...History April 22, 2011 Edgar Allan Poe To most people, Edgar Allan Poe was a troubled soul that had many psychological issues. Some people think that his works mimicked his own mental torment and torture; others thought that he was an American writer romantically doomed to failure by events and emotions too great for him to handle. His writings reflect each theory, and his style was very unique and unusual for the time period in which they were written. The artistic liberties and risks that Poe took in his works sparked the beginning of what we call the Romanticism Period. The hardships and tragedies which Edgar Allan Poe faced throughout his life played a big part in influencing his writing, how his writing influenced the period, and how it affected his mental stability (Life 240). Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He had two siblings, a younger sister named Rosalie and an older brother named Henry. When Poe was just one, his father abandoned his wife and children. At two his mother died of tuberculosis and the children were split up into different homes (Tragedies 240). Poe was taken in by John Allan and his childless wife Frances, giving him his middle name. Having experienced many tragedies at an early age, he, starting at the age of six, developed a great fear of death and this influenced how and what he would later write (Jordan np). The Allan couple lived in Richmond, Virginia, and Poe was moved to their home...
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...E d g a r A l l a n P o e p The Cask of Amontillado foRTunaTo had huRT me a thousand times and I had suffered quietly. But then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name, Montresor, the name of an old and honored family. I promised myself that I would make him pay for this — that I would have revenge. You must not suppose, however, that I spoke of this to anyone. I would make him pay, yes; but I would act only with the greatest care. I must not suffer as a result of taking my revenge. A wrong is not made right in that manner. And also the wrong would not be made right unless Fortunato knew that he was paying and knew who was forcing him to pay. I gave Fortunato no cause to doubt me. I continued to smile in his face, and he did not understand that I was now smiling at the thought of what I planned for him, at the thought of my revenge. Fortunato was a strong man, a man to be feared. But he had one great weakness: he liked to drink good wine, and indeed he drank much of it. So he knew a lot about fine wines, and proudly believed that he was a trained judge of them. I, too, knew old wines well, and 68 E d g a r A l l a n P o e : S t o r y t e l l e r I bought the best I could find. And wine, I thought, wine would give me my revenge! It was almost dark, one evening in the spring, when I met Fortunato in the street, alone. He spoke to me more warmly than was usual, for already he had drunk more wine than was good for him. I acted pleased to see...
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...different point of views, which makes all the difference. In the world of literature, there are three common point of views often used. Evidently in this superb story, the author Poe chose to use the first person, this establishes a sense of rapport between the reader and the narrator. We see everything through their eyes and understand their motives, thoughts, feelings and actions. Poe could have conveyed the story through the third person, but with a story like “The Tell- Tale Heart” the first person point of view becomes so vital to the whole concept of the story. Using the first person point of view enhances the drama, helps the reader to understand not only the plot of the story, but also the central character on which the story hinges. Throughout this story, it seems like the narrator is present there in the room, telling their story, first-hand, and this intensifies the dramatic effect of the story. A classic example of this would be the opening sentence where the narrator describes how “very dreadfully nervous” he feels. His feelings don’t become filtered through the distance of a third person narrator. Instead, the feelings happen at the moment, as the protagonist experiences it. As the protagonist unveils his fears and thoughts to the reader, he creates connection and intimacy. The way Poe recounts the final moments before the confession; it feels as if the narrator and the reader’s emotions are now in sync. The way he describes the “LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH...
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...Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe Setting * Abbey is placed in a wildest an unsocial region (abbey is a medieval term) * Big building, gloomy and dreary, almost savaged aspect. Huge windows in the building. Lofty rooms – high ceilings. Describes a window in a gothic way – tinted, ghastly lustre on the objects within the room. * Foreign elements: Eastern culture, arabesque, Egypt, * Draped in fabric and tapestries, gold and jetty black * The room is shaped as a pentagon in a high turret in each corner is a sarcophagus (a coffin) * Heavy materials: ebony, oak, granite * High turret gothic binaries. Semantic scheme to describe the room: * Heavy, dark, dramatic, large, draped, The rooms symbolic meaning: * Narrators psyche * Death and isolation * Cathedral tomb. The bridal chamber is decked as a tomb. * Satanic five star room - pentagonal The relationship to Rowena * They don’t love – they tolerate each other * Despises her and loaths her because he misses Ligeia * Describes her looks in comparison to Ligeia: * Fair haired girl with blue eyes – the opposite of Ligeia who is a dark and gothic beauty * He likes her disaffection – he feels like a demon more than a man Analysis with focus on exams 1. Introduction of the disposition 2. Introduction of the text 3. Gothic traits: a. The gothic setting – the symbolic meaning of the room b. The gothic binary of Ligeia and Rowena ...
