EDGAR ALLAN POE
1809 - 1849
“Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore”
Edgar Allan Poe – Darkness
Dark what is dark? It is defined in the dictionary as: Darkadj 1.Being without light or without much light. 2. Not a light in colour<a~suit> 3.Gloomy. 4. Being without knowledge and culture<The Dark ages> 5.Secretive – darklyadv – Dark-ness n.
dark2n 1.Absance of light: Darkness; esp.: night 2. A dark or deep colour – in the dark 1. In secrecy. 2. In ignorance.
Dark is a major part of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. Take for example “The Pit and the Pendulum”: The main character is locked in a dungeon with no light to see his surroundings. “I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed. The blackness of eternal night encompassed me.”
(Edgar Allan Poe, story and structure Canadian edition, “The Pit and the Pendulum” pg.357 line 33.) Take also for example “The Mask of the Red Death”. The seventh room was black. “ But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood – tinted panes, was ghastly and extreme … It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the west wall a gigantic clock of ebony.” These are just examples of literally darkness with no light. There is also the literary darkness Like in the “Tell Tale Heart”, the man murders his employer “ He shrieked once – once only. In an n instance I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heave bed over him... the old man was dead…I took for the concealment of the body. The night warned, and I walked hastily, but in silence , first as I dismembered the corps. I cut off the head and the legs and the arms”. “The Raven” the man is mourning over the lost love Lanor. When a raven comes only to torment his already tired soul. With those words of pain “Never More”. ”On this home by horror haunted – tell me truly I implore – is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me – tell me – I implore!” “Quoth the raven “never more””
In conclusion it is said that the greatest writer either write about sex or death and Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatly misunderstood writers of our day due to the lack of information on him and his life.
Let not light see my black and deep desires" (1. 4. l50-51). When words like
One murky, miserable night imagine walking through a foggy midnight dark forest where the leaves of tall trees would clash together as if in anger and the wind gushing across like a lions roar, the hair on the back of my neck rises. You feel death creeping in the shadows, how are you feeling right now? Depressed, scared, and maybe feeling the shivers running through your body because of the suspense? All these descriptive words are conditions of the word or color black. When something is black the first thing you would think about is something dark, gothic or even horror and there is nothing comforting about it, because the color black is most often associated with horror movies or loss of life. Black also can be a condition of rebellion, terror,
Edgar Allan Poe is a popular all around the world. He is seen as a dark, mysterious writer. Looking into his life experiences, it explains why his stories are so dark. Readers who do not know his background stories may think he is a crazy, mentally unstable man. But to really understand the depth of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, it is important and useful to look into the reasoning of why the stories are so dark.
In the story Sonny's Blues the author, James Baldwin, uses the image of darkness quite frequently. He uses it first when the older brother (main character) talks about his younger brother Sonny. He says that when Sonny was younger his face was bright and open. He said that he didn't want to believe that he would ever see his "brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out." Meaning he had gone from good (clean and innocent) to bad ( giving into drugs like so many of the other young people).
Poe shows how trivial the Gothic genre can become when overusing darkness and decay. From the moment the narrator even gets close to the House of Usher he notices that every bit of vegetation surrounding the mansion is dead and grey, and that there is a “pestilent and mystic vapor”
How Women and Mental Illness Were the Main Contributors to the Eminent Darkness in Edgar Allen Poe’s Writing
But for darkness its the opposite, all the bad events took place during the night, for example when Macbeth goes to kill king Duncan because of greed, he wasn't happy with the position he received, he wanted to be king so he can have more power. Another example of Darkness is when the witches come to tell him his prophecy (I, iii, 125). This is a type of tragic situation because if the witches hadn't appeared and told Macbeth that he would be king, he wouldn't have so much lust. In this scene, Macbeth describes the witch as an ugly old lady dressed in black. The color black represents the witch’s evil nature.
Edgar Allen Poe was a deeply troubled man. From a young age he struggled with a love life that would slowly tarnish his mind. Poe frequently turned to controlled substances and alcohol to help sooth his pain. Poe’s only true solace from the harsh reality to which he was doomed to live was through his writings. Poe helped developed several major literary genres including American gothic style and the American Detective Story. Both his short stories and poems are littered with themes expressing deeply macabre scenes such as mutilation, gore, and criminal insanity. However, one of his most prominent and well known topics in Poe’s writing deals with the death of beautiful women. This is directly
Edgar Allan Poe was a man considered by many to be the personification of Death. He is regarded as a true American Genius whose works seized and frightened the minds of millions. However, Poe greatly differed from other acclaimed authors of his time. He had a unique writing style that completely altered the reality surrounding his readers. Rather than touch their hearts with lovable fictional characters he found a way of expressing himself that no other author had at the time. Poe’s combination of demented genius and difficult past experiences led him to become one of the greatest writers of all time.
... a dark setting used which involved supernatural events, while the light setting was used for last battle, when Macbeth was slain at the end to show the restoration of peace and honesty. Thus the symbolism of light and darkness representing good and evil in the play emphasizes the theme of corruption of power.
In the poem “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe wrote about grief, sadness, and depression. He is writing about a young girl named Lenore. She is depicted as pure, beautiful, and the very thing that the main character lives for, his beloved Lenore. When he loses her, he is sent into a spiral of depression. This leads him to believe that a black raven pecking at his door was sent by Lenore. Through out the poem “The Raven” Poe uses many things to illustrate the theme darkness, such as the words he so carefully uses, the symbols that are chosen, and the description of everything.
Within the poem Poe divides the characters and imagery into two conflicting aspects of light and dark. Almost everything in the poem reflects one world or the other. For example, Lenore, who is repeatedly described as ?radiant? epitomizes the world of light along with the angels she has joined. Another image of light would be the lamplight the character uses to light his chamber, his refuge from the darkness of the outside. However, The Raven, as well as the dreary December night shows signs of darkness. These images of light and darkness go even further to represent life and death, the man?s hope of an afterlife with Lenore and his fear of everlasting loneliness.
Darkness is a huge motif in The Heart of Darkness. Almost every other page is filled with some imagery relating to the dark or low visibility. It is well known in literature that darkness has negative connotations. The dark is associated with dirtiness, ignorance, and death. Being in the dark is not a good place to be, however, this is where Conrad places us.
Edgar Allan Poe was an all-around Dark Romantic. All of his writings showed the dark minds and the twisted psychology of the people in his time period. “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe projects the darkness of the people’s minds that peers into this period. “…Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” (Poe 286). The poem had the essence of a desolate man with no hope for happiness. In such loneliness and despair, the narrator’s own mind drives him mad. He is believed to be talking to a raven that repeats “nevermore” to every question. The more questions the narrator asks, the more twisted the raven’s answer becomes. This sh...
Darkness. It pervades every nook and cranny of our human minds and souls, held back by the fragile light of our beliefs, yet encroaching entirely in the eyes of another. The darkness is ignorance and fear. It is the quintessence of imperfection, the corruption of the pure, and tragic irony that stems from incomprehension. It explains and confuses, persuades and dissuades. It is the unknown and the unknowable. Darkness.