderly gentleman draped in black with a silver tipped cane, kneels at the grave for a toast of Martel Cognac and leaves the half-full bottle and three red roses. "He leaves quietly and we don't know who he is nor do we ave any intention.
We're very careful to protect his anonymity" ,said Lou Marshal, a tour guide at Westminister Hall cemetery. "In the last few years, It has bean a younger man with a cane who tries to walk with a limp, but it isn't natural looking" ,said Jamie Parker (Stephanie). Edgar Allen Poe has bean dead almost 150 years. Despite so much time, people are still fascinated by his life and work. Many scholars actively explore and discuss his writings and the things that are known and unknown about his life. Although he lived only forty years, Poe's work is still important to us today.
Poe's First Collection
Poe's first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, appeared in 1840. It contained one of his most famous work, 'The Fall of the House of Usher. ' In the story the narrator visits the crumbling mansion of his friend, Roderick Usher, and tries to dispel Roderick's gloom. Although his twin sister, Madeline, has been placed in the family vault dead, Roderick is convinced she lives. Madeline arises in trance, and carries her brother to death. The house itself splits asunder and sinks into the tarn.
The tale has inspired several film adaptations. Roger Corman's version from 1960, starring Mark Damon, Harry Ellerbe, Myrna Fahey, and Vincent Price, was the first of the director's Poe movies. The Raven (1963) collected old stars of the horror genre, Vincent Price, Peter, Lorre, Boris Karloff, who mostly played for laughs. According to the director, Price and Lorre "drove Boris a little crazy" – the actor was not used to improvised dialogue. Corman filmed the picture in fifteen days, using revamped portions of his previous Poe sets.
In Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) the secret theme is the terror of whiteness. In the novel Poe has invented tribes that live near the Antarctic Circle. The strange bestial human are black, even down to their teeth. They have been exposed to the terrible visitations of men and white storms. These are mixed together, and they slaughter the crew of Pym's vessel. The Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges has assumed that Poe chose the color intuitively, or for the same reasons as in Melville explained in the chapter 'The Whiteness of the Whale' in his Moby-Dick.
Later the 'lost world' idea was developed by Edgar Rice Burroughs in The Land That Time Forgot (1924) and other works. During the early 1840s Poe's best-selling work was curiously The Conchologist's First Book (1839). It was based on Thomas Wyatt's work which sold poorly because of its high prize. Wyatt was Poe's friend and asked him to abridge the book and put his own name on its title Page – the publisher had strongly opposed any idea of producing a cheaper edition. The Conchologist's First Book was a success.
Its first edition was sold out in two months and other editions followed. The dark poem of lost love, 'The Raven,' brought Poe national fame, when it appeared in 1845. In a lecture in Boston the author explained the topic telling that he had thought about English phonetics and decided that the two most effective letters in the English language were o and r – this inspired the expression "nevermore", and because a parrot is unworthy of the dignity of poetry, a raven could well repeat the word at the end of each Stanza.
Lenore rhymed with "nevermore. " "With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not – they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind. " (from The Raven and Other Poems, preface, 1845) Poe suffered from bouts of depression and madness, and he attempted suicide in 1848. In September the following year he disappeared for three days after a drink at a birthday party and on his way to visit his new fiancee in Richmond.
He turned up in delirious condition in Baltimore gutter and died on October 7, 1849. Poe's work and his theory of "pure poetry" was early recognized especially in France, where he inspired Jules Verne, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Paul Valery (1871-1945) and Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898). However, in America Emerson called him "the jingle man. " Poe's influence is seen in many other modern writers, as in Junichiro Tanizaki's early stories and Kobo Abe's novels, or more clearly in the development of the19th century detective novel.
J. L. Borges, R. L. Stevenson, and a vast General readership, have been impressed by the cryptograms and mysteries of the stories which feature Poe's detective Dupin ('The Murders in the Rue Morgue', 1841; 'The Purloined Letter,' 1845) and the morbid metaphysical speculation of 'The Facts in the Case of M. Waldermar' (1845). Thomas M. Disch has argued in his The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of (1998) that it was actually Poe who was the originator of the modern science fiction. One of his tales, 'Mellonta Taunta' (1840) describes a future society, an anti-utopia, in which Poe satirizes his own times.
Another tales in this vein are 'The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Sceherazade' and 'A Descent into the Maelstrom'. However, Poe was not concerned with any specific scientific concept but mostly explored different realities, one of the central concerns of science fiction ever since. In his supernatural fiction Poe usually dealt with paranoia rooted in personal psychology, physical or mental enfeeblement, obsessions, the damnation of death, feverish fantasies, the cosmos as source of horror and inspiration, without bothering himself with such supernatural beings as ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and so on.
Some of his short stories are humorous, among them 'The Devil in the Belfry,' 'The Duc de l'Omelette,' 'Bon-Bon' and 'Never Bet the Devil Your Head,' all of which employ the Devil as an ironic figure of fun. – Poe was also one of the most prolific literary journalists in American history, one whose extensive body of reviews and criticism has yet to be collected fully. James Russell Lowell (1819-91) once wrote about Poe: "Three fifths of him genius and two fifths sheer fudge. "
Edgar Allan Poe, a bizarre and often scary writer
Edgar Allan Poes Obscure Style
D. H. Lawrence wrote an essay that extensively describes Edgar Allen Poes writing style. Lawrence looks at Poes work as a scientific and mechanical way of writing. The tales Poe writes are not really tales at all. The only reason they are even considered as tales is because they are a concatenation of cause and effect. Lawrence saw Edgars stories as more than just a tales. They are love stories. Poe does not write looking at the human part of someones life. The characters are looked at as inanimate objects with human qualities, rather than the characters being human with inorganic qualities.
Lawrence elaborates on Poes style by mentioning that he finds it to be mechanical. Poe never sees anything in terms of life. He only views life in terms of matter or force, thus the Lawrences reference to scientific writing. This facile viewpoint on life brings out his sensitiveness to sounds and effect. Lawrence also believes that Edgar Allen Poe was a very deep man. He wrote with his soul. Poe gives you a look at what is underneath consciousness. His writing is all fair-spoken on the surface. Beneath it is more, the awful murderous thoughts that flowed inside Edgars head.
Lawrence confers about Poes style in Ligeia and how he wants to analyze her until he knows all of her parts and what they do. He sees her as a chemical salt, which he needs to analyze out in the test tube of his own brain. Overall Lawrence finds Edgar Allen Poes works to be mechanical and scientific. Poe has a different style of writing from any other. It is an inanimate type of writing. This makes his works interesting and suspenseful. If Poe did not have this type of style he would not be as well known today. Edgar uses his obscure styles to create his visual stories.
The Tell Tale Heart is mechanical and scientific in the way that Edgar Allen Poe has written it. Edgars mechanical style is evident in the way he describes the eye of the old man. He sees it as a thing that haunts his dreams. Poe shows the reader this in the descriptive way by writing, a pale blue eye, with film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; (36). This passage illustrates the way the eye is not even a part of the old man. Poe writes about the not wanting to kill the old man, just wanting to destroy the eye.
Picturing the eye we do not even see the old man being a part of it. Poe mechanically repeats words all through the story. This style is used well in Poes statement a very, very little crevice in the lantern (37), and again with It was openwide, wide open (37). Poes repetition heightens the senses and makes his point clear. Looking back at the first passage, it also states the eye made his blood run cold. The way the blood runs through him is a scientific insight. The scientific style of Edgar Allen Poe is relevant to this story. When he writes, First of all I dismembered the corpse.
I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. (Poe 38), shows his scientific language. With words such as corpse and dismembered it is hard not to think scientifically. Science is defined as the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Poes work falls into this category of science. For example, I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. (Poe 38). Describing something as stone is a cold way of looking at it. There is no life in a stone, and this is they way he pictures the old man.
In summery, Edgar Allen Poe has the most unique style of writing. His vast description of inanimate objects and his repetition make this possible. The work of Poe has a certain flow to it, which is somewhat mechanical. Edgars stories also have certain intelligence to them. They are written in a language that is scientific to read. Also, the way he describes the characters and objects with underling meaning gives his stories a different feel. Mechanical writing and scientific writing are techniques Poe uses to create his own unique style.
Charles Baudelaire: Romantic, Parnassian, and Symbolist
Often compared to the American poet Edgar Allen Poe, the French poet Charles Baudelaire has become well-known for his fascination with death, melancholy, and evil and his otherwise eccentric yet contemplative style. These associations have deemed him as a patron saint of modernist poetry while at the same time closely tying his style in with the turbulent revolutionary movements in France and Europe during the 19th century (Haviland, screens 5-10).
By comparing three of his poems, Spleen, Elevation, and To One Who Is Too Gay, from his masterpiece The Flowers of Evil, three evident commonalities can be found throughout the works in the influence that the three 19th-century styles of Romanticism, Parnassianism, and Symbolism had on his poetry. Charles-Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9, 1821 in Paris, France to the parents of Francois Baudelaire and Caroline Defayis (Christohersen, Biography).
It was his father, Francois, who taught Charles to appreciate the arts, because he was also a mildly talented poet and painter himself. In February 1827, Francois died when Charles was only six, after which Charles and his mother developed an extremely close relationship until she remarried in 1828 to Major Jacques Aupick (Veinotte; Christohersen, Biography). The family moved to wherever Aupick was posted for the military and Baudelaire began is education at the Collge Royal in Lyons, then transferred to the Lyce Louis-le-Grand in Paris.
It was at the latter that he began to write poetry and develop moods of depression, and in 1839 he was expelled for being unruly. Eventually he became a student of law at the Ecole de Droit but in reality lived a free life and it was here that he came into contact with the literary world for the first time. He also contracted VD, which was to be the cause of his death years later. Aupick, hoping to draw Baudelaire away from the lifestyle he was living, sent him on a ship for India in 1841.
Baudelaire jumped ship and returned to France almost a year later, but his travels came to be an enormous influence on his work. On his return, Baudelaire received a huge inheritance from his parents but spent it so rapidly on drugs, clothes, fine foods, fine wines, books, and paintings that he was later denied access to his inheritance and was made a legal minor. Another significant part of Baudelaires life was women.
Three women in particular are extremely significant in how they influenced his writing and what they represented in his philosophy of life. These three women were Jeanne Duval and Marie Daubrun, both actresses, and Apollonie Sabatier, a well-known French-hostess. On August 31, 1867, at the age of 46, Baudelaire ended up dying in his mothers arms of the VD he contracted earlier in his life (Christohersen, Biography). Although remembered most for his poetry, as a writer he was also an art and literary ritic, translator, and author (Veinotte).
One of his earliest passions had been art and literary criticism, partly due to his fathers influence on his interest of amateur art. He eventually came to be called the poet-critic, and a large number of his major criticisms appeared in the annual series of Le Salon for many years (Christohersen, The Critic). Other significant criticisms were found in his essay called The Painter of Modern Life and in a collection of his criticisms published posthumously called Romantic Art.
