Edger Allan Poe's The Tale And Its Effect

In the late 18th century, writers and poets modified the individualism literary movement to direct their attention towards the gothic era. This theme is indeed a form of individualism, but it specifically inspired authors to bring awareness to the dark side of humanity. The authors in this time period believed that the only way individuals are able to express themselves and have a right to think their own thoughts or make their own decisions is to find their true self at their darkest moments. The gothic era usually obtained dramatic tones in their storylines, but also reflected on concerns the society had at the time of writing. Edger Allan Poe was a famous poet who often used certain strategies in his literary work to leave the reader in

Poe believes that stories that dealt with gothic literature needed to have allegories in them to have a second level of meaning in addition to it’s literal meaning. Theses types of elements were popular in this time period because they taught moral lessons and contributed to the dark feeling a person undergoes when finding the true meaning of not only the story, but are able to personally understand the true feeling the author is trying to make individuals feel. In “The Tale and Its Effect”, Poe stated that he used and supported unity of effect to go about discussing the themes he embedded within his stories in order to make the reader to feel a certain way. He believes that they need to be short and sweet so that the author can get all the details to the reader. Poe exclaims that short stories are superior to novels because one is able to sit down and finish it in one-sitting rather than breaking the experience, with the possibility of forgetting important elements. This technique gives the reader the full effect; whereas in novels, they are not straight forward and do not always tie in with the theme