...ways; one is a literal definition where a person is isolated from human beings physically, while the other is being alone inside and 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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...For most readers, the name of Edgar Allan Poe has become a byword for horror and fear. Moreover, the images and motifs created by the novelist had an immense influence on the following generations and works of other authors, so that they even became immersed into the popular culture. Poe’s memorable images and quotes became an integral part of the world’s cultural heritage, giving inspiration to the horror movie script writers and novelists. As a result, many fans of the horror genre don’t even rate Poe’s contribution at its true value, taking his efforts for granted. For nearly two centuries so far, Poe has been providing realistic images of morbidity, fear and the horror of life to everyone who is interested in the genre or makes parallels between fiction and certain moments in life. The biography of Edgar Allan Poe is full of mystery which can be explained by his own passion for exaggeration and fantasies, which confused biographers who were trying to learn about his life from his works or his own words. However, most biographers agree that Poe hardly knew his parents and when biographers claim that he was a spoiled child, they mean the family who adopted Edgar. Edgar was born in a family of young actors. His father was an alcohol addict, whose addiction went so far that he even was drunk on the stage. Once he left his wife and kids and nobody saw him ever again. Edgar’s mother fell ill and died when Poe was only a child. That’s how Edgar was adopted by the Allens, the family...
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...For most readers, the name of Edgar Allan Poe has become a byword for horror and fear. Moreover, the images and motifs created by the novelist had an immense influence on the following generations and works of other authors, so that they even became immersed into the popular culture. Poe’s memorable images and quotes became an integral part of the world’s cultural heritage, giving inspiration to the horror movie script writers and novelists. As a result, many fans of the horror genre don’t even rate Poe’s contribution at its true value, taking his efforts for granted. For nearly two centuries so far, Poe has been providing realistic images of morbidity, fear and the horror of life to everyone who is interested in the genre or makes parallels between fiction and certain moments in life. The biography of Edgar Allan Poe is full of mystery which can be explained by his own passion for exaggeration and fantasies, which confused biographers who were trying to learn about his life from his works or his own words. However, most biographers agree that Poe hardly knew his parents and when biographers claim that he was a spoiled child, they mean the family who adopted Edgar. Edgar was born in a family of young actors. His father was an alcohol addict, whose addiction went so far that he even was drunk on the stage. Once he left his wife and kids and nobody saw him ever again. Edgar’s mother fell ill and died when Poe was only a child. That’s how Edgar was adopted by the Allens, the family...
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...Maddox English IV and 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...
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...Katie Valdesuso November 30, 2010 ENGL 439 Prof. Allan R. Life The Evocation of Terror in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher In his Philosophy of Composition, Edgar Allan Poe informs us that he begins writing with “the consideration of an effect” (430). Most of Poe’s poetry and fiction exemplifies his assertion that a preconceived effect upon a reader is undoubtedly fundamental to his creative work. Poe’s tales of terror in particular epitomize the supremacy of his craft in that each component of his narrative strategy functions to achieve the final effect of generating unmitigated terror in his readers. Focusing primarily on The Fall of the House of Usher, I argue that Poe employs a preconceived narrative strategy that ultimately functions to evoke terror; I assert that Poe elicits fear to challenge us to reexamine out perceptions of ostensibly impossible circumstances and recognize the limits of our intellect. I will first examine the aspects of Poe’s narrative style that culminate to achieve his desired effect of the evocation of terror. I will then analyze the narrator’s response to this evocation of terror and how this emergent response elicits fear in the reader. Last, I will illustrate how the narrator’s evolving response is emulated in the style through which the tale is narrated. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tactically exploits a first person narrator, setting, imagery, and tone to achieve a “unity of effect,” the aforethought effect...
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...There often exists an ambiguity in Poe’s work. This duality is prevalent in “Ligeia.” The reader is left with a quandary at the end of the narrative. Is the narrator experiencing some supernatural phenomenon or is the narrator unreliable due to his drug use, insanity, or any other number of reasons? Ligeia is described with specific markers early in the story giving the reader the impression that she is from a multitude of cultural areas and has lived in ancient times. Her husband claims she has the nose of Hebrews, a chin of the Greeks, and the beauty of the Turkish people (Poe 394-395). She can also speak a multitude of ancient languages. The narrator states, that “In the classical tongues was she deeply proficient” (Poe 396). These suggest, along with other intimations...
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...“Lord, help my poor soul.” These were the last words uttered by Edgar Allen Poe on his deathbed in 1849. Considered on of the most prominent authors of the century, Poe was the inventor of the modern detective story, and was at the forefront of Gothic genre. His life was a series of ups and downs, many caused by his attempt to make writing his first and only job. January 19th, 1809 Edgar Allan Poe was born to two prominent actors named Eliza and David Poe. By the age of three both his parents had passed away, and Edgar was sent to live with John and Frances Valentine Allan who lived in Richmond, Virginia. While John wanted him to follow in his footsteps of running a tobacco business Poe was more interested in writing, especially poetry. In...
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...Edgar Poe was born on the 19th of January, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was David Poe Jr. and his mother was Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. Both of them were actors. Edgar had an elder brother named William Henry Leonard Poe and a younger sister named Rosalie Poe. In 1810, their father abandoned them, and within a year their mother died of consumption. Edgar went to live with John Allan who was a Scottish tobacco merchant living in Richmond, Virginia. His siblings went to other families. The Allan family was quite well to do, and Edgar lived a good life with them. As a mark of respect for his adoptive family, Edgar took the middle name of Allan and came to be known as Edgar Allan Poe. In 1815, the Allans along with Edgar traveled to England, where Edgar began to attend school. In 1815, he attended Grammar School in Irvine, Scotland, and in a boarding school in Chelsea in 1817. After that, he attended the Reverend John Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington near London. In 1826, he joined the University of Virginia, but he left within a year. Although the Allans were quite well off, John Allan would not give Edgar much money for his survival in college. To make up for the less money, Edgar began to gamble and lost heavily. His gambling debts created further rifts between him and John Allan. Poe was poor and needed money. So he joined the United States Army under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry. He served for two years and attained the rank of Sergeant...