Other major works include La Fanfarlo, a short story and fictional autobiography; Poe translations in Extraordinary Stories, New Extraordinary Stories, and Grotesque and Serious Stories; collections of poetry in The Flowers of Evil and The Artificial Paradises; and prose in The Spleen of Paris (Christohersen, The Poet). During his lifetime The Flowers of Evil gained the most publicity, although the majority was not positive, it was even questioned under court and mandated to be revised due to its obscene and immoral content.
Influencing his work, the history of 19th-century France was overwhelmed by the aftermath of the Revolution, and breaking from the style of classicism grew Romanticism, Symbolism, and Parnassianism. Particularly, in The Flowers of Evil, from which the three chosen works for this paper originate, Baudelaire combines the passion of Romanticism with the Parnassian perfection of form, yet is also seen as the founder of symbolism (Harris 78; Haviland). It is in these three styles that three common elements can be found in the poems Elevation, Spleen, and To One Who is Too Gay.
To begin with, in Elevation, the romantic and the symbolic style tie in very closely through the appreciation of external nature associated with romanticism, but at the same time using nature symbolically to suggest the ideal, which is associated with symbolism (Merriam-Webster, Romanticism and Symbolism). He expresses that he is soaring above ponds, valleys, woods, mountains, clouds, and seas to connote that he is above earthly worries and above the material life of mortal men.
He goes on to say that he is farther than the sun, the distant breeze, and the spheres of outer space to describe a state even beyond these abstract objects which are usually associated with divine beings (Baudelaire, Elevation). In this poem, he uses symbolism by representing the earth as a metaphor for physical life and representing objects beyond the earth as a spiritual elevation of the soul. Baudelaires spiritual nostalgia for the ideal and his adherence to the standard Romantic connotation of soul and to the concept of elevation associates him with the Romantic poets (Nalbantian 128).
At the same time, his use of imagery in nature that describes the souls aspiration for the ideal and the implication of intuition into the language of flowers and mute things are greatly associated to the symbolist movement (Nalbantian 128; Jones 114). The next poem, Spleen, is the complete opposite of Elevation because instead of soaring high above the earth, Baudelaire is describing the earth as a lid which oppresses his spirit into misery (Auerbach 149-150). The spleen, an organ that removes disease-causing agents from the bloodstream, was traditionally associated with melancholy, fear, moral degradation, and agony.
This predilection for melancholy that Baudelaire outlined in most of his works was greatly associated with the romantic movement (Merriam-Webster, Romanticism). Yet, the immense misery described in Spleen is even said to be far more intense than the declamatory [sickness of age] of Baudelaires Romantic predecessors (Peyre). Particularly, this poem is replete with metaphors including the sky as a heavy lid over his spirit, Hope as a trapped bat banging against walls and ceilings, and pouring rain as prison bars (Auerbach 150).
These metaphors which associate his despair to the Romantic movement also make Spleen a significant work of Symbolist verse (Carter 61). To One Who Is Too Gay, is much harder to define than the other two poems because it changes the context of cheerful words like love, flowers, clear sky, and ecstasy and give them evil connotations in the conclusion for making him miserable and giving him the desire to destroy or harm them. The way he looked at and treated the torments of love was incomparable in the romantics, but the style he used to write the poem showed clear influences from the Romantic style regardless of its content (Auerbach 160).
When looking at the dictionary definition of romanticism and applying it to To One Who Is Too Gay it is almost valid to say that this poem is more Romantic than both the other poems mentioned earlier. It emphasizes imagination and emotions, presents an exaltation of the primitive and common man, appreciates external nature, forms an interest in the remote, and exalts his predilection for melancholy (Merriam-Webster). Undoubtedly though, this poem is a significant example of Symbolism.
Beginning the first stanza by comparing her head, gestures, and air to a landscape and her laugh to a fresh wind in a clear sky, Baudelaire continues to saturate every stanza in this poem with similes and metaphors (To One Who is Too Gay). This poem, in particular, was written about Apollonie Sabatier, who represented an ideal and a spleen throughout many of his poems because he came to view women as divine and sacred, yet describing love and sex with the attitude that lovers shall one day die and rot (Haviland).
The next style which is not analyzed above is the Parnassian school of poetry that influenced the remarkable form, number, and rhythm of [Baudelaires] verse (Every Saturday 80). For example, while examining the original, untranslated versions of the three poems, you notice the specific rhyme schemes in each. Elevation and To One Who Is Too Gay both use the rhyme scheme ABBA, CDDC, etc. , and both poems carry on consistent rhythms throughout each stanza. Spleen uses ABAB, CDCD, etc. , yet portrays even greater travail, labor and difficulty than the forms of the other two (Every Saturday 80).
Spleen uses the alexandrine meter which emphasizes that it is a serious poem, to be spoken slowly and gravely (Auerbach 150). It shows great structural control because the first and second stanza speak of the sky and earth, respectively, and the third connects these two stanzas by speaking of the rain. Each of the first three stanzas begin with Quand or When, and other notable literary devices he uses in this poem in particular include his alliteration, his use of nasal words, and his punctuation (Peyre).
In conclusion, it is the combination of Baudelaires eccentricity as well as the influence that his life and culture had on his writing that have made him such a significant figure in French 19-century literature. By selecting and analyzing Elevation, Spleen, and To One Who Is Too Gay, three significantly contrasting poems from The Flowers of Evil, his style acts as an mportant common element throughout all three.
Although an important figurehead in modern poetry, he is similarly dubbed as having an enormous influence on the Romantic movement, the Symbolist movement, and the Parnassian movement, as much as he was influenced by these movements himself. And because of the turbulence of this revolutionary period in France, it is fair to say that Baudelaires greatness could have only been derived from standing on the shoulders of giants (Newton).
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Linking Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an author who wrote dark and sinister stories and poems and whose motives in writing such works were closely related to his life. Edgar Allan Poe has captured the attention of many of his readers, but what is not said is that his life affected his works. His dark and sinister works link the innermost side of Poe to that of his pieces. One of his most famous poems is "The Raven. " Woodberry stated in his 1st volume of The Life of Edgar Allan Poe that, "…'The Raven' and 'Ulalume' are in his poetry, the richest of his imaginative work.
The poem gives many insights to Poe's life. The poem is about a man in a room all by himself. "Leave my loneliness unbroken! " (Poe) He is then visited by a raven, which says nothing, but "Nevermore. " It brings out the thoughts and feelings of the lonely man. This lonely man (the name of the man was never mentioned), is like a mirror image of Poe. During the time that Poe was rewriting "The Raven" (the original was written ten years before), life was really hard for him.
He had been for ten years a writer of untiring industry, and in that time had produced an amount of work large in quantity and excellent in quality, much of it belonging in the very highest rank of imaginative prose; but his books had never sold, and the income from his tales and other papers in the magazines when he was not attached to a magazine had never suffice to keep the wolf from the door. " (Woodberry 2: 72) Hard times fell on Poe like raindrops falling onto the ground.
The money needed to sustain his day to day needs proved insufficient. He had written many works in ten years and. Although his works were abundant, money wasn't. In Short, Poe had a hard time selling his works and was poorly paid. "'A host of small troubles growing from the one trouble of poverty…. '" (Woodberry 2: 103) "'You speak of "estimate of my life," — and, from what I have already said, you will see that I have none to give. '" (Woodberry 2: 93) His regard for himself was small.
In direct contrast was his regard for his works. 'I have been too deeply conscious of the mutability and evanescence of temporal things to give any continuous effort to anything — to be consistent in anything. My life has been whim — impulse — passion — a longing for solitude — a scorn of all things present, in an earnest desire for the future. '" (Woodberry 2: 93) This passion, and desire for the future fueled Poe to write more. Many of Poe's feelings are portrayed by the guy in the poem.
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted — nevermore! (Poe) "My soul" can be seen as his heart or his passion for writing. "…Shall be lifted—nevermore! " implies that something (established writers) is keeping Poe from becoming one with his soul (his heart or passion) and making the world realize the unity. His hard time establishing himself in the literary world and his efforts of establishment brought harsh criticism and scorn when it came to his works. He fought back with this: 'I have no faith in human perfectibility.
I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy— nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary—and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain—that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future—that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves—nor are we with our posterity. '" (Woodbery 2: 91) His outlook of humanity showed in his works.
His opinion of himself is shown by "I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. " His opinion of making vain efforts to establish himself as a writer is quite clear. The people who chose not to print his works got this response, "Man is now only more active…nor more wise…. " The pursuit of recognition was beginning to be in vain for Poe. This can account for his need for solitude to rest his troubled soul and ease his mind. Solitude is what brought out more ideas, calmed him down, and brought back a glimmer of hope.
There are epochs when any kind of mental exercise is torture, and when nothing yields me pleasure but solitary communion with the "mountains and the woods,"…I have thus rambled and dreamed away whole months, and awake, at last, to a sort of mania for composition. '"
Poe's life was intricately woven into the works that he wrote. Knowing how his life was during the time he wrote his pieces, changes the perspective and gives further insight to the symbolism within his work. This change of perspective creates a kind of conduit into his heart and makes the reader understand the motives behind Edgar Allan Poe's works.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Some of his famous writings is that of "Annabel Lee"; his detective story, "The Murders in Rue Morgue"; "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are the best among his horror stories; and The Raven one of his best poems which among all these, made him very famous in 1845. "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Masque of the Red Death", made him a forerunner of symbolism, and impressionism. Poe antagonized many people with a scathing campaign against an American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for supposed plagiarism. Later that year Poe admitted to being drunk, which further separated him from the public. Poes later years were full of economic hardship and ill health.
Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. He was rphaned at the early age of two, his father deserted the family and his mother died all before he was three in 1811, then Poe became a ward and was raised as a foster child by John Allan, a wealthy merchant of tobacco, and his wife Frances in Richmond, VA but they never legally adopted him. Taken by the Allan family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school. In 1826 Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Еhere he acquired gambling debts that John Allan refused to pay. Eventually, Poe was forced to withdraw from the university, and Allan prevented his return to the university nd broke off Poes engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart. His relationship with Allan was declined and he moved from his foster father and enlisted in the army. Also in 1827, he went to Boston where he wrote his fist book "Tamerlane and other poems" that he sold for $. 12 a copy but it didnt sell. He served a two year term while waiting for an appointment to the US Military Academy.
While temporarily reconciled, Allan secured him an appointment to the academy. In 1830 Poe entered the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, where he excelled in languages but was expelled in 1831 and now his oster father disowned him permanently. Later on sometime after 1831 he moved to Baltimore where he lived with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter- his cousin, Virginia Clemm. March 27, 1834 John Allan dies leaving Poe with nothing. In May of 1836 he married Virginia, his 13-year old cousin.
