Brief Introduction To Adgar Allan Poe 1 example essay topic

Poe Decoder An Analysis of Adgar Allan Poe " 's Psychological ThrillerOutlineI. Prelude II. Brief introduction to Adgar Allan Poe 1.1. Allan Poe's Life 2.2. Allan Poe's Works and Literary Achievement.

Adgar Allan Poe -- A Post-Gothic Writer 1.1. Gothic Introduction 2.2. Analysis of Two Horror 1) 1) The Fall of the House of Ushera) a) Settingb) b) Charactersc) c) Point of View 2) 2) The Masque of the Red Death a) a) Settingb) b) Charactersc) c) Point of View IV. The Symbolism in Allan Poe's Works 1. Symbolism Introduction 2. Analysis of two horrors 1) 1) The Fall of the House of Ushera) a) Style and Interpretationb) b) Theme 2) 2) The Masque of the Red Deatha) a) Style and Interpretationb) b) The meV.

Finale I. Prelude " During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was -- but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. ' -- The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe Within the lines of the opening of The Fall Of The House Of Usher, as a result of Poe's imagery, we are aware of a sense of death and decay. Gothic is the ambience. II. Brief Introduction to Adgar Allan Poe 1.

Allan Poe's Life Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in January 1809, the second son of traveling actors. Edgar, split up from his elder bother and younger sister, was taken into the household of a Virginian tobacco merchant, John Allan, whose name Poe adopted from 1824 onwards. Poe's relationship with his foster father was uneasy at the best of times and after a violent quarrel with his foster father over his choice of career, Poe left Virginia altogether and went to Boston. Poe was always very close to Mrs. Allan and it was her dying wish that her husband and foster son be reconciled.

In 1830, living on a small allowance from Allan, Poe entered the military academy at West Point, but deliberately got himself dishonorably discharged in 1831. He lived with his aunt, Mrs. Clemms, in Baltimore, where he began to publish stories in magazines. When MS. Found in a Bottle won a short-story competition one of the judges helped secure him a job as an editor on the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemms. Much of his early work went unnoticed and it took until 1840 before Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. This included the famous story The Fall of the House of Usher.

Plans for starting his own magazine did not lead too much and he continued to work as a magazine editor for various publications. His Tales and The Raven and Other Poems, published in 1845, did bring him some recognition but unfortunately it was not enough to sustain his family financially. Mrs. Clemms and Poe's wife Virginia nearly starved to death one winter. After his wife's death in 1847 Poe became increasingly unstable and his dependence on tempted suicide in 1848 and tragically died in 1849, five days after being found in a delirious and semi-conscious condition in Baltimore. 2.

Allan Poe's Works and Literary Achievement Edgar Allan Poe was mostly known for his poems and short tales and his literary criticism. His literary achievement was mostly on his short tales. The first short story collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, contains 25 short tales includes Ms. Found in a Bottle, Berenice, Lig eia, Morella, The Fall of the House of Usher, William Wilson, etc. Later two short tales collection, The Murders In The Rue Morgue, Tales, contains The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit And The Pendulum, The Black Cat, The Purloined Letter. The tales can be decided into two classes. One is horror, which emphasizes on depicting people's twisted psycho, such as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Earth, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket; the other is detective, as The Murders In The Rue Morgue.

His poems like his fiction, expresses weird, grotesque, morbid images. Such as The Raven expresses a gloomy and depressed mood. He has been given credit for inventing the detective story and his psychological thrillers have been influences for many writers worldwide, such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and propelled Le Symbolisme (Symbolism).. Adgar Allan Poe -- A Post-Gothic Writer 1. Gothic Introduction During the last decades of the eighteenth century, England found itself in the midst of a societal unraveling. The philosophies of Shaftesbury, Adam Smith, and David Hume, which for most of the century had provided the intellectual classes with theories of action and motivation that justified their self-interested behavior, began to reveal themselves as insupportable.

