Many people have different opinions and viewpoints on Edgar Allan Poe’s work. One may think that his work is dark and mysterious and find that awe-worthy. However, some may find his work depressing and disturbing. Poe wasn’t famous until his misery became unbearable. Poe’s work became dark and mysterious once his wife died. He is known as “the founder of an entire literary and theatrical [detective] genre” (Pearson 289). During the years 1809-1849, Edgar Allan Poe’s life was miserable. Edgar Allan Poe lets us see that, through his work because it reflects his life greatly. The loss of Poe’s wife was detrimental to his work. Poe’s childhood wasn’t any better. Most of his work is dark and gothic. His life was a constant battle of hardships …show more content…
In the summary, given by Bella Wang, it states, “he [Tamerlane] now sees that he sacrificed love for power. As he grows old and reaches his deathbed, he misses his boyhood and perhaps regrets how his ambition defeated his love” (Poe’s Poetry Summary and Analysis of “Tamerlane”). This sentence from the summary by Bella Wang shows that his focus was more on regret than death and sorrow. After Poe’s wife died, his poems started to get depressing and over all dark and miserable. These traits of his work however are what made his poems stand out and become noticeable. In the Pearson Common Core Literature Textbook, it states “His beloved wife, Virginia, seemed to be his one source of happiness” (Pearson 289). Before his wife died, he had a happy outlook on life because of her. However once she died of the same disease his mother and adoptive mother had, he had lost all happiness when his wife died. After his wife’s death, his famous writings, The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher he wrote about distressed women. Another statement from the Pearson Common Core Literature is “some critics believe that Poe’s despair over Virginia’s lingering illness and death explains his fascination with doomed female characters” (Pearson 289). This may be the reason why Poe’s works are mainly about distressed women; however it still doesn’t explain why …show more content…
His life not only defined his character while he was living, but also his stories and the characters presented in them. His personal life may not have affected many during his time, but his stories will always be there to remind people of him. His stories and the characters within them are a depiction of the author, himself, and the mental terminal that was forever present in his mind. The characters are in some way either depressed or driven into madness, just like the other himself, who “suffered from bouts of depression and madness”(Pearson 289). Therefore, his life was presented in his poems and short stories and his novel. His life affected his work, because most of his writings were dark, depressing, or troubling. Poe’s life had always been depressing from a young age, his mother died when he was merely two. He was adopted into the Allan family only for the mother to have died from the same disease his biological mother did. He never seemed to escape poverty because of his debt he created for himself in his college years. When he did finally have a light, his wife, she died at the age of 24. Having little light and happiness in his life, he wrote about the darkness and depressing topics, because all Poe knew, was the terrible flash, one would call his
Conclusion: Edgar Allen Poe suffered from what is now known as manic depression, and his gothic tales and dark poetry are direct examples of how life influences art. His works may not have been as controversial had he not lived a life of poverty, addiction, and tragedy. Some might say his work was way ahead of his time. But he wrote about things going on around him, like murder and grave robberies. He used imagery and setting to make his stories seem more realistic. His tales could easily be made into movies in today’s times.
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the great writers of this world. He created several poems and short stories of a dark and dreary setting. His imagination was incredible. Edgar Allen Poe did not have a normal life. Bad luck and heart ach seemed to follow him until his death. His writing style was very different than other writers' style. His most famous pieces of work will be remembered for many generations to come.
In conclusion, I believe that Edgar Allan Poe’s life was full of sorrow and loneliness. Though his life was one problem after another, this pushed him and inspired him to be the writer was. His past inspired his dark and demented them of his short stories, poems, etc. Many look up to Edgar as a phenomenal writer.
...story writers all over the world. Although he had an unusual, unique, and peculiar way of writing he still had a great influence and impact on society during his time, up to the present day. Poe’s writing has changed the way present day writers write about love, pride, beauty and death.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers to date. His thrill filled tales of darkness and death helped people see a different side of romantic literature. Many believe that his isolated life and drinking problem helped influence his works. Poe showed his most prominent life accomplishment and disappointments through his life in his stories. He defined a lot of his life’s parallels through his works.
Details come from his own personal knowledge of them, and his only way to release and use his own imagination was to write his thoughts and feelings down for others to read. Edgar Allan Poe may not have had any recognition during his lifetime, but in the years and decades following his death, his writing has become a huge influence to people and writers. Poe had a very fascinating imagination and he wrote certain style way, which many writers could not write. While he often wrote about dark topics, Poe's best-known fiction works are Gothic. He inspired a new generation of writers but not until years after his death did his level of inspiration become known.
Poe lived in poverty all of his life, never seeing enough money from his writings to allow him to live comfortably, and never seeing his writing arrive at the famed status that it has today. Poe drank heavily throughout his life due to all of the downfalls he suffered. In between these drinking binges Poe had spurts of creativity, this is when he wrote his best material (E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore Inc. "Poe, Drugs and Alcohol" 1). Poe's sad and troubled life gave him the material he needed to create stories and poems that would capture his audience. Though Poe lived a hard life and was criticized by many for being evil and demonic, his stories and poems are still with us today as some of the greatest American literature ever published. Edgar Allan Poe's life experiences including the untimely death of his parents, his use of drugs and alcohol, the many other deaths in his life, and his unhealthy relationships with women influenced his tales and poems now famed for being dark and horrific in tone.