For 10 years Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals and contributor to magazines in several cites on the pay of $10 a week, so he was unable to support his family, his aunt, Virginia, and himself. Lots of time they went without eating. But it was in one of those that his story "The Fall of the House of Usher" first ppeared in 1839. He unsuccessfully tried to found and edit his own magazine which would have granted him financial security and artistic control in what he considered a hostile literary marketplace.
The last years of Poes life was a tragic period. In January of 1842 Virginia broke a blood vessel while singing, and died of tuberculosis on January 30, 1847 after five years of illness. Then Poe himself became ill, he had a deadly addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs which probably contributed to his early death. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured , and was accepted anew by the fiancйe he had ost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. Poe was only 40 when he died in 1849.
Newspapers gave the cause of death as "congestion of the brain" and "cerebral inflammation", which my sources said was terms that suggest doctors didnt have a definitive explanation but they thought it was a severe neurological disorder. Another doctor from the University of Maryland Medical Center reviewed his case and was assigned to make and explain a diagnosis based on available facts and he came to the conclusion that it was a rabies infection. The case was known to be a ntique because of the lack of lab data. Back then they didnt have CT scans, or MRIs.
Before his death he was seen passing through Baltimore in later September 1849 and vanished. He turned up on Oct. 3 muttering incoherently and dressed in filthy, strange, and unusual clothing. He was taken to Church Hospital then known as Washington Medical College on Broadway where he spend four days where his doctor put very simply: "talking with spectral and imaginary objects on the walls". So in other words he was crazy, delirious and other times he was either in a coma. Despite the widely held belief that Poe was n a drunken stupor, he showed no signs of alcohol when he was admitted to the hospital.
According to medical records he had abstained from drinking after and few months earlier attending a temperance league in Richmond. One theory says his condition seemed to improve for a time, but by the evening of his third day he became combative calling out the names of family, friends and somebody named Reynolds and had to be restrained. Another theory says that he was found unconscious and remained unconscious. Bout both theories state that he died on the fourth day, October 7th at 5 am. His last words were said to be "Lord, elp my poor soul".
In every story conceived from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, a scent of his essence had been molded into each to leave the reader with a better understanding of Poe's life. Poe displayed his greatest life's achievements and his worst disappointments in a series of stories created throughout his whole life. It is the goal of this research paper to reveal symbolic facts about his life and define these hidden maxims in a way that is easy to understand and beneficial to the reader. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540).
Poe's parents were David Poe, an actor based in Baltimore and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, an actress born in England, also based in Baltimore (540). Upon birth, Poe had been cursed. Shortly after his birth, Poe's father abandoned the family and left Poe and his mother to fend for themselves. Not long after that, the cruel hands of fate had worked their horrid magic once again by claiming his mother. In 1811, when Poe was two, his mother passed away, leaving him with his second depressing loss (540). After his father's cowardly retreat and mother's sudden death, Poe was left in the capable hand of his godfather, John Allan.
John Allan was a wealthy merchant based in Richmond, Virginia with the means, knowledge and affluence to provide a good life for Poe ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540). In 1815, Poe and his new family moved to England to provide Poe a classical education (which was finished out in Richmond. Upon returning from England in 1826, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540). This was a magnificent feat for him, because Poe was only seventeen at the time while the normal age for attendance was nineteen (Quinn 130).
For the first time, life had hit a high note and provided for him what seemed to be a path paved with gold. Upon entering college, Poe realized his path of gold was really a mountain of grief and disappointment. In no more time than it took Poe to unpack his bags, he was already involved in immoral acts of gambling and drinking. He developed gambling debts from 2,000 to 2,500 dollars, which caused some fraction between his godfather and himself (Quinn 130). After eleven months at the university, Poe dropped out due to his debts, but mostly for John Allan's refusal to pay for them ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540).
No sooner then Poe was home, then he been invited to a party of Sarah Elmira Royster's, his sweetheart before college. When he arrived at the party, he learned that it was Elmira's engagement party, striking a dramatic blow to Poe's heart (540). After John Allan and Poe had their quarrels over Poe's gambling addiction, he joined the army under the alias of "Edgar Allan Perry" ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540). In 1829, Poe was honorably discharged, but not before attaining the rank of Sergeant Major (540). A year later, John Allan scheduled an appointment for Poe with the West Point U. S. Military Academy (540).
Poe had not been in the academy for a year when he was dismissed from West Point. It was after his military career when Poe starting to become a successful writer of poetry and short stories. In 1831, Poems included three of his greatest works: "To Helen," "The City in the Sea," and "Israfel" ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 591). When his poems failed to reach recognition, Poe began to write short stories such as "MS. Found in a Bottle" in 1833 (591). It was around this time when he married his fourteen-year old cousin, Virginia Clemm, who was a very influential character in Poe's later works (591).
In 1840, Poe published a collection of his first twenty-five stories called Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 591). Even when this collection failed to sale or gain recognition, Poe still kept a daily routine of working on literature. In 1843 he sold 300,000 copies of "The Gold Bug" (592). Also in 1843 Poe published one his greatest works, "The Tell-Tale Heart" ("Poe Edgar Allan," Encarta Encyclopedia n. pag). Then again in 1845, Poe struck gold with his twelve stories in Tales and 30 poems in The Raven and Other Poems (592).
In 1848, Poe explained his theories on the universe in his well-known piece, "Eureka" ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 592). In 1843, Poe wrote the timeless classic of "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Encarta N. pag). It was the poem, "Raven" that brought Poe the most recognition and finally provided a spot for him among America's greatest writers. Writers and critics were bestowing great praises to him during this time. It was with his stories of mystery and murder featuring C. Auguste Dupin that inspired one critic to write, "Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it? Quinn 139).
"It is not enough—certainly for literary criticism it is not enough to call his stories, strange, extraordinary, fantastic" ("Edgar Allan Poe, The Dark Genius of the Short Story" n. pag) is a perfect quote to summarize Poe's works and their effect on critics and people. This period of tranquility and good tidings would turn out to be Poe's last. In 1847, Virginia Clemm died of tuberculosis and in doing so added one more name to Poe's list of lost loves ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 591). Her death had affected Poe more greatly than any other of his former loses.
Poe was once quoted saying: Each time I felt all the agonies of her death—and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive—nervous in a very unusual degree. During these fits of absolute unconsciously I drank, God only knows how often or how much. (Buranelli 38) Despite the tremendous agony Poe felt over Virginia Clemm's death, he still passed a sigh of relief over her passing. In Poe's belief, death should not be feared, but instead it should be sought (Quinn 137).
As Poe had said in "For Annie," "The fever called 'Living' is conquered at last" (Buranelli 38). For Poe, when Virginia died she escaped the curse of life. In 1849, Poe met up with his former sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster and became engaged shortly after ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 591). As fate would have it, just days before his wedding, Poe stopped in Baltimore and disappeared. On October 3rd, 1849, Poe was found lying in a side street anesthetized (591). He was taken to a hospital where he lay unconscious on his bed.
After four days of complete unconsciousness, Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7th, 1849 ("Poe, Edgar Allan," Encyclopedia Britannica 540). The cause of his death had remained a mystery since then. Several theories have been presented before the public, but only one has the evidence to back up its claim—rabies. All of Poe's works of literature possess a link to his own life's stories and events. His characters' profiles possess biographical insights into his loved ones' lives. Poe learned sometime in his life that a good story possesses real life events and those events are what gives his stories a scent of truth.
In one particular case, Poe wrote a passage in his story of "Marginalia" that could only apply to a person such as himself: I have sometimes amused myself by endeavoring to fancy what would be the fate of any individual gifted, or rather accursed, with an intellect very far superior to that of his race. Of course, he would be conscious of his superiority; nor could he (if otherwise constituted as man is) help manifesting his consciousness. This he would make himself enemies at all points. And since his opinions and speculations would widely differ from those of all mankind—that he would be considered a madman, is evident.
How horribly painful such a condition! Hell could invent no greater torture than that of being charged with abnormal weakness on account of being abnormally strong. " (Buranelli 23) Poe was a genius in the literary field and that gave him the grounds to say so. As he explains in this passage, his far superior ability to write pieces of literature caused a lot of friction between the modern day critics and writers and himself. This passage was an autobiographical account of his writing style and its effect on the society of the time.
Along with writing about his style of writing, Poe also included autobiographical elements in his stories. These stories explained to the reader how Poe lived his life. The somber figure of Edgar Allan Poe stalks forever through the pages of his stories and poems. He is declared to have only one endlessly repeated male character—himself. He is pictured as appearing and reappearing under the guises of his melancholic, neurasthenic, hallucinated, mad and half-mad protagonists: Roderick Usher, Egaeus, William Wilson, Cornelius Wyatt, Montresor, Hop-Frog, Metzengerstein. Buranelli 19-20)
Among these protagonists, the one Poe seems to represent more is the half-mad, Roderick Usher. In the story "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe presents himself through the morbidly uncanny Roderick Usher. "All in all, he is an unbalanced man trying to maintain an equilibrium in his life" (Partridge N. pag). Usher was also a man who realizes his insanity but struggles to grasp his lost sanity. In this passage Poe writes about the narrator's description of Roderick Usher, but in doing so describes himself to his readers:
A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely molded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than weblike softness and tenuity—these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. " (Poe 198)
Poe also manages to describe his more unpopular personality traits when he refers to himself as "a lost drunkard or the irreclaimable eater of opium" (198). Poe also used his memory of past events and places to set the backdrop for his pieces of literature. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe uses his Gothic home as the backdrop and his family as its characters. "Poe often drew upon his memory for his settings, as in 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' which concerns the fate of a decayed aristocratic family and it moldering Gothic mansion" (Buranelli 28).
Poe knew the feelings that came to a person when confronted with a relic from their unpleasant past and with that knowledge he could write a story appealing to readers. Poe also used "The Fall of the House of Usher" to portray loved ones, such as his mother, to the reader. He could never bear to take about his mom frequently, because of the pain it put on his heart. To compensate for this he portrayed her through the guise of Lady Madeline (Buranelli 35). Lady Madeline was Usher's mysterious sister who in the end died without warning or reason.
