...The Poe(t) Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 as Edgar Poe. He was the second son of David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, both whom were actors. In 1810, shortly after Poe’s birth his father deserted the family. The subsequent death of his twenty-four year old mother on December 8, 1811 in Richmond, Virginia, left Poe an orphan at the young age of three. After his mother’s death, John, a strict unemotional tobacco merchant, and Frances Allan, a weak woman due to health problems, took in Poe; his paternal grandparents took in his brother William Henry; and foster parents cared for his sister Rosalie. Poe was educated with the Allan’s aid, in private academies, excelling in Latin, in writing verse, and declamation. However, despite his education, he was looked down upon and regarded as an outsider by the upper class of Richmond’s society; perhaps because the Allan’s never legally adopted Poe. Also, the culture of Richmond during Poe’s young adulthood did not regard actors in a high manner. This could have attributed to his reputation since his biological parents were actors. The loss of his mother at an early age definitely affected Poe. “The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of ‘Mother’” Poe wrote that in To My Mother. In Tamerlane, he not only wrote about his father, but he wrote about his mother as well; he had more respect for his mother than he did for his father. This respect can be found in...
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...Gothic Horror Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most famous American writers, editors, and literary critics. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. The “Black Cat” is about a crazy man who torchers his cat and ends up killing it but the cat comes back to haunt him. The “Masque of The Red death” is about a terrible disease that has struck the country but no one seems to care. He decides to let the kingdom take care of itself while he and a thousand of his favorite knights and ladies shut themselves up in a fabulous castle to have a party. After the last guest enters, no one else can get in the Prince has welded the doors shut. That means no one can get out. Anyways when the clock...
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...Edgar Allen-Poe, born 1809 died 1849, is widely acclaimed as one of the first and greatest gothic writers. His output mostly consisted of short stories and poems for various American magazines in the 1840s. During his lifetime, he achieved fame and recognition however he lived a life of poverty. An alcoholic and an opium taker, his stories often display a surreal or dreamlike style. The world which Poe would have known was more superstitious and dangerous than what we know today. For example, in the 19th century having a coma could be mistaken for death, as a result, it was not uncommon to be buried alive, Poe included live burial in many of his works – to exploit public fears. One of the main assets of his work however is his ability to build intense suspense. By using a variety of techniques Poe was able to create tension and mystery in his (short) stories: Poe employs excessively detailed descriptions and repetition to delay the reader’s arrival at the final climax; Poe does this because he wanted to give time for the suspense to build up before arrival at the inevitably blood-curdling climax. For example, In tell-tale heart before the murderer kills the old man there is a substantial amount of repetition and more complex sentences : ” cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hinges creaked), I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye.” As a result of this delay, the reader becomes even more inquisitive over what events will happen...
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...Allan Poe, the author of many short stories, who based his stories from fear and death. The name Poe brings about mind images of murderer and madmen. The two stories that will be mention in this piece are “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and The Pendulum”. Edgar Allan Poe loved to write and because of his life, he writes various stories about fear. Poe uses life experiences and gothic language to set the mood of fear in each short story. The Pit and The Pendulum is a short story about the narrator who is being sentenced death during the time of the Inquisition. The narrator was losing consciousness and when he wakes, he faces complete darkness. He was confused because execution is usually in the form of hanging. The narrator is belted down on a table with a blade swinging back and forth at the level of his waist or stomach. “ Then the mere consciousness of existence, without thought - a condition which lasted long. Then very suddenly, thought and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state.” “a fearful idea now suddenly drove the blood in torrents upon my heart, and for a brief period I at once more relapsed into insensibility upon recovering, I at once started to my feet, trembling convulsively in every fibre.” The first quote, there seems to be no fear without any thought but what is a more desirable state. The second quotes means the narrator can only handle so much in one day but he is handling way to much right now. Poe writes...
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...Edgar Allan Poe 1 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” Jesse T. Smith Axia College of University of Phoenix Professor Lorelie Kaid October 19, 2008 E.A.P. 2 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” The famous writer, poet has long been criticized for his unconditional writings that made the man who he was so very famous for. Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, Died mysteriously, October 07, 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. The famous writer would go on to inspire such authors as Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, to name a few. There has been a mystery since the death of Edgar Allan Poe, of what caused his death. There have been many writing’s trying to settle this debate. Some are as follows. • Beating (1857) The United States Magazine Vol. II (1857): 268. • Epilepsy (1875) Scribner’s Monthly Vol. 10 (1875):...