Known for his mystery, macabre and detective fiction genre, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most remembered poets of all time. Usually when people think of him, mind images of premature burials, murders, madmen, and mysterious women who are taken back from pure death like some zombie-like creatures comes to mind. In 1809, Edgar was born the second son out of three, two of which became actors. After the death of his mother and father at the age of three, John and Francis Allan raised him in Virginia. Edgar was sent to the best boarding schools and later on attended the University of Virginia where he was successfully academic. He was forced to leave due to refusement to pay his gambling debts. In 1827, he moved back to Boston and enlisted in the United States Army where his first poems titled Tamerlane, and Other Poems were published.
Edgar Allen Poe suffered from depression, which made his writings tragically beautiful, and if you lived his life, you probably would have been depressed too. He was born in 1809 to a couple of actors. He was two when his father abandoned him. His mother, unable to take care of him, left him with John and Frances Allen. His mother died soon after that. The Allens gave him a good upbringing, but never legally adopted him, leaving him as something of an outcast.
In 1811, Elizabeth Poe passed away. Edgar Allan Poe was only 2 when this tragedy occurred. His father abandoned his siblings and him not too long after. After being abandoned by his father, he was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan. His sister, was adopted by another family. Starting from a young age, Edgar Allan Poe was parentless and had no family connections. Growing up with Mr. and Mrs. John Allan, Poe lived a luxurious life. He went to nice private schools and lived in a nice home. However, when Poe attended college, he was not given enough enough money to survive. This angered him, and he began to drink, gamble, and fall in debt. Not too long after, Poe dropped out of school. It is known that Poe sent many letters to John asking for help but did not receive any. Poe was not mentioned in John’s will when he passed away in 1834. When his foster father died in 1834, the death had major negative effects on Poe’s
Poe went through many hardships during his life that helped inspire his literary works. Many of his works seem pretty normal at first but then you realize there is an underlying tone of tragedy in his works, just like in his life. Many of his poems are inspired by his friends, family and real life experiences. This supports my thesis because it shows that the people and experiences in his life influenced his choices, his works and his outlook on things.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born to traveling actors in Boston. He was hit hard with death at a young age as his mother and father both died within two days when Poe was only two years old. The wealthy John Allan and his wife became the legal guardians of young Edgar. When Edgar was fourteen, he met the first woman in his life, Jane Stith Stanard, the inspiration to his poem “To Helen”(1831). However, Mrs. Stanard passed away only a year after Poe first met her. In 1825 Poe became engaged with Elmira Royster. While he was away from her, he would write her many letters; however, Elmira’s parents intercepted the letters. Edgar wondered why she never replied, and when he went back to see her, he found out that she married someone else. This left Poe in a very depressed state. Poe’s relationship with the Allans was never secure, and this became evident when John Allan refused to pay Edgar’s debts at the University of Virginia. Edgar was then kicked out of school. In the next couple of years Poe has to fight through the death of his foster mother and his brother. Then in 1833 he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm. John Allan died a year later. He then married his cousin Virginia three years later. Virginia then died in 1842 (Anderson 9-64). Poe was introduced to death and betrayal throughout his young life leaving him in a very depressed state, and these traits are present throughout his short stories and poems.
He lost so much and went through so many changes. In his poem “The Raven” is shows how he is somewhat depressed and no one is born like that. “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor” (Poe 7-8) ,Poe is shown depressed by the way he describes December. That december of Poe's life was bleak just like he wrote in real life nothing really happened for him. Poe was known for being athletic and was known throughout his town as the boy who swam against the James River for six or seven miles (knowing).
His stories had an immense importance among authors such as Stephen King, along with helping to establish the genres of science fiction and the detective story, which got him the named father of the detective story. When writing his work “Poe was concerned above all with the “effect” of his tale on the reader. This effect, he thought, should be single and unified. When readers finished the story, they ought to be left with a totality of impression, and every element of the story--character, style, tone, plot and so forth--should contribute to this effect” (Wright). So Poe sought to give his readers emotional and aesthetic pleasure, but also to get them to believe that his stories had a reality of their own. Poe’s early career path had him harboring two aspirations, one was writing and the other the army. The army aspiration didn’t last long and Poe began to focuses solely on writing full time. Poe began working for a magazine, writing reviews of his contemporaries and developed a reputation as a cutthroat critic, but while working for the magazine he also published some of his own works in it. In later years Poe worked as an editor, a poet, a critic and would publish several poems, short stories, and collections of stories. Poe was one of the more famous Dark Romantic writers, leading his works to have Dark Romantic elements such
Edgar Allan Poe led a strange and unusually hard life, but through his experiences he produced many outstanding and wonderful works which have with out a doubt contributed to American Literature in several different areas. His stories are treasured by an immense readership. Although, Poe was quiet popular for his gothic tales, he was also well known for being and accomplished humorist, which is seen in many of his short stories. Poe was credited for singlehandedly inventing the detective story. No other played a more crucial role in shaping and developing the aesthetic theory, in the nineteenth-century, than Edgar Allan Poe. Thus, Poe remains a permanent fixture of our literary culture.