Poe also wrote a sonnet called "To My Mother" that appeared to be for his mother, but was indeed for his mother-in-law. Along with putting his mother in his tales, Poe also portrayed his life's greatest love, Virginia Clemm. Virginia inspired such pieces as "Eleanora" and Annabel Lee" (Buranelli 38). I was a child and she was a child, in this kingdom by the sea; but we loved with a love that was more than love—I and my Annabel Lee; with a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago, in this kingdom by the sea, a wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee; so that her highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me, to shut her up in a sepulchre in this kingdom by the sea…for the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee; and the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabel Lee; and so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, in the sepulchre there by the sea, in her tomb by the sounding sea. " (Bloom 145)
In this excerpt, Poe portrays to the reader his love for his wife. "Annabelle Lee" was written in 1849, just two years after Virginia Clemm's death ("Poe, Edgar Allan," World Book Encyclopedia 591). Poe was trying to explain her death and its importance to him. He never neglected to portray an aspect of his life before the readers, even when he was facing a loss. Poe is a man writhing in the mystery of his own undoing. He is a great dead soil progressing terribly down the long process of post-mortem activity in disintegration…yet Poe is hardly an artist. He is rather a supreme scientist. "Edgar Allan Poe, The Dark Genius of the short story n. pag)
In every story conceived from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, a scent of his essence had been molded into each to leave the reader with a better understanding of Poe's life. Poe has used his greatest achievements, such as marriage and his worst times, such as his wife's death to help the reader better understand what his life has been like. Poe is a genius in the fact that he can captivate a reader with his true-to-life stories and then explains himself through allusions and hidden maxims. When a person reads works of Edgar Allan Poe, he is actually reading his autobiography.
The gothic short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe
The gothic short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe are so outstanding that they are still being read today. He only lived for forty years yet made such a huge impact on literature. Poe tells Thomas W. Fredrick in a letter, why he became a writer. " Depend upon it, after all, Thomas, Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path. "(Edgar Allan Poe's Life, intro page) The word that best describes the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe would have to be mystery. Not only is it seen in his literary works, but in his life as well.
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe Jr. His parents were both actors who hardly made enough money to live on. Edgar had two siblings, an older brother named William Henry, who lived with relatives in Baltimore, and a baby sister named Rosalie. When Edgar was about two years old, his father died, or disappeared (no one knows for sure). Shortly after, his mother died of tuberculosis, the two children were all alone. In 1811,a t the age of two, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan. Mr. Allan Refused to adopt Edgar but said he could stay with them.
Rosalie was taken by another family. Poe lived in Richmond until he was six years old, then the Allans and Poe moved to Scotland. Poe attended school at Irvine Grammar School and for several years at Manor House School in Stoke Newington. (The Manor may have been reproduced in some of the darkly romantic houses in Poe's stories). When Edgar was eleven the Allan's returned to Richmond. There he went to school at an English and Classical School attended by the more wealthy children. At this time, Edgar began to notice how diffrent he was and began to feel bitterness towards his mother and Mr. Allan.
He expressed his feelings at age sixteen, when he began to write poems and short stories. He became very arrogant and didn't get along with anyone. When Edgar was seventeen years old, Mr. Allan sent him to the U. of Virginia in Charlottesville. In 1825, Edgar secretly engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster, who was only sixteen years old. At college, Edgar continuously drank, gambled, and fought. He began to drink and gamble so much, that he fell into debt so far that he couldn't pay his losses. Mr. Allan could no longer tolerate Poe's behavior so he withdrew him from school and put him to work at his counting house all within one year.
Edgar Allan Poe – American poet, a master of the horror tale
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were itinerant actors. His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810 and his mother Elizabeth Hopkins Poe in 1811. Edgar was taken into the home of a Richmond merchant John Allan and brought up partly in England (1815-20), where he attended Manor School at Stoke Newington. Never legally adopted, Poe took Allan's name for his middle name.
Poe attended the University of Virginia (1826), but was expelled for not paying his gambling debts. This led to a quarrel with Allan, who later disowned him. In 1827 Poe joined the U.S. Army as a common soldier under assumed name and age. In 1830 Poe entered West Point and was dishonorably discharged next year, for intentional neglect of his duties.
Little is known about his life in this time, but in 1833 he lived in Baltimore with his father's sister. After winning a prize of $50 for the short story "MS Found in a Bottle," he started a career as a staff member of various magazines, among others the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond (1835-37), Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia (1839-40), and Graham's Magazine (1842-43). During these years he wrote some of his best-known stories.
In 1836 Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. She burst a blood vessel in 1842, and remained a virtual invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. After the death of his wife, Poe began to lose his struggle with drinking and drugs. He addressed the famous poem "Annabel Lee" (1849) to her.
Poe's first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, appeared in 1840. It contained one of his most famous works, "The Fall of the House of Usher." During the early 1840s Poe's best-selling work was The Conchologist's First Book (1839). The dark poem of lost love, "The Raven," brought Poe national fame, when it appeared in 1845. The Murders in the Rue Morgue(1841) and The Purloined Letter are among Poe's most famous detective stories. Poe was also one of the most prolific literary journalists in American history.
Poe suffered from bouts of depression and madness, and he attempted suicide in 1848. In September the following year he disappeared for three days after a drink at a birthday party and on his way to visit his new fiance in Richmond. He turned up in a delirious condition in Baltimore gutter and died on October 7, 1849.
Edgar Allan Poe Essay
Poe, Edgar Allan, known as a poet and critic but most famous as the first master of the short-story form, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre. The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early childhood and was raised by John Allan, a successful businessman of Richmond, Virginia.
Taken by the Allan family to England at the ge of six, Poe was placed in a private school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private schools. He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster father, displeased by the young man's drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties intensely, quit the job, thus estranging Allan, and went to Boston. There his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), was published anonymously.
Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the U. S. Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he effected a reconciliation with Allan, who secured him an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. After only a few months at the academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her 11-year-old daughter, Virginia Clemm.
The following year his tale A MS. Found in a Bottle on a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. From 1835 to 1837 Poe was an editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his young cousin. Throughout the next decade, much of which was marred by his wife's long illness, Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, recorded by contemporaries, may have contributed to his early death.
Analyzing the Ambiguous
As vague as Edgar Allan Poe could be at times with the theme of one of his stories, The Fall of the House of Usher contains a theme which is decipherable with little energy expended. The story can be interpreted as an artist who becomes detached from the external world and therefore loses his ability to create art. This also results in his ultimate demise. We first see evidence of this very early in the story. The narrator receives a letter from Mr.
Roderick Usher, in which he describes an acute bodily illnessof a mental disorder which oppressed him… We learn later that Usher has remained with his sister in the manor that they have occupied for years. The narrator describes the house (and the family therein) as having no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn… This can be taken as a separation from the Ushers and the external world.
They are made completely out of the house and its surrounding property with no influence from the outside. Roderick Usher, an artist, has been affected by the distance that is between him and the external in another way. Because of hereditary affliction caused by intermarriage in his family, he has developed an illness that prevents him from listening to art in the form of music, created by anything but stringed instruments. Any music created in any other form results in a painful irritation.
This limitation can be seen as a minute example of the main theme that still conveys the same message. The ultimate demise of the House of Usher and its connected members is the second part of the theme. A separation from the external world will result in death. The fragments in the house that were so miniscule in the beginning of the story can be likened to the fragmented connection between Usher and the external world. As the story progresses the cracks grow and result in the collapse of the house and of the death of Roderick Usher.
Maybe conveying this message was not a completely selfless act of Poes. The story may have only expressed a realization of his own and was made to further his acceptance of such an idea. Edgar Allan Poe was certainly not the most social man and was quite the introvert. Maybe he saw his own demise and developed a character, an artist, modeled after himself. In any case, Poe did express that if one disconnected himself from the outside world, his collapse would be inevitable.
Literary Elements in Poe's Writing
In the writings of great authors it is easy to pick out the literary elements used by them. Edgar Allan Poe is one of these authors. He makes use of the same literary elements in many of his stories. Three of the most used literary elements are irony, antagonists and foreshadowing. Irony is used very often by Poe. Irony is when something occurs that is the exact opposite of how it should be or seem. Irony varies in that it may be displayed through someone's actions or an ironic happening.
An example of irony in someone's action are in the Cask of Amontillado is when Montressor repeatedly seems concerned for Fortunato's health, even though his real intentions are to kill him. It also may be considered ironic that Poe named the enemy of Monstressor, Fortunato. Being that Fortunato means fortunate or lucky in Italian, it is ironic that he is very unlucky in that he his buried alive in a wall. The Antagonist is also a literary element used by Poe is this story. We see how Forunato so ignorantly and thoughtlessly antagonized the questionably insane Montressor.
The consequence for this antagonist was death by dehydration and starvation. One of the most common literary elements used by Poe throughout many of his works is foreshadowing. Poe loved foreshadowing what is to come as much as he can. We see him often use little things to foreshadow. Such as, the infamous raven, or the dichromatic beating of the heart within a dead man buried in the floor. In the Cask of Amontillado, we see foreshadowing in the speech of Monstressor and Fortunato.
When Fortunato states, "I shall not die of a mere cough", Monstressor enthusiastically agrees with him. If you read into this meaning behind this it is direct foreshadowing that he will not die of a mere cough, but starvation and dehydration caused by Monstressor burying him in a wall will be what kills him. Irony, antagonists and foreshadowing are three literary elements often seen in Poe's works. They greatly attribute to his unique writing style and make his works as great as they are.
Edgar Allan Poes Narrative Style
Richard Wilbur tells us how fitting the chamber in "The Pit and the Pendulum" actually was. "Though he lives on the brink of the pit, on the very verge of the plunge into unconciousness, he is still unable to disengage himself from the physical and temperal world. The physical oppreses him in the shape of lurid graveyard visions; the temporal oppreses him in the shape of an enormous and deadly pendulum. It is altogether appropriate, then, that this chamber should be constricting and cruelly angular" (63). Setting is also an important characteristic is Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher".
The images he gives us such as how both the Usher family and the Usher mansion are crumbling from inside waiting to collapse, help us to connect the background with the story. Vincent Buranelli says that "Poe is able to sysatin an atomosphere which is dark and dull. This is one of the tricks which he laregely derived from the tradition of the Gothic tale" (79). The whole setting in the story provides us with a feeling of melancholy. The Usher mansion appears vacant and barren. The same is true for the narrator.
By the anger and remorse that Montresor has for Fortunato, one might think that this was a recent incident. It is not until the very end of the story that we realize, that the entire event occurred fifty years ago. David Herbert Lawrence says, "To the characters in Poe's story, hate is as inordinate as live. The lust of hate is the inordinate desire to consume and unspeakably possess the soul of the hated one, just as the lust of live is the desire to possess or be possessed be the beloved, uterly. " (33).
By the end of the story, he killed his wife in an attempt to kill the cat. Afterwards, the narrator does not even feel remorse for the wrongful death of his wife. Instead, he is just happy that the cat dissapeared. This is just another instance in which the reader wonders what is the driving force begins the narrator's insanity. Buranelli, "In both Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and his "The Black Cat", the barrators act without conscience. There are no doubts, hesitiations or second thought to impede the narrative. Both narrators just sought revenge" (77).
Even though there are many more elements to Edgar Allan Poe's short stories than just his creative use of narration and setting, these are characteristivs which has attracted the most attention. Poe has a way of writing in which he does not have to reveal too much, or paint a pretty picture for the reader in order to attract his attention. In D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature, the author states, "Poe's narrowness is like that of a sword, ot that of a bottleneck: it is effective rather than constricting.
