Aspect Of Poe's Dark Writing Style example essay topic

Edgar Allan Poe The literary style of Edgar Allan Poe is very dark and has many supernatural connotations. He showed this style in the stories that he wrote such as: The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart. He also wrote many other stories that showed his dark style of writing; however I felt that these stories portrayed his style the best. Many sources think that the reason Poe had such a dark literary style was because of the events that occurred in his life.

Some of these events included his father dying, and soon after that his mother died. Many more loved ones deaths preceded. This put Poe into a state of mind that made him very depressed and some believe that this is where he got his inspiration for his writing. In The Raven, Poe starts off the story with "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary".

(Complete 7) This shows how he sets up the setting for the story. This sentence makes you think of a dark lonely night. This is a good example of how Poe's literary style is dark. Poe also wrote "Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; -- -vainly I had sought to borrow from books surcease of sorrow -- -sorrow for the lost Lenore -- -for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -- -nameless here for evermore" (Complete 7). This is a dark poem of lost love. Whether he was referring to his mother, father or perhaps another loved one is unknown. In the fourth stanza Poe speaks of "Darkness there, and nothing more" (Complete 8) which allows us to see how alone he must have felt. Later in the story he refers to a bird that is sitting above his chamber door. He talks to the bird and gets frustrated with it because all it will ever say to him is "Nevermore".

You can tell that the narrator is dying to have some kind of social interaction with someone or something but not even the bird will give it to him. He tries to get the bird to leave him alone, but all that the bird does is sit there and continue to say "Nevermore" (Complete 10). This frustrates him and he says "Leave my loneliness unbroken! -- -quit the bust above the door! Take thy beak out of my heart, and take thy form from off my door! Quoth the Raven, Nevermore".

(Complete 13) He wants to feel sorry for himself and he is sick of the bird repeating to him "Nevermore" which reminds him of the lost love of Lenore (Complete). In The Black Cat Poe tells about his love for his animals, especially a black cat named Pluto. His wife refers to the cat as a witch in disguise. This shows the darkness that Poe had for every living thing. He loved this cat in the beginning and then he ended up killing the cat. He just became more moody, more irritable, and cared less and less about the feelings of others.

He started to neglect all of his animals, even Pluto. His problem was that he was an alcoholic and he eventually turned on Pluto and cut his eye out of his socket. Poe then stated", The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame". (DiYanni 132) This introduces the supernatural writing that Poe did.

This was another aspect of Poe's dark writing style (pam bytes 2). His supernatural writing usually referred to witchcraft and devil worship (ea poe 1). Poe continued the story with even more hatred for the cat. Eventually he ended up killing the cat by hanging it from a tree. In the story Poe explains it very vividly "One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -- -hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; -- -hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense; -- -hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin -- -a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it -- -if such a thing were possible -- -even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God". (DiYanni 133).

Later in the night his house catches on fire and there is only one wall that does not fall down. The cat is hanging from his headboard and he assumes that someone threw it in there. Later he feels bad about it and he finds another black cat and tries to make up for the evil things that he has done. This shows that the narrator did have some compassion for the cat and did feel remorse. This reveals that he was still human even after all of the terrible things that had happened in his life, he was still able to feel the feeling of guilt and sadness. The new cat followed him around all of the time.

He became annoyed and disgusted by this. Eventually he was going to kill this cat with an axe when his wife stopped him. In his fury he accidentally struck his wife with the axe right into her brain. He decided to put her into the wall.

This shows the darkness, because there are not too many people that would hide their own dead wife in the walls of their house. When the police came to check around Poe seemed very calm. Poe couldn't keep his mouth shut and he made a remark to police officers about how sturdy the walls of the house were. This shows that Poe was dark because he was proud about this terrible thing that he had done. It was almost as if he wanted the police to find her.

Then there was a howling sound that was coming from behind the wall. It was the black cat. The police found the dead body and his own mistakes were what allowed this to happen. This story about a black cat and hiding his dead wife in a wall just show what a strange and dark style he had (DiYanni). Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart ends a lot like The Black Cat.

He starts the story off explaining how he is not mad. This again shows the type of writing Poe had, very dark and unusual. The narrator wanted to kill a friend of his simply because he didn't like his eye. Poe described the old mans eye as being "a vulture -- -a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- -very gradually -- -I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and rid myself of the eye forever". (Tell-Tale 1) Poe continued throughout the story with many supernatural descriptions such as, "for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye".

