Narrative of Fear Edgar Allen Poe and Lord Byron are masterful at using vivid, descriptive language language to develop the element of Gothic literature and instil a sense of fear in the reader. Poe, who wrote the Cask of Amontillado, used sentences to put fear in the reader. He wrote, “Fortunato 's low moaning cry from the depth of the recess,” and, “ The walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vault overhead.” These sentences indicate that someone is crying and is in a crypt like structure due to the walls being piled with bones.
Fear can be both helpful and harmful. It helps us survive, preventing us from making poor choices. It is an instinct that can save both you and others. But it can lead to paranoia, paralyzing you to the point where you can’t act. If you obsess over it too much, you won’t be able to enjoy life to the fullest.
Hook:Edgar Allan Poe’s death has been questioned for a long time now. Background info:Poe’s addiction to alcohol led to his death. Four days after being found at a tavern in someone else's clothing and drunk. He was taken to a hospital and four days later he was dead. Thesis: Alcohol should contain warning labels about the possible damages of overdrinking.
Poe uses psychology within his stories to evoke all emotions, but he is particularly good at causing fear. There are many examples of him doing this and I am going to share a few of them with you. I have chosen three stories to point out how he uses our most common fears to make us tick. These are, The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Masque of Red Death.
Edgar Allan Poe creates an atmosphere of fear and dread in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart” through characters and word choice. The author chose an insane character to portray a fearful plotline. Despite the distorted claims the narrator makes to convince the reader, he appears to be insane: “Above all was the sense of hearing acute, I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell” (Poe 303). By reading this quote, the reader understands that this person has mental issues.
To summarize, Edgar Allan Poe’s stories illustrate how fear alters the character's mind and what the product is of such fear. Poe illustrates this through symbolism, irony, and imagery. Fear can be helpful by causing people to be cautious of their actions. However, people can also start to worry too much and become paranoid. In the end, Poe’s stories show people the differences of how to handle fear.
Edgar Allan Poe; Master of Poetry Edgar Allan Poe is a master of telling stories about mad men and mysterious women coming back from the dead. Poe has been a well known poetry for hundreds of years. His work has been in the hands of readers looking for a read to make them hang off the edge of their seat. Edgar Allan Poe has always been seen as morbid, peculiar, and cryptic.
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author; he mainly focused in genres such as short stories and poems. Poe didn’t have much of an academic background in literature but, he excelled in it. Some people believe that his success was mostly due to the fact that his life was very sad, filled by a series on misfortunate events, such as being an orphan, suffering from poverty and being constantly surrounded by death. In his works, Poe portrays narratives that are characterized by their mystery and macabre. The topic of death was ever present in his work, constantly describe with dark moods and somewhat terrifying settings.
Fear is an emotion we experience every day. Throughout Poe’s stories, we learn that the effect of fear greatly depends on the determination, strong will, and hopefulness of the victim. The variation of these aspects allow both helpful and harmful outcomes of fear. In some cases, fear can sharpen senses, induce caution, and strengthen our will to live. Likewise, fear can lead to paranoia, hallucination, and isolation.
When Poe appeared on the American literary scene, more than seventy years old tradition in Gothic writing existed. At its best, Gothic literature evokes the emotional response from its readers as do nightmares and night terrors. Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short story writer, editor, critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Poe was one of the early American practitioners of the short story and a pioneer of detective fiction. When Poe appeared on the American literary scene, more than seventy years old tradition in Gothic writing existed.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” are two short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe that parallel his actual feelings and flaws in life. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” the protagonist is under the influence of alcohol dependency, which symbolizes his drinking problem in his life, and the protagonist is caught committing murder, symbolizing death in his life. The protagonist mentioned those flaws and sorrows because he wants readers to understand why he wrote those stories. Therefore, Edgar Allan Poe’s protagonists in his stories share his flaws. His habitual intoxication led to his dark writing with murder’s consequences; thus reflecting the inner working of Poe’s murderous mind.
Have you ever read a book and just thought to yourself how similar that was to a situation you have been in? Well Edgar Allen Poe in his short stories he really makes you relate. Except he doesn’t make us relate to everyday common situations. He writes about the fears that are hidden in all of our subconsciousness, the ones that no one talks about but everyone thinks about. Poe effectively uses Basic Human Fears in his tales which is why his stories continue in popularity today.
Death affects all it comes into contact with. One such person is Edgar Allan Poe, in his Complete Tales And Poems, Poe has many stories involving madness and death. Poe lost both his parents at a young age, as well as his wife after 12 years of marriage. “After Virginia’s death from tuberculosis in 1847, Poe’s lifelong struggle with depression and alcoholism worsened. “ (poets.org) The pain of the losses can be seen in Poe’s writings, often reflecting death and how it can’t be undone.
There have been many authors through history who have left a legacy, but one author, Edgar Allen Poe, has left something far greater than that. Though many writers have played an important part in culture, most have not even scratched the surface of the influence Poe has left behind. Poe was not only a writer, he was an artist who could paint mysterious and horrific stories with his words and created things that no one else had. Furthermore, he was the originator of the detective story and a shocking poet, and his writings will forever be immortalized through the works of others. Thus, many authors, musicians and screenwriters were, and still are, influenced by Edgar Allen Poe’s writing style and the somber life he lived.
10G COMPARATIVE ESSAY / BELLA FARRELLY Every single living being dies in the long run; this much everyone can agree on. What’s more contentious, however, is what follows death. Throughout “Spirits of the Dead”, Edgar Allen Poe employs emotive and vivid imagery to build an abstract and melancholy poem that grapples with the mystery that is death with, at surface value, remarkable despondence and fear. On the other hand, in “Because I could not stop for Death”, Emily Dickinson, along a dissimilarly clear journey to a fixed destination, meditates over the topic of death and the afterlife with matched intimacy and fixation.