Nothing adventitious is in his great stories, only the essentials, the mininum of characterization, plot, and atmosphere. By ridding himself of everything except what is precisely to the point, he achieves unity of effect. " (66). There is also a prominent distinction between right and wrong in Poe's tories. Viscous characters tend to come to a bad end. This lets the reader accept these endings as a triumph of good over evil. As stated by Buranelli: "He has created a universe, given it psychological laws without enying the existence of the moral law, and peopled it with characters appropriate to such a universe.
Puttng overt mortality out of bounds helps to give him uniqueness" (74). After researching Edgar Allan Poe more in depth, I now have a much greater respect for him and a slightly different perspective of his stories. While it is still evident to me that narrative style and setting have a great deal to do with the development of Poe's short stories, I also realise now that we can't overlap and intertwine with other aspects of the story, making them equally as important.
Poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe
Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809, deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from tale to art. He for the most part created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time. Poe died Oct. Poe's parents were touring actors; both died before he was three years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Va. , and baptized Edgar Allan Poe.
His childhood was uneventful, although he studied for five years in England between the years of 1815 through 1920. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia, however, he only attended for a year. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his girlfriend. Having no where to turn, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however, already written and printed his first book at his own expense: Tamerlane and Other Poems, verses
Temporarily approved, Allan secured Poe's release from the army and his appointment to West Point but refused to provide financial support. After six months Poe apparently contrived to be dismissed from West Point for disobedience of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed the funds for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe. Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself.
In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories, all comic or satiric. Poe, his aunt, and Virginia oved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and married Virginia, who was not yet fourteen years old. His contributions undoubtedly increased the magazine's circulation, but they offended its owner, who also took exception to Poe's drinking. In New York City, then in Philadelphia and again in New York Poe sought to establish himself as a force in literary journalism, but with only moderate success.
He did succeed, however, in formulating influential literary theories and in demonstrating mastery of the forms he favored, highly musical poems and short prose narratives. The tale Poe considered his finest, The Fall of The House of Usher, which was to become one of his most famous stories. Virginia's death in January 1847 was a heavy blow, but Poe continued to write and lecture. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826.
After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. In a brief obituary the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of congestion of the brain. The short story is a prose narrative that can be told or read on a single occasion. It is believed to be the oldest form of prose fiction. Originating with primitive accounts of supernatural encounters, short narratives have existed in the form of parables, fairy tales, folk tales, legends, and fables throughout history.
Edgar Allan Poe perfected what has come to be known as the classic form, as opposed to the later hard-boiled form developed in the 1920s. The classic form is the story in which a seemingly impossible crime has been committed and the detective relies on his or her superior perception, intellect, and often arcane knowledge to solve Edgar Allan Poes, The Fall of the House of Usher takes on the same basic literary hemes as do most of his stories, suspense imparticular.
However, he also uses the supernatural in this story as well. Poes vast description enables the reader to place himself with the narrator, and get a better feeling of what is truly going on with the story. Using a nameless narrator allows the reader to use his imagination on to what the narrator looks like; is it the reader himself? Poe? or a figment of Poes imagination? That is to forever be unknown. However, it is also part of the reason Poes work has become the superlative of the short story.
The story takes place mainly in the House of the Usher family, the exact location in is not entioned, however, the surroundings seem very gloomy; the house itself is described as decaying, Poe obviously was trying to give the reader a mental image of a dark, immense, house, Throughout the story, Poe's imagery of the house and the inanimate objects inside serve to give a supernatural atmosphere to the story. By giving inanimate objects almost life-like characteristics, he is giving the house a supernatural quality.
This supernatural element serves to make Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher interesting and suspenseful in his treatment of the house's effect on its inhabitants. It also allows the house to become, in my opinion, the most important character of the story, although it is inanimate. However, three tangible characters play the decisive role in this story: Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher, and the un-named narrator. Lady Madeline, the twin sister of Roderick Usher, is introduced as a character, however, never speaks a word throughout the entire story.
In fact, she is absent from most of the book. Poe seems to present her as a ghostlike figure. Lady Madeline had the tendency to roam the house, not taking notice to anything, or anyone. According to the narrator, Lady Madeline "passed slowly hrough a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed [his] presence, disappeared. At the narrator's arrival, she goes to her bedroom and falls into a catatonic state. The narrator, after the decision that she is not waking up, helps bury and put her away in a vault, however, with her reappearance, he flees.
It becomes apparent that Madeline had fallen to the mental disorder which seems to plague the House of Usher. Roderick Usher, the old child hood friend of the narrator, and head of the house, plays a rather distinctive role in the story. He comes from a rather wealthy family in which he now stakes laim to the family money. Roderick, as the narrator tells the reader, had once been an attractive man.
However, his appearance deteriorated over time. At first meeting with Roderick, the narrator spoke of the radical change in his friends appearance, to the point in which "I doubted to whom I spoke. Roderick's altered appearance probably was caused by his insanity. The narrator notes various symptom from which he bases his opinion that Roderick is not mentally sane: excessive nervous agitation. His actions were alternately vivacious and sullen, his voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision. Roderick's state worsens throughout the story. He becomes increasingly restless and unstable, especially after the burial of his sister. He is not able to sleep and claims that he hears noises.
Generally, Roderick is an unstable man, his capability to remain sane is far gone at the point in which he is introduced. The narrator, although he remains nameless, appears to be a man of common sense. He shows his good heartedness in going to help an old child hood friend, whom he has lost contact with prior to the letter sent by Roderick. With his arrival to the house, he observes Usher and concludes that his friend has a mental disorder. He looks for natural scientific explanations for what Roderick senses. The narrator's tone throughout the story suggests that he cannot understand Usher.
Oddly enough, it becomes obvious in the beginning of the story that the narrator is superstitious. When he looks upon the house, even before he met Roderick Usher, he observes "There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition. " When he and Roderick go down to bury Madeline, he speculates that she may not be completely dead yet. However, rather than mentioning his suspicion to his friend, he remains silent and ontinues the burial. The narrator comes across as more of a practical man, trying to dismiss strange occurrences as coincidence, or natural occurrences.
For example, when Roderick claims that there are ghosts in the house, the narrator feels fear too, but he dismisses Roderick's and his own fear by attributing them to a natural cause. In the end, this fear finally overcomes him. The three characters of course are unique people with distinct characteristics, but they are tied together by the same type of mental disorder. All of them suffer from insanity, yet each responds differently. Lady Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane and continues her life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears realize his mental state and struggles very hard to hold on to his sanity.
The narrator, who is slowly but surely contracting the disease, wants to deny what he sees, hears, and senses. Unlike the other two characters, however, he escapes the insanity that is, The House of Usher. In The Fall of the House of Usher has an unusual conflict occurring. Unlike most stories, the conflict does not fall between to animate objects, instead it falls between man, and a inanimate object, a house. Although the conflict is not coming from the house itself, however, more the supernatural beings which inhabit it. They do, however, reflect themselves upon the house.
In this case, the house and its beings which inhabit it, reign over the characters. In the story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe explores the inner workings of the human imagination but, at the same time, cautions the reader about the destructive dangers which can result from it. When fantasy suppresses reality, as in Roderick's case, what results is madness and the decay of mental stability. Madeline's return and death reunites the twin natures of their ingle being. The focus of this story is the narrator's reaction to and understanding of these strange events.
To look into the dark imagination where fantasy becomes reality is to evoke madness and loss of stability. The narrator has made a journey into the unknown world of the mind and is nearly destroyed by it. The story covers a period of approximately six months during the reign of the Red Death. The action takes place in the deep seclusion of the main charactor, Prince Prosperos castle, in which he has invited the higher standing people of his village. Here these people will stay until the Red Death has passed the town by. In party, food, wine and dancing, they will all live, while the lower class townspeople die.
The masque takes place in the imperial suite which consisted of seven, very distinct rooms. This story has no characters in the usual sense which stand out in order to give the story a more in-depth view to the characters . The only character whom speaks is Prince Prospero. His name suggests happiness and good fortune, however, ironically that is not the case. Within the Prince's abbey, he has created a world of his imagination with masked figures that reflect his own ersonal tastes.
These dancers are all a product of the Prince's imagination, Poe refers to them as "a multitude of dreams. Even when the "Red Death" enters, Poe refers to this character as figure or a mummer who "was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The conflict in this story is very obvious. On the surface it is apparent that conflict is between the Red Death and the people within the castle. However, an underlying conflict can be seen if approached correctly. In my opinion, the conflict can be seen as one between those who eel that their lives are more precious then others, therefor they try to escape death by secluding themselves from those with less money and lower social status.
I find the theme of this story to be the most noticeable of all compared to other works of Poe. Poe, without question, is trying to show that no one escapes death. Human happiness, as represented by Prince Prospero, seeks to wall out the threat of death. Death comes like a thief is the night, without warning. Obviously, this is shown in the story, for no walls, money, or time was going to save these people from the inevitable appearance of the red death. Poe, for the most part, uses an allegory as the literary theme in The Masque of the Red Death.
I do not see the story as one intended to scare or keep the reader in suspense, however, more to leave the reader with a message concerning death, and trying to prevent the inevitable. Very little description is used throughout the story, excluding the description the most important roles in the story; the seven rooms, and the Red Death. I believe this is written the way it is in order to keep the reader focused on what is important, what is underneath the surface. The story covers a period of approximately eight days with most of the important action occurring each night around midnight.
The location is the home of an elderly man in which the narrator has become a caretaker. The main scene takes place on the eighth night of the story, starting at twelve o clock at night and ending some time after four thirty in the morning. This story contains a nameless narrator, an old man and the police who enter near the end of the story after the mention, that they were called by a neighbor whose suspicions had been aroused upon hearing a scream in the night. The narrator however, becomes the true focus of the ale. This narrator may be male or female because Poe uses only "I" and "me" in reference to this character.
It can be assumed by the readers that the narrator is a male because of a male author using a first person point of view; however, it is quite possible that the narrator might very well be a female. Poe was creating a story whose impact could be changed simply by imagining this horrendous and vile deed being committed by a woman. The theme of this story is based around the idea that human nature and morality can force a person to feel a guilt so strong, that it might force you to believe things that are not so. Human nature is a delicate balance of good and evil.
Most of the time this balance is maintained; however, when there is a shift, for whatever reason, the dark side tends to surface. How and why this dark side emerges differs from person to person. What may push one individual over the edge will only cause a minor distraction in another. In this case, it is the vulture eye of the old man that makes the narrator unable to bare his presence for much longer. It is this irrational fear which evokes the dark side of the narrator, and eventually leads to murder. The narrator plans, executes and conceals the crime.
However, it is not to be concealed for long, for the constant nagging of the narrators deed is soon to evoke a confession. The conflict in The Tell Tail Heart is not only between the old man and the narrator, however it is also between the narrator and his or her own self. The conflict between the narrator and the old man is more of a one sided disharmony. The narrator finds the, what is to be believed, dead eye to be intolerable, however, the old man is unaware of these feelings. The conflict is between him or her self and the eye of the old man. That dispute seems to be settled after the urder of the old man by the narrator.
