...Edgar Allen Poe’s notorious drug and alcohol abuse combined with his dysfunctional and unsupportive family played a significant role in the development of Poe’s unique writing styles and topics. Edgar Allen Poe was born January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Poe was a British actress. His father, David Poe Jr. was an actor from Baltimore. Edgar Allen Poe had two other siblings, a brother named William and a sister named Rosalie. Poe did not have a close relationship with his parents; they were a part of his life for a short amount of time. His father abandoned his wife and children, a few years later Elizabeth contracted tuberculosis. (“Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation.) She was the first of Poe’s many...
Words: 1274 - Pages: 6
...Kayla Delury Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe’s writing is known throughout the world. He was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe had an awful childhood. His Dad, David Poe, abandoned the family soon after Poe was born. His Mom, Eliza Poe, died two years later because of tuberculosis. After his mother’s death, his infant sister and brother were separated. His brother was sent to live with their biological grandparents. Poe moved to Richmond, Virginia to live with John and Fannie Allan; his sister was taken in by another family in Richmond. Poe and John Allan’s relationship suffered greatly making Poe having to make some hard decisions for his future. Poe attended the University of Virginia in 1926. He started gambling and became in debt. However, John Allen refused to pay leading Poe to withdraw from the University. Poe’s best known works include such masterpieces as Annabel Lee, The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Mask of the Red Death, The Murders of the Rue Morgue, and many others. Each and every one of these titles, share one common trait that is more than obvious, they all deal with death. When these titles of the books take over the attention, it is only normal that the main part of Poe’s work should see to be known as nightmares. Poe married Virginia Clemm, his thirteen year old cousin in, 1936. When Virginia died in 1947, Poe became depressed and lost his motivation in writing. In 1849, Poe became engaged to marry the widowed Sarah...
Words: 347 - Pages: 2
...Romantic poet Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his terrifying and mysterious novels and poems. Born on January 19, 1809, Poe soon became a brilliant writer. His tales produced the modern detective story and many of his works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, became literary classics. "The Raven," which Poe released in 1845, is considered among the most popular poems in American literature. Edgar Allan Poe left a large imprint on the period of romanticism and inspired musicians as well as writers across the country. Poe's unique short stories and poems sparked imagination and interest in readers around the world. His storytelling led to advances in literature; this caused others to start calling him “Father of the Detective Story”. Mystery did not show in just his poems, but also in his personal...
Words: 759 - Pages: 4
...Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe was an American author, poet, and literary critic. Additionally, Poe is an author considered to be an anti-transcendentalist and is well known for his poem “The Raven.” Poe also wrote rather dark stories often circulating around murder, revenge, torture, and insanity. Some of Poe’s short stories include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” “And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave” (Edgar Allan Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”). But in truth, we all have thought about death and what it will be like. Even before losing someone, death would find it’s way into my thoughts, but having lost a close friend, death is now something that often creeps into my mind. Is it peaceful, painless? Or is it terrifyingly unnumbed? Is there life after death? How can we really know unless we’re dead? We all have that sheer fact to live with of never truly knowing when or how it could happen. In some cases, it can give life a little more adrenalin. But for others, it can lead to fear. Why leave the house if you can fall on the way out? But if you never leave, would you ever become known enough to be remembered? The curiosity of death affects us however we let it. But if we allow it to rule our mind we can lose it. We’ve all thought about death, but we can only imagine what it will be like....
Words: 276 - Pages: 2
...Kansas Autobiography of Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe is an American writer who had many famous poems such as “The Raven”. He was a short-story writer, critic, poet, and editor. Poe is famous for his stories and poems of mystery and horror. Poe was a foster child. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold, died when he was only two. His father David Poe had passed away and left his mother to care for three children Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie (Poets.org.). After this; Poe went to live with his grandparents. Poe was adopted by John and Frances Allan. John was detached and strict. His adoptive father John was a tobacco merchant and was very wealthy for his time. They lived in Richmond, Virginia. Poe’s adoptive parents changed his life and made him more reformed and intelligent. Poe was educated in private academies, excelling in Latin, in writing verse, and declamation. When Poe was only seventeen, he attended the University of Virginia. Poe was only given about a third of the money that he needed to pay for his college from John. Edgar began to play cards and gamble to make up for the money that John didn’t supply him with. Poe soon began drinking and he fell into a large amount of debt. He became so poor that he was forced to burn the furniture he owned for heat. Poe had to stop going to school due to the debt that had accumulated. When he left school he was poor, without...