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...imagery, and point of view. The main character wants to show he is not insane, and even offers a story as proof. The narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the eye would stop looking at him marked the initial situation. The motives of the killer aren’t understood, which makes the murder mystery difficult to understand. Was the narrator insane? Did he kill the old man in self-defense? As such, the fear of death is expressed in the text. For example, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” This excerpt illustrates the narrator’s thoughts of mortality. “Yes, he was stone, stone dead”, depicts how the narrator continued to express the old man’s death in a conspicuous/ distinct manner. Edgar Allen Poe can build so much fixated context over the old mans “vulture eye”, amplifying the use of imagery in the text. “You fancy me mad...You should have seen how wisely I proceeded.” This is ironic because the man tells himself he is normal that he is killing a man because of his eye. Another example is, “a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The symbol in this quote was the film over the eye, how the man couldn't see as well what was going on right under his nose. Poe creates confusion using his pandemonium literature to render the imagery of the story. Whether or not the old man was a vulture like person, the audience doesn’t know. However, that’s what he symbolizes to the narrator. If the narrator is afraid of the vulture’s...
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...Victor Frankenstein one can say he is imprisoned in several ways. Starting with his workshop which is more likely a prison cell where Victor stays for months leaving only by perforce: “My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement” (Shelley, 1818). Hence, Victor is obsessed by an ambition to create a living monster out of dead body parts, and this is how he becomes a prisoner of his own conscience. Hence, Victor’s death becomes a release from the “prison” in some way. The Monster is associated with his monstrosity; that means he has no option but to be a monster, to hurt people and even to kill. Hated by all mankind Monster accuses Victor of giving him life and making him horrifying: “Shall each man find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?” (Shelley, 1818). From this point of view he is obsessed with the idea of revenge, especially after Victor denying his promise to create a companion for the Monster. After that the Monster proves his obsession by killing Victor’s fiancee on her wedding night. Thus, the Monster had no other way but to escape the society which “strangled” him. Robert Walton is ambitious in his desire to reach the North Pole without knowing much about the real life. Being extremely interested in following his scientific ideas, Walton goes on to take a crew of Russian sailors on a suicide mission to the North...
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...Romantic poet Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his terrifying and mysterious novels and poems. Born on January 19, 1809, Poe soon became a brilliant writer. His tales produced the modern detective story and many of his works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, became literary classics. "The Raven," which Poe released in 1845, is considered among the most popular poems in American literature. Edgar Allan Poe left a large imprint on the period of romanticism and inspired musicians as well as writers across the country. Poe's unique short stories and poems sparked imagination and interest in readers around the world. His storytelling led to advances in literature; this caused others to start calling him “Father of the Detective Story”. Mystery did not show in just his poems, but also in his personal...
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...unique writing style, but one of them stands out over the rest. This peculiar man was one of the first to put a new and more sinister approach to his writing. His stories have become synonymous with evil, death, mystery, and revenge. Edgar Allan Poe, a world renowned author, was a rather misunderstood man with many obstacles in his life such as alcoholism, opium abuse, and his wife’s premature death. Poe was born January 19, 1809, in Boston Massachusetts ( “Edgar Allan Poe”). Poe’s early life was very traumatizing. When Poe was a year old, his father ran out on him and the new mother of three, sadly only a year later his mother died of tuberculosis...
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...authors create suspense and mystery in two stories from the genre ‘19th’ century gothic horror? “The monkey’s paw” by W.W Jacobs and the “Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe are two short gothic horror stories written in the late ‘19th’ century. “The tell-tale heart” was written during the Victorian era and is based upon the conventions of the gothic horror. It’s a story about a servant who determined to get rid of an old man’s eye. “The monkeys paw” is also written in a gothic style this means that tension, mystery and suspense is very important factors. “The monkeys paw” is about a friend who has control over a curse of a shriveled monkey paw that grants three wishes to each man that gets hold of it. In both the stories the real names of the characters were not given. They were either initials like Mr. White or the characters were just simply referred to the old man or the man or I. This is the way that gothic fiction is created, by just giving initials or simple reference builds up more suspense. There are only two characters in “the tell tale heart” a old man who is murdered at the end of the story and another character who we don’t know anything about except that he is a killer, and he’s mad. The names may not be given to indicate that this may happen to anyone in the ‘19th’ century. One of the most well known techniques used in both stories is the way the author creates suspense and mystery. The use of repetition is used a lot by Edgar Allan Poe in the tell tale heart. An...