The contradiction between the English ideology in which 'individual desires and collective needs participated in perfect reciprocity' (Pooley, 307) and actual economic and political conditions began to surface. Incidents like the Gordon riots in 1780 (as well as the utterly terrifying reality of complete Revolution just across the Channel) revealed a rupture in what had been thought of as the time and place of 'the well-bred gentleman. ' It is out of this social climate that the Gothic novel grew: a new and fearful genre for a new and fearful time. The spec tre of social revolution is manifest in the supernatural 'spectres' of the Gothic: a crumbling way of life emerges as a crumbling and haunted Gothic manor; the loss of English social identity becomes the Gothic hero or heroine's search for identity. 2. Analysis of Two Horrors 1) The Fall of the House of Ushera.

Setting The story begins on one '... dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year... ' From the very beginning, the reader, as a result of Poe's imagery, is aware of a sense of death and decay. Even the narrator, Roderick's childhood companion, describes 'a sense of insufferable gloom [which] pervaded [his] spirit' as he approached the House of Usher. The term 'House of Usher' refers not only to the crumbling mansion but also to the remaining family members who live within. b.

Characters There are three significant characters in this tale: the narrator, Roderick and Madeline Usher. The narrator is a boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. He has not seen Roderick since they were children; however, because of an urgent letter that he received from Roderick which requested his aid, the nameless narrator decides to make the long journey. ('... [I] t was the apparent heart that went with his request -- which allowed me no room for hesitation... ' ) Roderick and Madeline Usher are the sole, remaining members of the long, time-honored Usher race.

When Madeline supposedly 'dies' and is placed in her coffin, the narrator notices 'a striking similitude between brother and sister... ' It is at this point that Roderick informs his friend that he and the Lady Madeline had been twins, and that 'sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them. ' Due to limited medical knowledge or to suit his purposes here, Poe treats Madeline and Roderick as if they were identical twins (two parts of one personality) instead of fraternal twins. He implies that Roderick and Madeline are so close that they can sense what is happening to each other. This becomes an important aspect in the unity of effect of this particular story. c.

Point of View Unlike many of Poe's stories, this particular story does not use the typical, first person point of view where the protagonist tells a personal account of a crime that he or she has committed. Instead, the narrator is a character of whom we know very little, who acts like a participant / observer. It is easy for the reader to become 'the friend' in Poe's story as both the narrator and the reader invite 'madness' as they are drawn into the underworld of the mind where fantasy becomes reality. Twice near the end of the story, Roderick calls the narrator 'Madman!' However, the narrator escapes, to watch both the tenants and the house of Usher disappear into the tarn, an underworld which is their true home. 2) The Masque of the Red Deatha. Setting The story covers a period of approximately six months during the reign of the Red Death.

The action takes place in ' [the] deep seclusion of one of [Prince Prospero's] castellated abbeys. ' The 'masque' takes place in the imperial suite which consisted of seven, very distinct rooms. b. Characters This story has no characters in the usual sense which lends credibility to an allegorical interpretation. Only Prince Prospero speaks. His name suggests happiness and good fortune; however, ironically this is not the case.

Within the Prince's abbey, he has created a world of his imagination with masked figures that reflect 'his own guiding taste. ' These dancers are so much a product of the Prince's imagination that Poe refers to them as 'a multitude of dreams. ' Even when the 'Red Death' enters, the author refers to this character as a 'figure' or a 'mummer' who 'was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask... was made... to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse... But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death.

His vesture was dabbled in blood-and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror. ' When the mummer is seized toward the end of the story, all 'gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse like mask... untenanted by any tangible form. ' c. Point of View Poe expressed his dislike for allegory - 'a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. ' Poe argued that allegory was an inferior literary form because it is designed to evoke interest in both the narrative and the abstract ideas for which the narrative stands, which distracts the reader from the singleness of effect that Poe most valued in literature. 'Under the best circumstances, it must always interfere with that unity of effect which, to the artist, is worth all the allegory in the world. ' Yet Poe himself openly used allegory, as in 'The Haunted Palace' verses which he inserted into his story, 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' as well as in 'The Masque of the Red Death.

' IV. Symbolism Symbolism, as a literary genre, stems from Romanticism and is a rebellion to the conventional genre. Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud are the pioneer of Symbolism. Adgar Allan Poe's work great propelled the France Le Symbolisme (Symbolism). 2.

Style and Interpretation " The Fall of the House of Usher' illustrates Poe's critical doctrine that unity of effect depends o.