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...The poem “Bells,” by Edger Allen Poe, describes the movement through a person’s life. In the first stanza silver sleigh bells represent childhood. Silver is a precious metal but not as precious as gold or the next stage of life. The bells “tinkle, tinkle, tinkle” (4) which represents playful and merry times. The poem uses i- sounds, joyful verbs such as “twinkle,” and phrases like “jingling and tinkling” (14) to bring us back to childhood. In the second stanza, the type of bell is a wedding bell made of gold. Gold is a very precious and expensive medal just as your wedding day is the most important day of your life. The bells show happiness with words like “delight” using long i- sounds. These sounds make the stanza richer and more resident. This makes the stanza seem longer and more important. The “swinging and ringing”(31) tell of dancing and having fun. According to Poe, this day is one you will never forget. In the third stanza, the bells are alarm bells made of brass. They represent fear and terror. The time of life Poe is portraying is old age. The author uses long e sounds such as “shriek” to show that the person is realizing they are getting old and aren’t as young as as they used to be. The “tale of terror,” (38) informs the reader that this is not a happy part of life but a worrisome stage. A person in their older age tends to be surprised or startled once they realize they are no longer in their youth. In the fourth stanza, the bells funeral bells made of iron which...
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...Was it Mental or Physical? Everyone knows about Edgar Allen Poe; a famous writer, poet and editor. However not many know how he died. There are many different explanations for how he died. Some say he was found drunk on the street. Maybe it was because everyone he loved died of tuberculosis. Evidence shows that Edgar Allen Poe died of a medical condition caused by cold weather and not taking care of oneself. Poe set out to Baltimore on September twenty-seventh 1849 on his journey back north. He was found about a week later in a tavern and looked half dead. “Elmira Shelton’s recollection that on leaving Richmond Poe already had a fever”(Final Day). Baltimore became cold earlier than usual that year so when he was found he was already sick...
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...I prefer reading tales of horror and Mystery. I however did not enjoy Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” I found most of the first few paragraphs lengthy with descriptions of the castle. This made it really hard for me to immerse myself in the story. The vocabulary was complicated at times and I found myself pausing to look up their meanings. This interruption furthered my confusion. I had to write the definitions in my text book and then re-read the passages. Once I did, I was able to grasp what Poe was actual trying to convey. The story is set in a gloomy deserted country side. The outside of the house was dark, and gloomy. As I read further I wanted to take refuge inside the home of Roderick. I was quick to find that...
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...Edgar Allan Poe is known as the master of horror and gothic writing. In a sense, he has taken the meaning of the word “horror” and turned it into an entirely different definition, even a different world. Poe's narrators do not make the reader scared, per se, but they make him or her inquire about things around them. Although people should never assume, they should always speculate and investigate. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses an imperfectly informed narrator because he wanted the reader to play with – and question – reality, to use their senses and imagination, and be able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. One theory on why Poe makes his narrator limited is that he wants the reader to search for the truth, not just have it handed to them. For instance, the reader – nor the narrator – knows anything about Roderick Usher. The narrator says, “Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend”. What, then, would cause the narrator to travel to the House of Usher after Roderick had written him a letter? A person such as the narrator can only truly call Usher an acquaintance. In reality, who would drop everything and anything for an associate? The unknown information on Roderick Usher only causes more questions that, in the end, still remain unanswered. Little by little, as the tale goes on, the reader, as well as the narrator, discovers that Roderick and his late sister, lady Madeline, are twins. After...
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...Eliot Glassheim, in his article "A Dogged Interpretation Never Bet the Devil Your Head" in "Poe Studies / Dark Romanticism", explains how Poe tells a story with seemingly no hidden message and he wants to look further into the story for the hidden meaning. Mr. Glassheim starts to explain how one the surface the tale is weak and one feels cheated. He talks about Poe's sheers at the practice of the scholars that say every fiction should have a moral, and that they found that every fiction does. He mentions the way Poe attacks the critics, such as those from the Dial and Down-Easter, who prefer stories with moral lessons that can be summed up in didactic tag lines. During the first few paragraphs of the story Eliot says that the narrators voice can be identified with Poe, who has been accused to have never written a moral tale. He goes on to say that Poe is setting out to prefect the perfect moral fable form, starting off better than his predecessors by announcing his moral in the title. Eliot says that the insult to Dial is an attack on Transcendental Idealists in general. He goes on to explain how the narrator simply characterizes Toby Dammit's behavior as queer. He then mentions how Poe says the other Transcendental critics of the time would explain Toby's behavior. According to Eliot the satire against transcendentalism is reasonable and convincing. However, he warns to be careful because the narrator isn't presented as normal either. He says that although at first he...