Words: 549 - Pages: 3
...activity and the motives surrounding it. In order to accommodate contemporary audiences, composers can playfully rework and innovate the conventions of crime fiction. This subversion can be achieved by encompassing relevant contextual issues. However, crime fiction texts must still incorporate traditional elements to preserve their core appeal. This delicate balancing act between tradition and innovation is shown through P.D. James’ novel The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982) and Tom Stoppard’s play The Real Inspector Hound (1968) when viewed alongside Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely (1940). Ultimately though, it is the ability of genre to evolve through subversion whilst retaining its inherent traditional features that ensures its durability. The ever-changing nature of society and context results in the innovation of genre. In The Skull Beneath the Skin, P.D. James subverts Poe’s original detective prototype, presented in the character of Cordelia Gray. Traditional detectives were equipped with exceptional intellect, and often portrayed as powerful, almost surreal figures. Conversely, James’ innovative detective is expressed as vulnerable and inexperienced: “…her control broke. She gave a gasp and felt the hot tears coursing down her face.” In doing this, James comments on the use of a female detective in crime fiction, and specifies her position in the title of The Skull’s predecessor, “An Unsuitable Job for A Woman...
Words: 1817 - Pages: 8
...will be discussing the devolution of the detective’s role. The most amazing detectives can be found in the earlier pieces of literature. In traditional mysteries there are a few notable authors which were covered in English 239. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe are these two authors. When the mystery genre was created by Edgar Allen Poe, the detectives were made out to be amazing. Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” begins with a scene that should engrave faith into the detective. The reader is introduced to detective Monsieur C. Augueste Dupin as an unimaginable genius. Dupin was so intelligent it was almost like Dupin could read your mind. As the narrator stated “how was it possible you should know I was thinking of ___?” Another example of detective Monsieur C. Augueste Dupin talent is towards the end of the story. When they find the finger prints Dupin automatically knows it was not a murder conjured by a human rather a monkey and he even knows the breed of this monkey. These statements show my point that Edgar Allen Poe created a detective who was amazing and could do more than anyone else. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle followed the same scheme as Edgar Allan Poe. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a detective, probably the most famous one yet. Sherlock Holmes, was smarter than everyone, he could place together crimes that were unsolvable to anyone...
Words: 1129 - Pages: 5
...Strange Case and The Murders: Dividing Human Minds Alexis Osorio DeVry University There can be no up without down, no dark without bright, and no wrong without right; the same idea can be applied to the human mind. There is some sort of duality in the human mind and has been a recurring theme of discussion in many stories. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Strange Case) (Stevenson, 1886) brings the topic of human duality to the forefront by observing it from a third person point of view. Edgar Allan Poe brings up human duality too from a first person point of view in his work The Murders in the Rue Morgue (The Murders)(1841). Strange Case is about an internal struggle that is externalized, while The Murders shows no struggle between the characters. The former about the concept of self-control, while the latter on mental capacity. Although both stories show it in very different ways, the underlying theme is the same, the duality of the human mind is true and apparent but cannot be separated. It may help to demonstrate the nature of human duality with another concept that is physical but not human, the wave-particle duality. This concept is derived from the nature of light, or electromagnetism. Classically, people, especially scientist, used to believe that waves and particles were two separate entities but after an experiment (the double-slit experiment) found that light behaves as both at the same time. This concept shook science from the very foundation upon...
Words: 2041 - Pages: 9
...EDGAR ALLAN POE Synopsis Born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. American short-story writer, poet, critic, and Editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His The Raven (1845) numbers among the best-known poems in national literature. Early Life With his short stories and poems, Edgar Allan Poe captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His creative talents led to the beginning of different literary genres, earning him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story" among other distinctions. His life, however, has become a bit of mystery itself. And the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death. The son of actors, Poe never really knew his parents. His father left the family early on, and his mother passed away when he was only three. Separated from his siblings, Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. He and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he never quite meshed with John. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's business papers. Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan. When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn't receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference, but ended up in...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...Edgar Poe was born on the 19th of January, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was David Poe Jr. and his mother was Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. Both of them were actors. Edgar had an elder brother named William Henry Leonard Poe and a younger sister named Rosalie Poe. In 1810, their father abandoned them, and within a year their mother died of consumption. Edgar went to live with John Allan who was a Scottish tobacco merchant living in Richmond, Virginia. His siblings went to other families. The Allan family was quite well to do, and Edgar lived a good life with them. As a mark of respect for his adoptive family, Edgar took the middle name of Allan and came to be known as Edgar Allan Poe. In 1815, the Allans along with Edgar traveled to England, where Edgar began to attend school. In 1815, he attended Grammar School in Irvine, Scotland, and in a boarding school in Chelsea in 1817. After that, he attended the Reverend John Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington near London. In 1826, he joined the University of Virginia, but he left within a year. Although the Allans were quite well off, John Allan would not give Edgar much money for his survival in college. To make up for the less money, Edgar began to gamble and lost heavily. His gambling debts created further rifts between him and John Allan. Poe was poor and needed money. So he joined the United States Army under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry. He served for two years and attained the rank of Sergeant...
