Works Of Edgar Allan Poe example essay topic

Every story that was conceived from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe contained a part of himself on each page. This left the reader with a better understanding of Poe's life. Through his stories and pomes Poe displayed his greatest achievements and his worst disappointments. In this research paper I will reveal facts about Poe's life and define hidden meanings throughout his works.

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe's parents were David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, an actor and actress that worked in the city of Baltimore (Britannica). Shortly after Poe's birth, his father abandoned the family and left Poe and his mother to fend for themselves. In 1811 when Poe was two his mother died. That left him with his second depressing loss in only his first two years of life (540). After his father ran off and his mother's sudden death, Poe was left with his godfather, John Allan.

John Allan was a wealthy merchant based in Richmond, Virginia with the means, knowledge, and affluence to provide a good life for Poe. Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1826 (Britannica). For the first time in his life things were starting to go well. Upon entering college it took Poe no more time to unpack his bag then it did for him to become involved in, immoral acts of gambling and drunkenness. He developed gambling debts from 2,000 to 2,500 dollars, which caused some friction between John Allan and himself (Quinn 130).

After eleven months in college Poe dropped out, due to his debts (Britannica). Upon arriving at home Poe was invited to a party hosted by Sarah Elmira Royster, his sweetheart before going away to college. When he arrived at the party, he learned that it was Elmira's engagement party. This was heart braking to Poe (540). After John Allan and Poe had a huge fight over Poe's gambling addiction, Poe joined the army under the alias of "Edgar Allan Perry" (Britannica). It was not till after his military career Poe starting to become a successful writer.

In 1840 Poe published a collection of his first twenty-five stories, called Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (World Book). Even after this collection failed to sell or gain recognition, Poe kept his daily routine of working on literature. In 1843 Poe published one his greatest works, "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Encarta). Yet it was the poem, "Raven" that brought Poe the most recognition and finally provided him a spot among America's greatest writers. Virginia Clem m Poe's wife died in 1847 of tuberculosis and in doing so shattered his heart again (World Book). Virginia's death had affected Poe much more than any other loss had up to this point in his life.

Poe was once quoted saying: "Each time I felt all the agonies of her death-and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive-nervous in a very unusual degree. During these fits of absolute unconsciously I drank, God only knows how often or how much". (Buranelli 38) Despite the overwhelming pain that Poe felt, do to the death of his wife he was still able to find relief.

Poe belied death should not be feared, but instead it should be sought (Quinn 137). For Poe when Virginia died she escaped the curse of life. Poe met up with his former sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster and became engaged shortly there after. Just days before Poe's wedding, he made a stop in Baltimore and just disappeared. On October 3rd, 1849, Poe was found lying in a side street anesthetized (World Book). Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7th, 1849 (Britannica).

The cause of his death has remained a mystery. All of Poe's works have a link to his own life's stories and the events that transpired in it. Sometime in Poe life he learned that a good story possesses real life events and those events are what gave his stories such strong emotions. Poe wrote a passage in his story of "Marginalia" that could only apply to a person such as himself: "I have sometimes amused myself by endeavoring to fancy what would be the fate of any individual gifted, or rather accursed, with an intellect very far superior to that of his race".

(The Edgar Allan Poe Society) Poe was a genius in the art of literature and that gave him the grounds to say so. His far superior ability to write pieces of literature caused friction between the modern day critics and writers. Poe also included autobiographical elements in his some of his stories. Through these stories it is explained to the reader how Poe's life was lived. In the story "The Fall of the House of Usher", Poe presents himself through the morbidly witty Roderick Usher. "All in all, he is an unbalanced man trying to maintain equilibrium in his life" (The complete tales and poems 264).

Usher was also a man who saw his insanity but struggled to grasp at his sanity. In this passage Poe described himself to the readers. Poe also manages to describe his more unpopular personality traits when he refers to himself as "a lost drunkard or the irreclaimable eater of opium" (The complete tales and poems 265). Poe also used his memory of the past, to set the theme for his literature works. Poe knew the feelings that came to a person when confronted with memories from their unpleasant past and knowing that he could write a story appealing to readers. Poe also wrote a sonnet called "To My Mother" that appeared to be for his mother, but was intended for his mother-in-law.

Poe used his greatest life achievements, such as his marriage. He also used his worst times, such as the death of his wife's death to better help the reader understand what his life had been like. Poe is a genius in the fact that he can captivate a reader with his stories and then explains himself through them. When I read the works of Edgar Allan Poe, I feel as if I am reading his autobiography day by day.

Work Cited Buranelli. Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe. Boston: T wayne, 1977: 12-53. Poe, Edgar Allan. Encarta Encyclopedia.

2000 ed. CD-ROM Poe, Edgar Allan. Encyclopedia Britannica. 1995 ed., Vol. 9. Poe, Edgar Allan. The complete tales and poems of EDGER ALLEN POE.

New York: Knopf, 1992. Poe, Edgar Allan. World Book Encyclopedia... 1991 ed., Vol. 15. Quinn, Patrick F. "Four Views of Edgar Poe". Jahrbuch Fur Amerika studien.

1960 ed., Vol. 5: 128-146. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Inc. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 2003.10 Sep, 2003.