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...The story of tell-tale-heart is written by Edgar Allen Poe it tells the story of a man who kills an old man. This story is a great story it creates tension and suspense. In the story I believe the man didn’t have a mental state of mind. This narrator grabs your attention wanting you to read more about the story. You should read the book it is a great book. The man committed murder, he killed the man because of the old man’s evil eye and the way his heart thumped, louder and louder he was afraid the neighbors could hear the old man’s heart. He was sane, but he wanted revenge because of the way the evil man’s eye mocked and looked at him. The man was sane throughout the story, but when he heard the old man’s heart thumping louder, and louder,...
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...Edgar Allen Poe’s notorious drug and alcohol abuse combined with his dysfunctional and unsupportive family played a significant role in the development of Poe’s unique writing styles and topics. Edgar Allen Poe was born January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Poe was a British actress. His father, David Poe Jr. was an actor from Baltimore. Edgar Allen Poe had two other siblings, a brother named William and a sister named Rosalie. Poe did not have a close relationship with his parents; they were a part of his life for a short amount of time. His father abandoned his wife and children, a few years later Elizabeth contracted tuberculosis. (“Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation.) She was the first of Poe’s many...
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...Autobiography of Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe is an American writer who had many famous poems such as “The Raven”. He was a short-story writer, critic, poet, and editor. Poe is famous for his stories and poems of mystery and horror. Poe was a foster child. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold, died when he was only two. His father David Poe had passed away and left his mother to care for three children Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie (Poets.org.). After this; Poe went to live with his grandparents. Poe was adopted by John and Frances Allan. John was detached and strict. His adoptive father John was a tobacco merchant and was very wealthy for his time. They lived in Richmond, Virginia. Poe’s adoptive parents changed his life and made him more reformed and intelligent. Poe was educated in private academies, excelling in Latin, in writing verse, and declamation. When Poe was only seventeen, he attended the University of Virginia. Poe was only given about a third of the money that he needed to pay for his college from John. Edgar began to play cards and gamble to make up for the money that John didn’t supply him with. Poe soon began drinking and he fell into a large amount of debt. He became so poor that he was forced to burn the furniture he owned for heat. Poe had to stop going to school due to the debt that had accumulated. When he left school he was poor, without a job, and his adoptive father had forgotten him. Poe went on...
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...game-changing advancements. The poem by Poe shows how the era had developed by giving an example of how fast the times were changing: “a poem may be improperly brief”. For example, Americans experienced the “The American Renaissance” which was the first flowering of the American culture. Americans also faced improved transportation that went along with the doubling of our nation's size (“A growing Nation…” 210-220). An important person living during this era was Edgar Allen Poe because he had changed an entire genre of writing. Furthermore, one invention that affected Americans was the colt revolver. It enabled Americans to protect themselves. Lastly, an event that had a major impact at the...
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... Edgar Allen Poe Born January 19, 1809 Edgar Allen Poe was an American author who was best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. He was the second child of English born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David Poe, Jr. His elder brother was named William Henry Leonard Poe and he had a younger sister named Rosalie Poe. Edgar’s tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story. The atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His book The Raven (1845) Numbers with the best-known poems in national literature. In his early days of his life Edgar Allen Poe caught the imagination and interest of readers worldwide, his talents led to the beginning of different literary genres, this gave him the nickname aka ‘’Father of the Detective story. Him being the son of two actors Edgar Allen Poe never really knew his parents. His father vanished from the family early in his life and his mother died when he was the age of 3. Parted ways from his relatives Poe went on to live with Frances and John Allan. John Allan was a successful tobacco seller and the lived in Richmond, Virginia. He formed a great bond with Ms. Allan but never understood John Allan. John Allan also had problems funding Edgar’s education at the University of Virginia in 1826 so in order to make ends meet Poe would gamble the difference, with that option turning on him he went into debt. Around the time of Poe joining the army he published...
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...Edgar Allen Poe was obsessed with cats and often wrote with a cat on his shoulder. One of his quotes where “I wish i could write as mysterious as a cat”(BrainyQuote.com). Poe was in the army and was a sergeant major until he was discharged. In 1848 after his wife’s death in 1847, Poe attempted to commit suicide by ingesting opiates. Due to the horrific experiences in his life had a lot to do with his writing style. Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts, January 19,1809 (Poets.org).Poe had a father and a mother who were both famous actors who died when Poe was three years old. As Poe got older he attended the University of Virginia (Poets.org).Soon after he was forced to leave because he was in gambling debt and John...
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