However, it is soon seen that the conflict, after all, was between the narrator alone, not anything, or anyone else. The narrator thought that the murder of the old man would rid him or her of the dilemma of the evil eye, this, as was seen is not true. Even after the death, the narrator feels the presence, and hears the heart of the old man beating. As in almost all of Poes works, suspense is used plentifully throughout the story. It is used very strongly with towards the end of the story, during the part concerning the dead heart beating. Irony, however, is also used, although sparingly.
The perfect murder, as it was thought by the narrator, on the contrary, it failed due to a hasty confession. The story begins around dusk, one evening during the carnival season in an unnamed European city. The atmosphere is set along the lines of the period of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The location quickly changes from the lighthearted activities associated with such a festival to the damp, dark catacombs under Montressor's large estate which helps to establish the sinister atmosphere of the story. The change from the lively carnival progressing in the streets, to the enacing catacombs leaves for an interesting setting change.
Although several characters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon Montresor, the diabolical narrator of this tale of horror, who pledges revenge upon Fortunato, a long time friend of his for an insult, said long ago, that was misinterpreted. When the two meet during the carnival season, there is a warm greeting with excessive shaking of hands which Montresor attributes to the fact that Fortunato had been drinking. Montresor also appears to be happy to see Fortunato, although it is in false pretense. Fortunato's clown costume is appropriate for the carnival season. owever, also ironic, for what is to take place, is anything but a joke.
"The Cask of Amontillado is a sufficient tale of revenge. Montresor pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. He intends to seek vengeance in support of his family motto: "No one assails me with impunity. " It is important for Montresor to have his victim know what is happening to him. Montresor will derive pleasure from the fact that his victim, Fortunato, will suffer the pain of being buried alive, and be aware of the fact all along. Poe does not intend for the eader to sympathize with Montresor because he has been wronged by Fortunato, but rather to judge him.
In structure, there can be no doubt, that both Montresor's plan of revenge and Poe's story are carefully crafted to create the desired effect of pure evil. The conflict in this story is the bond that holds the story together. As said before, the insult in-which Fortunato inflicted on Montresor sometime in the past, has led up to this night, in-which Montresor finds adequate to seek revenge. After a friendly meeting, and invite back to his home, Montresor begins to bask in the pleasure of knowing that his foes doom in approaching. Luring Fortunato with a very fine wine, Amontillado, both men make their way to Montresors cask.
Aware of the fact that Fortunato is feeling the affects of the alcohol, Montresor makes his move. The story moves to Montresor placing the bricks tier by tier to cover the wall in-which he has chained Fortunato in. As the last brick is places, Fortunato begins to play the whole thing off as a joke, however, he soons realizes it it anything but that. It grows quite for a short time, but then Montresor hears the sinister laugh of his foe followed by no explanation. Poe, using again a customary literary technique, turns foreshadowing. Although there are hints of other techniques, I feel that foreshadowing is best represented.
Throughout the walk towards Montresors casks, he is constantly dropping hints on to what is about to take place the cough is merely nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. True, true. Obviously, Montresor is not intending to give away his plan, however, it seems that he is amusing himself with his clues that Fortunato is not paying any attention to. Although it is hinted in the beginning of the story about what is to be Fortunatos fate, it is never specifically stated. The clues that Montresor drops along the lines of conversation allow us to get a clearer idea of what is to take place.
The Black Cat As the story begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator pens. The story moves to the events occurring prior to his crime. The narrator tells of the events occurring, taking place mainly in his home, however, moving only seldomly to other locations, such as the local tavern. Although several characters are mentioned in his story, the true focus lies upon the, again nameless narrator.
He speaks of himself with the up-most regard until the events in-which he is focusing on begin to occur. It is easy to point out that the man's personality had undergone a drastic transformation which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol seemed to evoke. The reader also discovers that the narrator is superstitious. Oddly, he states that he once was especially fond of animals, and he was pleased to find a similar fondness for pets in his wife. The cat was a large, beautiful animal who was entirely black. Pluto, as he was called, was the narrator's favorite pet.
He alone fed him, and Pluto followed the narrator wherever he went. Two minor roles are played by the narrators wife, and the local police department, whom discover the body of the narrators murdered wife. The Black Cat unlike The Tell Tale Heart does not deal with premeditated murder. It is explained that the narrator appears to be a happily married man, who has always been exceedingly kind and gentle. He attributes his downfall to perverseness. Perverseness provides the rationale for otherwise unjustifiable acts, such as killing the first cat or rapping with his cane upon he plastered-up wall behind which stood his wife's corpse.
He had no justification for this, yet proceeded to do so as he wished. It can be argued that what the narrator calls perverseness is actually the working of his conscience. Guilt about his alcoholism seems to the narrator the perverseness which causes him to kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife who had shown him the gallows on the second cat's breast. The narrators feeling of triumph after thinking he had covered his crime perfectly shows his total disregard for he life of his loved one. Poe uses two literary techniques that in-turn make up the bulk of the story.
Foreshadowing and flashback are clearly shown throughout the story. Poe's pronounced use of foreshadowing leads the reader from one event to the next by using such statements as "one night," "one morning," "on the night of the day. " Within the first few paragraphs of the story, the narrator foreshadows that he will violently harm his wife. The most important foreshadowing clue given is the fact that the story starts off with the narrator in prison awaiting his execution, this lone shows that sometime before the conclusion of the story that the narrators fate will take a treacherous turn.
It is stated that the conflict peeked with the minor attack of the cat on the mans hand, however, the narrator is not sure why his feelings towards the animal changed, although he believes that alcohol played a role in that. On the other hand, a conflict, the most important one at that, seems to take place in the narrator himself. Superstition mixed with the effects of alcohol seemed to place the man in a demented state. Oddly, he committed his most brutal act of killing his wife while he was not under the influence. It is not directly stated what made the man snap as e did, possibly that is what Poe wanted, for us to decide on our own.
Edgar Allan Poe, the best-known American Romantic
Edgar Allan Poe is perhaps the best-known American Romantic who worked in the Gothic mode. His stories explore the darker side of the Romantic imagination, dealing with the grotesque, the supernatural, and the horrifying. He defined the form of the American short story. As one might expect, Poe himself eschewed conventional morality, which he believed stems from man's attempts to dictate the purposes of God. Poe saw God more as a process than purpose. He believed that moralists derive their beliefs, and thus, the resultant behavioral patterns, from a priori knowledge.
In Eureka, we find that Poe shunned such artifices of mind, systems which, he professed, have no basis in reality. Yet Poe employed in his writing the diction of the moral tome, which causes confusion for readers immersed in this tradition. Daniel Hoffman reiterates Allan Tate's position that, aside from his atavistic employment of moral terminology, Poe writes as though "Christianity had never been invented. " (Hoffman 171) Poe did offer to posterity one tale with a moral.
Written in 1841 at the dawn of Poe's most creative period, Poe delivers to his readers a satirical spoof, a literary Bronx cheer to writers of moralistic fiction, and to critics who expressed disapprobation at finding no discernible moral in his works. The tale "Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Tale with a Moral" presents Poe's "way of staying execution" (Poe 487) for his transgressions against the didactics. The story's main character is Toby Dammit, who from infanthood, had been flogged left-handed, which since the world revolves right to left, causes evil propensities to be driven home rather than driven out.
The narrator relates that by the age of seven months, Toby was chasing down and kissing the female babies, that by eight months he had flatly refused to sign the Temperance Pledge, and that by the end of his first year, he'd taken to "wearing mustaches, but had contracted a propensity for cursing and swearing, and for backing his assertions with bets. " (Poe 488) As Toby reaches manhood, the narrator finally accepts that his young friend is incorrigible. By this time, Toby utters scarcely a sentence without oaths, his favorite of which is to bet the devil his head that he can accomplish whatever challenge lies before him.
One day as the narrator accompanies Toby Dammit on a route which requires the crossing of a covered bridge, Toby bets the devil his head that he can leap over a bridge stile, pigeon winging as he performs the feat. Unexpectedly a "little lame old gentleman of venerable aspect" (Poe 491) interrupts with an emphatic "ahem" to take Toby up on his bet. The elderly gentleman wears an "a full suit of black, but his shirt was perfectly clean and the collar turned very neatly down over a white cravat. " Oddly, his eyes are "carefully rolled up into the top of his head," and he wears a black silk apron. 91)
After he takes charge of Toby, allowing him a running start, the elderly interloper takes his position just behind the stile. The narrator awaits the gentleman's "One–two–three–and–away," when Toby initiates his running leap. To all appearances, the young reprobate is destined to clear the stile easily, pigeon-winging as he flies, when abruptly his progress is arrested, and the luckless Toby falls flat on his back on his side of the stile. The elderly gentleman is indistinctly seen wrapping a bulky object in his apron and taking his leave of them.
When the narrator throws open an adjacent window, he sees that Toby has been deprived of his head by a sharp, heretofore unnoticed cross-support located directly above the stile. Stated so that the targets of Poe's ridicule cannot miss it, the moral of his tale is the title of the story. Yet the moral of the tale is not its theme. Poe purposes ridicule of those who presume to judge him, and of their small-mindedness. This ridicule is his theme. His rendering of this riotous spoof illustrates that Poe believed he had more important things to do than pass moral judgment in his tales.
Poe instead opted to depict what occurred to him as the natural order of man's behavior, rather than to engage in baseless speculation concerning what God intended for the individual. Appropriately, Poe asks, "if we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being! If we cannot understand him in his objective creatures, how then in his substantive moods and phases of creation"? (Poe 280-81) Instead, Poe's work penetrated to the truths which govern the universe. How petty the moralists of his day must have seemed to him!
Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from anecdote to art. He virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time–important theoretical statements on poetry and the short story–and has had a worldwide influence on literature. Poe did not find it sufficient that he essays his theory of perversity in one story only. Perhaps his most lucid portrayal of perversity resides in his masterfully told tale "The Black Cat.
That work's narrator owns a black cat named Pluto, which he dearly loves. However, the cat's owner takes to drinking, and one day, in a tantrum, he is seized by perverse impulses beyond his control. He captures the unfortunate creature, and with his pen knife, removes one of its eyes. This is but the beginning of the narrator's sorrows. He recognizes that it was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself–to offer violence to own nature–to do wrong for the wrong's sake only–that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute.
One morning, in cold blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;–hung it with tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart;–hung it because I knew it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no offense;–hung it because I knew that in doing so I was committing a sin–a deadly sin that would jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it–if such a thing were possible–even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God. (Poe, "The Black Cat" 225)
Again, Poe employs language which can send a traditional moralist howling about the wages of sin. But catch the subjunctive, "if such a thing were possible. " Poe makes it clear, even in this extreme set of circumstances, that he does not believe it possible to be beyond the reach of God. In Eureka, we saw why. In that work, Poe portrayed God as manifest in the works of his own creation. We saw him further declare that all things of the universe contain "the germ of their inevitable annihilation. " Speaking through his narrators," Poe illustrates perversity as the "germ" of annihilation as it resides in the human psyche.