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...Literature Creation Methods of Poe’s Gothic Tales ——Review of The Fall of the House of Usher 英81 高云君 2008012742 As one of the most famous works by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is the a masterpiece in American gothic literature. The prose is full with of elements and details which are unsettling and macabre. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe’s gothic novels have always been my readings before bed since I was younga child. In my childhood, following the unnamed narrator and walking towards that old and creepy house, I was immersed in the horrible storyline and experience the fantastic feeling of nightmare. Today when I look back on this literature work, I get some deeper understanding and . Ⅰ. Hellish environment setting ：Use of double space The whole environment and different scenes in the story are so hellish that the reader feels a kind of inexplicable asphyxia. I summarize some typical elements Poe uses to build a gothic atmosphere. Day: a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn. Location: a singularly dreary tract of country. House and surrounding: upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees. The precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn. If that can be called the exterior space, then the internal...
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...PREFACE This major project examines the indispensable desiderata of Transcendentalism in comparison to the Dark Romantics background and how these technicalities prepare this work of art as an influential synthesis of human imagination incorporated with mystic facts. Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism were two literary movements that occurred in America during roughly the same time period (1840—1860). Although the two had surface similarities, such as their reverence for Nature, their founding beliefs were quite different, enough to make one seem almost the antithesis of each other. Moreover one’s genesis is ventured out from other; i.e. Dark Romanticism from the roots of Transcendentalism or precisely the lacunae are best determined for raising up the term called Dark Romanticism. Contents S. No. Page no. Chapter 1.........................................................................................................4-14 Chapter 2.........................................................................................................15-23. Chapter 3..........................................................................................................24-27 Resolution.........................................................................................................28-29 Work Cited................................................................
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...Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA and died on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore, MD. He led a life of deep heartache. He was orphaned as a child only a year after he was born, adopted by his stoic non-supportive father figure John Allan, a scottish tobacco exporter and dry-goods merchant. He gave Edgar constant grief over debt and educational pricing, but Poe took the morbid dark and secret reaches of the human psyche and turned it into beautifully renowned pieces of literature. During his early years Edgar observed John Allan in his work which gave him “an understanding of the value of information and that literature was a commodity produced by sale in the capitalist marketplace.” (Felicia Burdescu, Michaela Prioteasa, Shaping...
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...Analyses of Black Cat Do you believe that some mistakes drag you into another life? or Would you like to torture something? Maybe, life will make you some errors and you will accompany it or you will make your own way. Edgar Allan Poe narrates a situation in which making dilemma and concluding murder, feeling of guilty, and addiction in his story Black Cat. Edgar Allan Poe, (born January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He was 34 when the story Black Cat was produced. The Black Cat was first produced in the United States, The Saturday Evening Post on August 19, 1843. 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 most wild, yet homely narrative...whose events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed him.” The story, which is whole text, has many adaptations. For example, Universal Pictures made two films titled The Black Cat, one in 1934, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and another in1941 starring Lugosi and Basil Rathbone. Both films claimed to have been "suggested by" Poe's story, but they don’t resemble to the story. The middle segment of director Roger Corman's 1962 anthology film Tales of Terror combines the story...
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...Roshonda Parker Dr. James H. Meredith English 2211 XTIAA April 25, 2014 1 .In the context of this poem and the other poems we read, what exactly do you think Bradstreet means here? (10 points) In the context of her religious situation, what does this poem say about her audience? In Anne Bradstreet’s Poem “The Prologue” The author is speaking out against the Puritans views on women and the roles they play in society at that time. In this era women were viewed as second class citizens. Women had no public influence the only time they could speak in public was to read the scriptures in church. In the following sentence “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue” the female author is saying that she ignores the negative and scornful remarks she hears from men concerning her literally talents. The Puritans strongly believed in Male Supremacy they feel that women primary roles are mothering children and should use their hands for domesticated work such as mending and sewing clothing. This is expressed in the following sentence “Who says my hand a needle fits”. Puritans men felt that women didn’t have enough intelligence to express themselves in writing therefore if a literally work was well written they would say it was stolen or a stroke of luck. Work Cited: Bradstreet, Anne. “The Prologue.” Baym, Nina. Anthology Of American Literature; Beginnings to 1820. 8th. A. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 208. Print 2. Find a specific passage in Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...He recalls that although he has fond memories of them in early childhood, he came to associate the grasshopper for his father, who Dali describes as “a strict and old-fashioned”. (Pressly) Dali’s father also expressed the desire that he did not want his son to become an artist, only drawing further dislike from young Dali. He also identifies his mother with the symbol, saying that her death was the “hardest blow” he ever endured (Pressly). This is interesting seeing as though at this point in his life the grasshopper was not a symbol for hate, for he often expressed that he loved his mother deeply, but rather he likely felt betrayed by his mother in leaving him with his father and associated the grasshopper with the memory, not his mother herself (Pressly). Another appearance of the symbol in his childhood was a time he recalls that “[his] girl cousin purposefully crushed a large grasshopper on [his] neck” (Pressly). Describing the insect that was crushed “still stirring” against his skin with terms suggesting sexual aggression from the insect that was “half-destroyed”, “clutching” with its “jagged legs” with such “death-grip” (Pressly). Portrait of Paul Eluard is a work that contains the imagery of the crushed locust, as well as another...
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