Edgar Allan Poe
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==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
| + | Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century writer who is still well respected today. He was born in 1809 in Boston. While he was still a baby, his parents separated and his mother died after which he was adopted. Poe attended school in England for a few years before returning to the USA to continue his schooling. later drops out of school and joins the army. A couple years later his adopted mother dies and he returns home. He then joins the university West Point only to be deliberately kicked out later. Years later his adopted father dies and leaves Poe nothing. Poe then marries his cousin who dies about ten years later. Poe died in Baltimore in 1849. | ||
| − | + | Poe's writing style is known as dark and mysterious. His writings almost always contain themes death, murder, and lost love. They contain little action but very concentrated emotions and drama. He uses many metaphors and describes the settings with many details. His narrators are almost never given names even though they play an important roles in the story. Throughout his life, the themes of his writings stay fairly consistent, but the prominence of these themes change. | |
| − | + | How do the themes change in his writings throughout Poe's life? | |
==The Life of Edgar Allan Poe== | ==The Life of Edgar Allan Poe== | ||
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Animals feature in a few of Poe's works, most notably The Black Cat and The Raven. These both peak towards the center of our selected works. | Animals feature in a few of Poe's works, most notably The Black Cat and The Raven. These both peak towards the center of our selected works. | ||
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| + | When considering the words Poe used across his works there are obvious trends to be seen. Dark words have a much larger presence early on whereas the word Love springs at the end. Dark words such as Ghastly have a few spikes but inevitably die off just like Death. Across all graphs "The Raven" seems to be the turning point where all trends make a significant change. The word Death hits its lowest point at the Raven and at the same time the word Love starts its climb after Raven. And on the graph of environmental descriptions, the Raven is the last major point before all words drop to zero. Being one of the most famous poems ever written, it's no surprise that it too would make an such an impact on Poe and his writing style as well. | ||
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This story is very heavy, with a lot of dark themes and spiritual imagery. Words such as: dull, dark, ghastly, gloom, perish, fear, dread, and haunted are just some of the examples of dark themed words used throughout this narrative. Excluding the dreary scene of the house, the mysterious atmosphere of the story is already very relevant in due to the fact that the narrator reveals that, until the letter, he had not heard from Roderick since they were children. In the letter, Roderick says that he still considers the narrator to be his close friend even though they have not seen each other in years. The mysterious theme continues with the events such as Madeline’s unknown illness and her burial in the house’s own tomb. Then themes such as guilt and fear take over when Roderick realizes that they may have buried Madeline alive. That’s taken over by anger when Madeline kills Roderick and is then once again replaced by fear by both Roderick and the narrator who flees the scene. There is a constant sense of dread throughout this story and no common sense of what may happen due to the spiritual references. Therefore, “mysterious” is the central theme of the narrative. | This story is very heavy, with a lot of dark themes and spiritual imagery. Words such as: dull, dark, ghastly, gloom, perish, fear, dread, and haunted are just some of the examples of dark themed words used throughout this narrative. Excluding the dreary scene of the house, the mysterious atmosphere of the story is already very relevant in due to the fact that the narrator reveals that, until the letter, he had not heard from Roderick since they were children. In the letter, Roderick says that he still considers the narrator to be his close friend even though they have not seen each other in years. The mysterious theme continues with the events such as Madeline’s unknown illness and her burial in the house’s own tomb. Then themes such as guilt and fear take over when Roderick realizes that they may have buried Madeline alive. That’s taken over by anger when Madeline kills Roderick and is then once again replaced by fear by both Roderick and the narrator who flees the scene. There is a constant sense of dread throughout this story and no common sense of what may happen due to the spiritual references. Therefore, “mysterious” is the central theme of the narrative. | ||
| + | CONCLUSION because I don't know how to format. | ||
| + | As Poe's life progresses, his writings become more centered around love. At the beginning of his life, it's fair to say that Poe lacked meaningful relationships with his family. His writings always contained themes of death, but they did not always contain themes of love. It wasn't until Poe was 27 did he marry his cousin. After the marriage, Poe wrote stories like Ligeia and Annabel Lee. He seemed to really love his wife and was devastated when she died. This was when love didn't become just a theme but a major theme in his writings. Love and loss of love majorly effected the plots of these stories. As he grew older, Poe came to appreciate and desire love in his life and this was reflected in his writings. | ||
===The Black Cat=== | ===The Black Cat=== | ||
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===The Raven=== | ===The Raven=== | ||
| − | The narrator of “The Raven” is sitting and looking over old books in a dark and gloomy setting when a raven shows up and repeats the phrase, “nevermore.” This causes him to think that the raven is referring to his dead wife, Lenore. Throughout the work | + | The narrator of “The Raven” is sitting and looking over old books in a dark and gloomy setting when a raven shows up and repeats the phrase, “nevermore.” This causes him to think that the raven is referring to his dead wife, Lenore. Throughout the work the raven does not say anything else, and the narrator becomes increasingly agitated. |
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| + | Like other narrators in Poe’s work, the one in “The Raven” seems to be going mad, and like the narrator in Ligeia, is defined by the loss of his wife. The narrator is so driven by his grief that he takes the one phrase that the bird says to be referring to his deceased wife, Lenore. It would appear that the narrator had holed himself up in a cluttered dark space to cope with his loss. | ||
===The Cask of Amontillado=== | ===The Cask of Amontillado=== | ||
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This poem tells of how much the narrator loved Annabel Lee wth lines such as: “But we loved with a love that was more than love-.“ Early in the poem it is revealed that Annabel Lee dies with the lines: “So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me.” The narrator believe that the angels in heaven were jealous of their love and took Annabel Lee away so the couple would not be happier than the angels. The narrator refutes this by saying that he and Annabel Lee will always love each other and ends with him lying down by her tomb. This poem was written shortly after the death of Poe’s wife and is clearly a tribute to her. His wife was his 13-year-old cousin which is reflected in the poem’s line: “I was a child and she was a child.” Despite the fact that she was Poe’s husband, it is clear that Poe still loved her dearly as his wife. | This poem tells of how much the narrator loved Annabel Lee wth lines such as: “But we loved with a love that was more than love-.“ Early in the poem it is revealed that Annabel Lee dies with the lines: “So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me.” The narrator believe that the angels in heaven were jealous of their love and took Annabel Lee away so the couple would not be happier than the angels. The narrator refutes this by saying that he and Annabel Lee will always love each other and ends with him lying down by her tomb. This poem was written shortly after the death of Poe’s wife and is clearly a tribute to her. His wife was his 13-year-old cousin which is reflected in the poem’s line: “I was a child and she was a child.” Despite the fact that she was Poe’s husband, it is clear that Poe still loved her dearly as his wife. | ||
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| + | ==Conclusion== | ||
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| + | As Poe's life progresses, his writings become more centered around love. At the beginning of his life, it's fair to say that Poe lacked meaningful relationships with his family. His writings always contained themes of death, but they did not always contain themes of love. It wasn't until Poe was 27 did he marry his cousin. After the marriage, Poe wrote stories like Ligeia and Annabel Lee. He seemed to really love his wife and was devastated when she died. This was when love didn't become just a theme but a major theme in his writings. Love and loss of love majorly effected the plots of these stories. As he grew older, Poe came to appreciate and desire love in his life and this was reflected in his writings. | ||