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...“Was the death of Edgar Allan Poe really an accident?” Edgar Allan Poe death on October 7, 1949 was a strange and surprising event to everyone who knew and loved him. The cause of Poe’s death remains a mystery even now. While there are many reasonable facts and theories surrounding Poe’s unusual death, such as, heavy metal poisoning, further investigation regarding Poe’s enemies needs to happen in order for the mystery to be solved. There are many things that are known about the events surrounding Poe’s shocking decline in health and eventually his demise. For example, Poe was told by his fiance Elmira Shelton that he looked ill about a day before his departure for Philadelphia. So, Poe visited his doctor and friend, John Carter who recommended that he stay home and rest (D). During many times before his decline in health Poe suffered from recurrent depression, drug and alcohol abuse (A). A few days after his departure he was found “semi-conscious and was taken to a nearby...
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...Community College Edgar Allan Poe: Recurring Theme By Eric Torres Professor J. Carlacio ENG 201 - 071 14 March 2014 Edgar Allan Poe: Recurring Theme Edgar Allan Poe was an inimitable poet in the world of literature. Due to intensely traumatic events that occurred in his personal life, his anxiety led to a strong emphasis on a recurring theme of death particularly a woman not only within his poems. Although the death of a woman was common amongst his work, Poe in fact held women in high regard. There were a number of women present in his life that nurtured and comforted him, but the few he chose to acknowledge and genuinely care for coincidentally would die which was a major part why Poe often went through severe episodes of depression. Poe’s depression led him to a dark emotional state and caused a constant playback of death within his mind. Mourning many years in his life his love for women and experience with death combined to form a curiosity for the unknown and he transitioned this madness into his work. Poe was deeply in love with his wife Virginia. They married each other in the year 1836. She had passed in result of what was then known as consumption to what is now known as Tuberculosis in the year 1847. Within the course of those eleven years Virginia’s presence in his life played an important role in shaping his literary work. From the first time they had met to even after her death, she inspired Poe indefinitely. In Annabel Lee Poe in a first person point of...
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...beautiful, but to a man in love, the object of his affection is the embodiment of beauty. When such a woman dies, then, who could possibly speak better of the topic than the bereaved lover? The narrator of “Ligeia” describes of his dying lover, “For long hours… would she pour out before me the overflowing of a heart whose more than passionate devotion amounted to idolatry. How had I deserved to be so blessed by such confessions” (Poe 397)? Only a man who was completely enraptured in their love could tell this type of ardent description of a woman. This is an example of what Poe means, the death of a beautiful woman is best described by the person who felt the devastation of loss the most profoundly. In “Ligeia” Poe quotes Francis Bacon on exquisite beauty having certain strangeness to it. Poe admits that the perfection he sees in Ligeia is “not of a classic regularity” (Poe 395). He has trouble, however, in detecting “the irregularity and to trace home my own perception of ‘the strange’” (395). So while Poe does not claim that Ligeia fits the general mold of what is thought of as beautiful, he fails to find a single fault in her beauty. This shows that he was so in love with her that he only saw perfection. The theme of “will” is prominent throughout “Ligeia,” starting in the prologue. Poe stresses the power of the human will with Glanvill’s quote. “And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will, with its vigor” (Poe 393)? This serves as...
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...Allan Poe was a well-known writer; best known for his short mystery and horror stories. “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” were two short stories written by him. Both of these stories consist on some sort of paranoia, obsession, and death. The “TBC” and “TCOA” are stories being narrated by the ones that have committed the crime of the story, such as murder. On the “TBC” the narrator is a man that with time turned into an aggressive, alcoholic, obsessive person. The man’s name was not revealed on the story. On the other hand, the narrator of “TCOA” was Montresor. This man was seeking revenge. Montresor stated “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (“Amontillado” 144). On both stories the narrators kill someone due to their obsession. These two short stories written by Poe had similar altercations but different outcomes; such as Montresor never getting caught for what he did and the man from “TBC” got sentenced to the death penalty for the crime he committed. The story of “The Black Cat” talked about how this man murdered his wife due to his obsession with the black cat. This man had a cat named Pluto. As he was growing older his personality was changing. He turned into an alcoholic and aggressive person. All of his pets run away except the black cat. One day the man arrived home and saw the cat and stabbed the cat on the eye, he then killed the cat by hanging him. The man did not...
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...emotionally distant from others. In the poem “Alone”, Edgar Allan Poe most directly relates alone with being emotionally distant and describes alone in terms of not being able to experiences things as others do, most significantly during his childhood. Poe looks back upon his childhood, and with his dark and disturbing writing style he creates the image of fear and loneliness that he felt as a child within the reader. Poe establishes in “Alone” that the true definition of alone is to be emotionally distant from the world. This idea comes from his childhood influences, his search for the unexplainable and his philosophy...
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