(Tell-Tale 1) The narrator acted as though a person could an evil part on their body without even knowing it. He explained very vividly what it was like when he was waiting to kill the old man. The description he used made him sound very evil. One thing that he was saying about the old man was "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief-oh, no! -it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when over changed with awe".

(Tell-Tale 2) He talks so seriously by referring to the old man's soul. This reflects his dark style. He then talks about how the old man knew that death was approaching him and stalking him in his shadow. After he kills the old man he says, "I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done". (Tell-Tale 3) This makes a person see how terrible this person was.

It shows that Poe would get pleasure out of killing a man simply because he wanted to get rid of his eye. He then goes on to explain how he is still not mad. He then says, "you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.

I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantling's. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no eye-not even his-could have detected any thing wrong. There was nothing to wash out-not stain of any kind-no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all-ha! ha!" (Tell-Tale 3) This was a lot like in The Black Cat when he hid his wife in the walls of their house. Poe writing about this twice makes you think that he must have thought about this a lot.

This shows you how strange Poe's writing is. Again here he is hiding a dead body in the house that he lives in. This act would have to be done by a sick and dark thinking person. Also similar to The Black Cat, the police come to the house and Poe acts very calm. Just as in The Black Cat Poe brings the police in the room in which he hid the old man.

While sitting there with the police he thought that he heard a ticking sound. He kept hearing the sound get louder and louder, he couldn't understand why the police were not hearing it. Eventually, he said " 'Villians!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -tear up the planks! Here, here! -It is the beating of his hideous heart!' " (Tell-Tale 4) This again shows that the narrator did have some human feelings.

He felt so much remorse that he couldn't bare it anymore, and he had to tell them what he had done. It was almost as if from the very beginning he wanted them to find out what he had done (pam bytes). In the early 1800's Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Hopkins Poe, were traveling actors.

His father died about 1810 and his mother shortly after in 1811. Edgar had a brother and a sister. His brother William died at an early age and his sister Rosa line later went insane. Edgar was taken in by merchants named John and Fanny Allan. Edgar's life was full of personal problems and poverty. Many of the stories he wrote were not appreciated during his lifetime.

Richard Hart describes the place that Edgar grew up in as "a world intoxicating itself with new ideas and discoveries". (ea poe 3) Ralph Waldo Emerson called Edgar 'the jingle man' because his poetry depended a great deal on the sounds of words for its appeal (Jingle 1). Edgar grew very close to Fanny, but she died soon after. Edgar became very interested in a girl named Elmira Royster, both parents disapproved of this due to their age difference, Edgar was sixteen and a half and Elmira was fifteen. After Edgar attended the University of Virginia he returned home with a large gambling debt. From this point forward John and Edgar never quite got along mostly due to the debts and Fanny's death. Edgar found out that Elmira was engaged after he returned home, so in 1836, Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clem.

In 1842, Virginia had a blood vessel burst and she became practically immobile until she died five years later from tuberculosis. Poe later became engaged to Elmira Royster, who at the time was married. Poe suffered from short sessions of depression, drugs, alcoholism, and madness. In 1848, he unsuccessfully attempted suicide. The next year he was on his way to see his fianc " ee in Richmond and was found in a Baltimore gutter in a very delirious state. He died soon after.

Some of these are the reasons that Poe had such a dark writing style. He had so many unfortunate tragedies in his life. (Poe decoder) Edgar Allan Poe was a very different individual. He had a lot of unfortunate things that happened in his life.

His writing style was very dark and sad. In many of his stories there is the death of a loved one or a friend. These stories reflected the real events that happened in Poe's life. Throughout The Raven, The Black Cat, and A Tell-Tale Heart you can see Poe's dark style, supernatural influences, and all of the sad thoughts that were running through his mind.

Bibliography

Edgar's Childhood. web 3 April 2004 Edgar's Teens.
web 3 April 2004 Hart, Richard.
The Supernatural in Edgar Allan Poe" E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore. web 11 April 2004.
Poe, Edgar A. "The Black Cat". Literature: Reading poetry, fiction, and drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2002.
131-137. Poe, Edgar A. "The Raven". The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. J.H. Witty. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Boston, Mass. New York, N.Y. 1911 Poe, Edgar A.
The Tell-Tale Heart". web 12 April 2004.
Weston, Debbie. "The Jingle Man: Edgar Allan Poe". Monkeyshines on America December 2003.