But, for now, let us return to the story and witness perversity wreak its havoc. The night of the day he hanged Pluto, a fire swept through the narrator's house. He, his wife, and the servant escaped, but the conflagration completely destroyed the house; yet one wall had not fallen in. Upon visiting the ruin, the narrator witnessed in the standing wall, "as if graven in bas relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat… There was a rope about the animal's neck. " (Poe 66) The image of the cat detailed in what had been a freshly plastered wall profoundly affected the fancies of the narrator.
As if to atone for his actions, the narrator begins a search to adopt a similar cat, which he finally locates "in a den of more than infamy… reposing on the head of one of the immense hogsheads of Gin, or of Rum. " (66) The new cat is completely black except for an indefinite white splotch on its chest. It follows him home. At first, he likes the cat, for it is quite affectionate. But his attitude changes; tension builds anew. The tension grows to hatred, caused in part by the narrator's discovery that, like Pluto, the new cat has been deprived of an eye.
The narrator, only because of his terrors about his first cat, restrains himself from doing the new cat harm. But to his horror, the white patch of fur on his new cat's chest gradually assumes the shape of the gallows. The narrator begins to fancy the cat as the tormentor of his heart, its hot breath in his face. Perversely, the narrator succumbs entirely to evil thoughts, "hatred of all things and of all mankind. " (Poe 68) Finally, one day as the narrator and his wife descend the steps into their cellar, the cat causes the narrator to lose his footing.
In turn, the narrator flies into a rage and tries to axe the cat. The wife, trying to save the life of the cat, catches hold of the axe. Then entirely out of his mind, the narrator plants the axe in her skull. To avoid detection in his crime, he bricks his wife into a cellar wall. But the luckless narrator accidentally bricks the cat into the wall as well. After searching for the dreaded cat, the narrator concludes that the beast has "in terror, fled the premises forever. " However, the fourth day, the police arrive to thoroughly examine the house.
They leave no "nook or corner unexplored. Poe 60) Even upon their third or fourth visit to the cellar, the narrator remains sublimely calm. Finally satisfied, and preparing to quit the search, the police are interrupted in their ascension of the stairs by the triumphant voice of the narrator. "Gentleman," I said at last…, I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health and a little more courtesy. Bye the bye, gentleman, this-this is a very well constructed house. " [In the rabid desire to say something easily, I scarcely knew what I uttered at all. ]–"I may say an excellently constructed house.
The walls–are you going, gentlemen? these walls are solidly put together;" and here, through the mere frenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.
No sooner had the reverberations of the striking of the cane died away, than there issued forth the howl, "a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of the triumph… , such as might have arisen… from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation. " The cat had completed its conquest, revealing the location of the corpse and consigning the wretch to the gallows.
The final horror of the narrator, his crowning act of perversity, is reminiscent of the crazed killer of the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart," who had succeeded in hiding his atrocity, only to betray himself in direct effect, again to the police. Later, we shall see a similar psychological immolation performed by the narrator on himself in "The Imp of the Perverse. " "The Black Cat" illustrates many manifestations and vehicles which the perverse can assume. First, the narrator succumbs to alcohol; then the narrator's spirit of perversity, given a foothold in his psyche, causes the eventual decline in his temperament.
As the story progresses, the narrator reaches the point which Poe describes: "With certain minds, under certain conditions, it [perversity] becomes absolutely irresistible… radical… primitive… " Alas, the hapless narrator cannot help himself. As mentioned previously, a traditional moralist will always be tempted to overlay his own principles on Poe's tales, in this story, expostulating the evils of drink, perhaps. And understandably, when such tenets reside at the core of one's belief structure, the temptation to perform moral judgment can be preemptory; yet Poe's system of mind deserves our efforts to comprehend his system.
Certainly, Poe recognized the lure of alcohol; yet he chose to examine the primitive cause for the urge, rather than submit to the prescriptions of the moralists of his time. So let us, too, seek to discern Poe's intentions. And what of this flailing narrator who possesses seemingly so little command of his life? He knows that he has violated his own vitality by removing Pluto's eye, and by later hanging the cat in the tree. He displays regret for his actions, a conscience. But what can his conscience constitute in Poe's system of morality? And for that matter, what is morality when one leaves God's intention for man out of the picture?
Poe's perversity is taken further with his story "The Imp of the Perverse" opens in the style of an essay, describing "the prima mobilia of the human soul," a propensity which has been ignored by phrenologists and moralists, "although obviously existing as a radical, primitive, irreducible sentiment. " (Poe 271) The sentiment thus described as "perverseness is subsequently delineated in three examples: The first involves a speaker's tantalizing an audience by circumlocution, fully aware that he displeases, and though intending to please, he opts to indulge the "uncontrollable longing" to displease. 72-73)
After its July 1945 publication of "The Imp… ," Poe spoke to open the Lyceum season on October 16. One cannot help wondering whether Poe's self-effacing introduction and his reading of the whole of "Al Aaraaf" to an audience of Bostonians did not represent enactment of this episode from his story. (Silverman 267) The second example is much like that of the graduate student cited earlier. Procrastination as an agency of the perverse also seems to have plagued Poe before the Lyceum reading, since he had promised to read a new poem, which he never wrote, then disappointed with the lengthy and unsuccessful poem from his youth.
In contrast to the success of the graduate student in overcoming his perverse inclination, the "chanticleer-ghost" petrifies the victim in Poe's illustration, until the striking of the hour designating that alas, "it is too late. " (Poe 273) The third example places the victim on the brink of a precipice, where he begins to yearn for the "delight" in the horror of a "rushing annihilation" from such a height. What "would be our sensations? " (273) The narrator points out that it is the very loathsomeness and ghastliness of such a death which causes one to most vividly desire it.
If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge and are destroyed. " (Poe 274) A similar account can be found on the Isle of Tsalal in Poe's novel, the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, when the narrator is saved from a fall from a steep cliff only by the arms of Peters. Next, the reader discovers that he reads not an essay, but a tale of horror from a young man who has fallen victim to the spirit of perverseness he had so well portrayed.
One can also bet that Poe had John Allan in mind when he formulated the plot for this episode. The narrator devises a scheme that will secure his fortune from his benefactor-to-be. He poisons the wax of a candle and exchanges it for the candle at his benefactor's bedside. Of course the benefactor suffocates; the evidence burns away; the taper is disposed of. The scheme is a success, as the crime goes undetected. For a number of years, the narrator enjoys his good fortune. But he begins to mutter to himself, "I am safe," and finally, "I am safe–I am safe–if I do not fool enough to make an open confession.
At this suggestion, the narrator confronts his own double, his perverse self who reveals him "as the very ghost of him I had murdered…. " (Poe 275) The narrator feels the pangs of suffocation as if it were he who is now being poisoned. Finally, completely dominated by his perverse spirit, the narrator rushes madly through the heavily populated avenues to confess his crime to the authorities. He relates all that is needed to convict him of his crime, then falls "prostrate in a swoon. " (275) Those whom Poe satirizes in "Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Tale with a Moral" would likely find a moral in "The Imp…
They would avow that the narrator's guilt caused the confession. He was a bad egg, and, sonny boy, if you don't want to end up like him, you won't kill people. Moralists would completely ignore the narrator's explicit explanation of perversity at the story's outset, to insist that Poe tells herein a moral tale. It seems to this writer that we must give Poe credit for knowing what he was doing. If he presents a narrative in illustration of human perversity, the reader should take him at his word. But what of his confession?
Is this not the voice of his conscience? Yes, assuredly, his confession is the utterance of conscience, but it is a conscience in Poe's scheme, an agent of the perverse, revealing the "deep secret," the seed of annihilation residing in the human breast. It is not conscience which brings the individual into submission to a moral code. Perhaps the conditions which I described in the preceding paragraphs illustrate that creativity and perversity do, as Poe declared, walk hand-in-hand, just as do the attraction and repulsion motions of the universe.
Consider the possibility that man's prolific creative genius necessarily must be just as abundantly perverse. Certainly, this antipodality of action and reaction seems to follow the basic laws of Newton, as well as the oscillations manifested throughout the universe. But what prevents the individual from recognizing his own perversity in Poe's terms, as a primal force governing many of the activities of the psyche? After Toby's debacle, I would not bet the devil my head, but could it be our own cultural conditioning which blinds us to this truth which Poe proclaimed as self-evident?
Must we deliberately shed the accouterments of the convention to travel Poe's intellect? Yes, yes, emphatically, yes. It is also helpful to consider that Poe performed his search very much from the Romantic tradition and in the American spirit. He searched individually, passionately, but entirely alone. Yet his quest for transcendence to the unity of the Godhead and his profound postulates governing the spiritual universe rarefied him from his literary and social compatriots, and even from many modern readers. Readers of Poe's time and of ours have much to unlearn before they can hope to decode his macabre.
In addition, Poe's psychological theory, which represents the mind's compulsion to kill the body, drew from the society of his time the author's own imps of the perverse, most notably the Reverend Rufus W. Griswold, who believed Poe to be demented. Yet how could Griswold be expected to grasp Poe's belief in a spiritually governed universe where God is manifest in his own creation. How could he comprehend Poe's psychic landscape, where the mind wars against the body to rejoin the spirit with God. Griswold recoiled.
Though we disparage his onslaught of Poe's reputation, his alteration of letters and other records of fact, we can also perceive the Reverend's desperation. He was bright enough to see what Poe undertook and was scared silly. So what is being undertaken here is a psychical study of man, an examination of the seasons of intellect, body, and spirit, through which we all cycle. Also attempted is a portrayal of Poe's creative spirit. Though hyper-aware of his own tendency to perversity, what creative impetus must have been requisite for Edgar Poe to have penned poems and stories which so closely mirror the psychic patterns of his own mind!
Poes Composition of the Raven
April 8, 2019 April 7, 2019 by Daniel
Edgar Allan Poe describes in great detail, his poem The Raven, in The Philosophy of Composition. Never before had I been able to read a poet describe in his own philosophy of making a poem. Poe goes in deep context and meaning to how he derives the story line to his poem. He explains what significance the raven plays in the poem and the beauty of his intent in the poem. Poe, first thought of an impression or effect he would like to suppress upon the reader. In this case, he chose beauty as the sole intent of his poem.
Second he wanted to find a tone, which would express his view of beauty throughout the poem. His choice of tone was sadness because he believed beauty excites the sensitive soul to tears (1575). He also wanted to use a refrain, brief, but subtle, which would be a vocal variation to the poem. He chose to use only a single word nevermore (1576). His next idea was to think of a creature that could believably speak such a word, but still keep the intent of the tone of sadness and melancholy. He first thought of the obvious, which was a parrot, but decided a raven to be a better creature for such a tone.