Words: 973 - Pages: 4
...The Life of Edgar Allan Poe Does grief benefit writers? The idea is that sadness, despair, and heartache may be channeled and applied for creativity as emotional inspiration. A well known example is Edgar Allan Poe, who suffered from poverty, was orphaned before age three, and fought alcoholism during most of his life. After meeting and falling in love with his cousin, Virginia, Poe was not aware he’d have to endure the pain of losing her like so many of his loved ones before. He once stated, "The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." (citation?) If it had not been for the tragic illness and death of Virginia, Poes' work may not have been as good or memorable, and we may not have gained some of...
Words: 2155 - Pages: 9
...“The role of women in the gothic genre is as victims, always subject to male authority.” Compare and contrast the extent to which this interpretation is relevant to your three chosen texts. “The wolf consumes red riding hood – what else can you expect if you talk to strange men, comments Perrault briskly. Let’s not bother our heads with the mysteries of sadomasochistic attraction” Angela Carter; Foreword to Perrault’s Short Stories. In much of today’s feminist writings, the Gothic era is frequently defined as a period in which the oppression of females was at its most intense. In response to fin de siècle anxieties of a social revolution in which gender stereotypes could be overhauled, gothic writers, it is claimed, sought to reassert cultural and gender norms – a reassertion which inevitably resulted in the oppression of women. In view of such contemporary analysis, it is thus all too tempting to offer a sweeping judgement of gothic literature as victimising, oppressive and misogynistic; Dracula’s “victims” are all “unambiguously women[1]”, Poe victimises through an “idealised and dehumanising image of women[2]”, while Carter is a “pseudo feminist” who merely “reinforces patriarchal views” with her “pornographic” writing[3]. Yet such views are largely artificial, and are primarily based on potted summaries of the above works, rather than a closer textual analysis. If one takes the definition of a victim as a being who is subject to the successful predatory actions of...
Words: 5092 - Pages: 21
...Literature Creation Methods of Poe’s Gothic Tales ——Review of The Fall of the House of Usher 英81 高云君 2008012742 As one of the most famous works by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is the a masterpiece in American gothic literature. The prose is full with of elements and details which are unsettling and macabre. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe’s gothic novels have always been my readings before bed since I was younga child. In my childhood, following the unnamed narrator and walking towards that old and creepy house, I was immersed in the horrible storyline and experience the fantastic feeling of nightmare. Today when I look back on this literature work, I get some deeper understanding and . Ⅰ. Hellish environment setting ：Use of double space The whole environment and different scenes in the story are so hellish that the reader feels a kind of inexplicable asphyxia. I summarize some typical elements Poe uses to build a gothic atmosphere. Day: a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn. Location: a singularly dreary tract of country. House and surrounding: upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees. The precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn. If that can be called the exterior space, then the internal...
Words: 2596 - Pages: 11
...Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston. After being orphaned at age two, he was taken into the home of a childless couple–John Allan, a successful businessman in Richmond, Va., and his wife. Allan was believed to be Poe’s godfather. At age six, Poe went to England with the Allans and was enrolled in schools there. After he returned with the Allans to the U.S. in 1820, he studied at private schools, then attended the University of Virginia and the U.S. Military Academy, but did not complete studies at either school. After beginning his literary career as a poet and prose writer, he married his young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He worked for several magazines and joined the staff of the New York Mirror newspaper in 1844. All the while, he was battling a drinking problem. After the Mirror published his poem “The Raven” in January 1845, Poe achieved national and international fame. Besides pioneering the development of the short story, Poe invented the format for the detective story as we know it today. He also was an outstanding literary critic. Despite the acclaim he received, he was never really happy because of his drinking and because of the deaths of several people close to him, including his wife in 1847. He frequently had trouble paying his debts. It is believed that heavy drinking was a contributing cause of his death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849. Source http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/Rue.html The Murders in the Rue...
Words: 12400 - Pages: 50
...Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) [pic] The American Romanticism I. What is Romanticism Originated in the second half of the 18th century, romanticism was a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism. Romanticism focuses on Nature; a place free from society's judgement and restrictions. Romanticism blossomed after the age of Rationalism, a time that focused on handwork and scientific reasoning. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe. II.Features of American romanticism Edgar Allen Poe(1809 - 1849) the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure. a Bohemian（吉普赛人）, depraved（堕落） and demonic（恶魔的）, a villain（恶棍） with no virtue at all. Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. But Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank. He enjoyed respect and welcome greatly in Europe. He is the father of psychoanalytic criticism. In deed, Poe places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence. What interests him most is the deep abyss of the unconsciousand subconscious mental activity of the people, His theories for the short story and poetry are remarkable...
Words: 3130 - Pages: 13