Once these features had been derived, he needed bases for the poem. In the case of beauty, he believed a dead lover to be the beauty. Poe writes, the death, then, of a beautiful women is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world(1576). On the other hand, Poe figured what better then the dead lovers, existing Aylieff 2 partner, who is forced to live in agony of death, to be the sadness. The way he puts the poem together, by having the beginning-at the end, where all works of art should begin (1577) is very intriguing, and shows the thinking of Poe and his work.
As he puts the poem together, he interprets the raven to the bereaved lover as being lost in the storm. The raven, looking for shelter ends up at the window of the chambers where the bereaved lover is sulking in his loss. The poem takes shape from there, in Poes own ingenious. Through the encounters of the raven to the lost lover, is how the lover reveals to the reader his thoughts and feelings. Poes use of characters is unique and is formatted to the story beautifully. Poes way of writing poetry and his originality of ideas for a poem, contributes to his uniqueness among poets in his time.
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Edgar Allan Poe Report
Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in Jan 19, 1809. His parents died before he was 3 years old and he was adopted into the home of John Allan who was a merchant in Richmond, Va. During his uneventful childhood he studied for 5 yearsin England. In1826 he enrolled in the University of Virginia but only stayed for a year. Poe was a good student but he made large gambling debts he refused to pay. He did not come back to the university and even broke off his engagement to his Virginia sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster.
Being he had no means of support he enlisted in the army. By this time he had already written and printed his own book, Tamerlane and other poems. Later on he went to West Point and refused to to provide financial support. Later on he was dismissed from West Point for disobedience. His fellow cadets helped to contribute the funds for publication of his poems. Poe later on took up residencecy in Baltimore with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Virginia. He later on started writing fiction aas a way to support himself.
In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier pulished five of his stories. Poe his aunt and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835 and became editor of the Southern LiteraryMessenger and married Virginia who was not yet 14 years old. In January 1837 Poe annouced his withdrawl as editor in the Messenger. He stayed in New York City then in Philadelphia and again in New York to establish himself as a force of literary jouranalism. Over the years he discovered new forms of poetry.
He exemplifies a form in Ligeia (1838), he conidered his best piece of work The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1839). The Murders In The Rue Morgue (1841) was his first detective story, his musical mellifious verses are The Raven (1845) and The Bells (1849). Virginia died in 1847 it was very straining on Poe but he continued to write and lecture. Poe died in Oct 7, 1849 in Baltimore. He virtually created the detective story and he perfected the psychological thriller. He has a worldwide influence on literature.
The last years of Poes life was a tragic period. In January of 1842 Virginia broke a blood vessel while singing, and died of tuberculosis on January 30, 1847 after five years of illness. Then Poe himself became ill, he had a deadly addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs which probably contributed to his early death. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured , and was accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. Poe was only 40 when he died in 1849.
Who is Edgar Allan Poe
He was a 19th century American writer born to Elizabeth (betty) Arnold Hopkins and David Poe. (Internet source) Poe was an well-educated individual. He would attend a private school in London and then an academy in Richmond. Later being accepted to the University of Virginia, this however would not work out for him. He then would travel to Boston for work in which there would be none. Defeated he enlisted in the Army and soon regret the decision. Once out he would again try a military career, he was accepted to the U. S Military Academy.
Encyclopedia Britannica) This time he immediately regretting the decision. After his expulsion he entered a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. His story MS. Found in a Bottle was considered to be the one of the worlds first science fiction stories, he won both the $50 prize and acclaim for its 24-year-old author. (Internet source) He would then work at several different editorials, none of which really worked out for him. His dream though would be to own a magazine or paper of his own. He would come close twice but never succeed in keeping them alive due to his different habits.
What made Edgar Allen Poe? Through his lifetime many different misfortunes and disasters would strike him. All of these would shape him and his writing to what we now associate as the father of modern diabolic fiction. (Internet source) The first of the tragedies to plague him would be the abandonment by his father. He would grow never knowing who his real father was. His father had left his family when Edgar was only an infant. The next misfortune would be the death of his mother when he was three. There was yet another factor that would shape him throughout his lifetime.
He would also come how from his studies in England to find that his sweetheart from childhood was engaged. This caused him to write his first serious poem Tamerlane out of heartbreak. His luck with women throughout his lifetime would be rather in the bottom end of the barrel. He would eventually marry Virginia Clemm, his thirteen-old cousin. He would later lose her to tuberculosis and stop writing for a while, only to concentrate on Ulalume to express his mourn. He would try to remarry on two different occasions the first was ruined by rumor the second by his drinking habit.
How his habits effected his writing? Poes writing would be greatly influenced by the habits. The greatest of these that would eventually end his life would be his love for the drink. This would cost him many opportunities in life where he would waste away some of the greatest chances he had to be successful. His gambling debt of $2,000 (a small fortune in that day) and drinking would get him kicked out of the University of Virginia. He would also suffer a nervous breakdown on two different occasions. The first of which would come when he was trying to get out of the Army after enlisting.
Another great opportunity that he ruined due to drinking was getting kicked out of the U. S Military Academy. To him it was not, he drank on purpose to get court marshaled out of the academy. A little while after he would start to experiment with opium. Then his drinking struck again he was dismissed from the South Liberty Messenger for repeated womanizing and drinking problems. This would not be the last time by far that something like this would happen. His job at Grahams Magazine would end up being the same old story.
It would even cost him his dream of owning his very own newspaper. The Broadway Journal would fold four months after he had resumed drinking again. He would then try again to own his own newspaper now titled The Stylus. This adventure would end up in a nervous breakdown and even several attempts at suicide. Then eventually the inevitable occurred he killed himself one night in Baltimore after drinking to heavily. The truth, one of Americas greatest writer was dead at the age of forty. (Internet source) It seems as if the more problems an artist has the better his works are.
The pain that Poe had to suffer was probably his best creative tool. That is probably why all his poems and stories are so dark and dreary. He really had two main types of tales the Grotesque and the Arabesque. The Grotesque was his humorous piece and the Arabesque was his horror stories. Some would argue that at times he was slightly romantic (with a satanic sort of twist). None the less his poems, stories, and tales all fell into different varieties. He was said to be the father of all diabolic fiction and the writer of the first science fiction story.
The different categories that his writings fell into were Romanticism, Gothicism, symbolism Decadence, and Surrealism. All in all what ever it was that sparked his creativity it worked. Whatever it was from his drinking problem to his lack of a family, he was one of the most creative writers in the nineteenth century. If it was not of that fateful day in Baltimore Oct. 7, 1849 where he went out with some friends, we would not have lost one of the greatest and most remembered American writers. As it was Edgar Allen Poe died at that age of forty in Baltimore.
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe Broken Down
In the poem, "The Raven" by Edgar Alan Poe, he uses many different elements as symbols. A raven is usually the symbol of something dark and sinister. A raven is also a sign of death. This poem also deals with losing hope, even though the narrator has no right to even have the small amount. This poem deals with his dead leave Lenore, and how the raven torments him into insanity. Throughout the poem, the narrator is tormented by his lost love, Lenore, who came back in the form of a raven. Of course, it is only speculated that he killed her, but there are many clues that he has.
He has only little hope of seeing Lenore again, as the ambers show in the fire. He was also so ridden by guilt that he was haunted by the image of her, the raven. Also, the raven speaks one word, "Nevermore. " This shows that the narrator is being punished for something that he did. His punishment is immortality, which explains why he would never see Lenore again. Lenore is punishing him for what he did to her. She drives him into insanity, and the pain of knowing he will be lonely and insane forever is her retribution. Then there is the knocking, a sign of endless guilt. The knocking goes on and on, driving him into insanity.
The knocking jumbles his thoughts and makes him incoherent. Lenore wants him to suffer as much as he possibly can. She kept tapping at the door and then the window in order to make him never forget his guilt. Poe used all of the right elements to portray a man tormented by guilt. The raven only crushed the faint hope of seeing his love again. Also, the one worded phrasing that the raven speaks is also a sign of guilt, which is tormenting the narrator. Then, there is the knocking, the repetitive knocking that starts to drive him insane. Poe portrayed a guilt ridden man very well in this poem.
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The Romantic era writers, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe Comparison
The Romantic era writers, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, had many similarities but even more differences, in both writing theme and style. This is very evident in their works, Rip Van Winkle, by Irving, and The Fall of the House of Usher, by Poe. Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe were both writers who exemplified the writing style of the Romantic era. Both writers used their great talents to take the reader into the story. For example, Irving, in Rip Van Winkle, starts the story by saying, Whoever has made a courage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains.
He also involves the reader in the story by taking us into the everyday lives of the Van Winkles and goes into some detail describing Rips business. Poe also demonstrates his ability to pull the reader into the story. In The Fall of the House Usher he uses extensive descriptions of the settings to give the reader the feeling of being there while the story is developing around them. The writers are also similar in the use of tone in their works. Irvings use of tone in his stories is typically lighthearted, yet dramatic.
This is demonstrated in Rip Van Winkle when Rip comes back from the Kaatskills and is talking to all the people in the town. There, he finds his son and daughter and asks, Wheres your mother? By asking this question, Irving implies both curiosity and even fear if Dame Van Winkle is still around. This humorous approach to the subject of Rips wife, makes light of the fact that Rip cant stand her. Poe uses tone similarly to give his story a feel. The especially dramatic and morbid tones of The Fall of the House of Usher are demonstrated after lady Madeline has died.
Roderick, who believes he buried her alive, is going insane because when he imagines that she appears in front of her. Poe describes the feelings of Roderick in a manner that one can sense the fear that he must feel seeing someone return from the grave. The differences of Irving and Poe are much greater than the similarities of the two. Irving used humor in his writings while Poe used horror. An example of Irving using humor is his description of Rip falling asleep from the alcohol for twenty years after meeting the Dutchmen. Poe, on the other hand, took a more morbid approach to his writings.
He exploited the fear that is in each of us. An instance of this is But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a string shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him. I at length drank in the hideous import of his words. Not hear it? yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Longlonglongmany minutes, many hours, many days, have I heardyet I dared notoh, pity, me, miserable wretch that I am! I dared notI dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb!
And now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard themmany, many days agoyet I dared nowI dared not speak! And nowtonightEthelredha! ha! the breaking of the hermits door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangor of the shield! say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whiter shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
MADMAN! This clearly demonstrates the morbidity and obscurity of Edgar Allan Poes writing style. These examples of the writing styles and emphasis show the differences of Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. The writing styles of Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe are very similar in their extensive use of descriptive passages but they are even more different by the tones which they use to develop the stories. Irving uses humor while Poe relies on horror. While their writings reflect a certain style and theme about Romanticism, clearly their own writing personalities are demonstrated.
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