Edgar Allan Poe Essays (Examples)

The Raven

Poe's famous poem, "The Raven," to most readers is a straightforward yet haunting, chilling tale of the loss of someone loved, and the troubling emotions and inner sensations that go along with a loss, no matter how the loss occurred. In this case, the "rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore..." is the one lost. hy did an angel name Lenore, one has to wonder? Is there something associated with death or the afterlife in this image?

In fact Poe builds up the beauty of "lost Lenore" in sharp contrast to him saying that it was a "bleak December," and "each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor" and adds that when he awoke from his nap, and looked out his chamber door, there was only darkness "and nothing more."

So the poet is giving a narrator's identity as a person who hears a…

Works Cited

Cervo, Nathan. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 51.3 (1993): 155-157.

Delaney, Bill. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 64.1 (2005): 33-36.

Graham, John Stott. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 62.2 (2004): 85-89.

Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "Death of Edgar Allan Poe." (New York Daily Tribune). Edgar

Such evidence as there is can be taken up at a later time. But of one thing we can be sure. If Virginia was the prototype of Eleonora she was not the model for Morella or Berenice or Ligeia."(Quinn, 255)

These feelings can also be inferred from Poe's letters to Mrs. Clemm, Virginia's mother:

I am blinded with tears while writing this letter-- I have no wish to live another hour. Amid sorrow, and the deepest anxiety your letter reached -- and you well know how little I am able to bear up under the pressure of grief -- My bitterest enemy would pity me could he now read my heart -- My last my only hold on life is cruelly torn away -- I have no desire to live and will not but let my duty be done. I love, you know I love Virginia passionately devotedly. I cannot…

Works Cited

Felman, Shoshana. "On Reading Poetry: Reflections on the Limits and Possibilities of Psychoanalytical Approaches." In Edgar Allan Poe: Modern Critical Views, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 119-39. New York: Chelsea House, 1985.

Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Hoffman, Daniel. "O! Nothing Earthly...' / the Poems." In Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.

Kaplan, Louise J. "The Perverse Strategy in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'," in New Essays on Poe's Major Tales, ed. Kenneth Silverman, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 45-64.

While Poe relates these as true stories, as opposed to the works of his own imagination, one can't but read them also as the fantastical longing of husband wanting to deny death's ability to separate him from his beloved wife.

After Virginia died, Poe went on a frenzied search for a female replacement. Not that any woman could have truly replaced Virginia in his eyes, but only that he found himself quite incapable of maintaining himself without a woman's influence. Poe pursued and was briefly engaged to poetess Sarah Helen Whitman, however the engagement dissolved largely due to Poe's growing reputation as a drunk. After Whitman, Poe passionately pursued Annie ichmond, though for her marriage to another man, their relations remained platonic. At the same time Poe was writing impassioned love letters to ichmond, he formed yet further platonic bonds with Sarah Anne Lewis, and poetess Susan Archer Talley. Finally,…

References

Bio. True Story. (2010). Edgar Allen Poe Biography. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from  http://www.biography.com/articles/Edgar-Allan-Poe-9443160?part=0 

Bloom, H. (1985). Edgar Allen Poe: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House

Publishers.

Poe, E.A. (1983). The Unabridged Edgar Allen Poe. Philadelphia: Running Press.

Edgar Allen Poes story "The Cask Amontillado" You write, setting, theme story, point veiw, plt, language signifagace story. THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO Edgar Allan Poe (1846) THE thousand injuries Fortunato I borne I, ventured insult I vowed revenge.

Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" - analysis

Edgar Allen Poe's 1846 short story "The Cask of Amontillado" puts across an account involving a vindictive character who tries to reinforce his self-esteem by luring the person he considers his enemy into a situation that would do him justice. It is difficult to determine whether the aggressor actually has the reasons to punish his enemy or if he is simply insane and uses an unspecified event as a motive to go through with committing his crime. However, his insanity is controversial when considering the complex nature of the plot and the obvious feeling of satisfaction that the protagonist experiences as he acknowledges that his…

Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll: Unhealthy and Healthy Relationships With Women

Edgar Allan Poe and Lewis Carroll are two writers where their relationships with women, and especially with young children have been questioned. The main issue with Poe is his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. For Carroll, the issue is the strong relationships he had with young girls. For both writers, suggestions have been made that their relationships with young women are perverse. To consider these claims it is necessary to look at the types of relationships each writer had with young women and the reasoning for these relationships. A consideration of this will show that Edgar Allan Poe does have unhealthy relationships with women, while Lewis Carroll has healthy relationships with women.

Edgar Allan Poe has a history of choosing inappropriate relationships. This began when Poe was attending private school, when he fell in love with a…

Bibliography

Carroll, Lewis. 1991. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Bridlington: Priory Books.

Kamm, Antony. 1993. Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. Glasgow: Harper Collins Publishers.

Moore, Edwin & Moore, Fiona Mackenzie. 1993. Concise Dictionary of Art & Literature. London: Tiger Books International.

Poe, Edgar Allan. 1991. Alone. In The Raven and Other Favorite Poems, 44. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.

Edgar Allan Poe and Hannibal

Edgar Allan Poe was more than a horror storywriter. He was a person that delved into the human psyche and created a psychological thriller that haunted the reader's mind well after the conclusion was made.

Poe has delved into the human spirit at a time when the idea of the unconscious mind had probably either not evolved, or had just been described and was not commonly known. In his stories of horror, Poe explored in depth the human psyche. Poe was a critic of rationalism but at the same time he was a master in the art of constructing, logically, the irrational 'rationale' for crime committed by his characters. Poe lived a difficult and rather impoverished life, and was himself often given to alcoholism in his private life and the narrator's fears and contradictions that the author describes are something he might have experienced himself.…

Bibliography

DeNuccio, Jerome, History, narrative, and authority: Poe's "Metzengerstein.' (Edgar Allan Poe's novel "Metzengerstein"). Vol. 24, College Literature, 06-01-1997, pp 71(11).

Arthur H. Quinn Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by (1941)

Author not available, Hannibal Lecter, Superstar., The Toronto Star, 06-20-1999.

THOMPSON Douglas, Moral with a twist., Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), 03-29-1998, pp 5.

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most famous American authors, but many of his works are not explicitly about the American experience. His "gothic" fiction is filled with suspense, the macabre, the grotesque, and the dark side of human nature. However, a deeper analysis of Poe's works can reveal parallels between his fiction and the American experience. One of Poe's works that can particularly symbolize and exemplify the American experience is his short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." While Poe may not have intended the symbolism and motifs in "The Fall of the House of Usher" to represent the American experience, there are several elements in the story that show that the author was at least on some level aware of the connection. In several ways, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a parable of the American experience because the author…

..it is sadomasochism made acceptable to a mass readership by the elimination of any ostensible sexual element. Imbedded in the tale is the psychological journey of an egocentric who derives pleasure from cruelty."(Pritchard, 148) hile this explanation stands, it must be observed that Poe's intention went beyond the psychological investigation: his description of evil doing is almost always accompanied by a certain symbolism that alludes to the intrusion of the supernatural in human life. As Madden notes, Poe's primary goal is to make the readers uneasy by facing them fully with the un-explainable, with that which surpasses human understanding: "Poe makes his readers uneasy by confronting them with the limits of rational thought. He does not present the uncanny, but elicits it in the mind of the reader by presenting some things that are un-explainable and asking the reader to interpret them. It is not written as a psychoanalytic exercise,…

Works Cited

Madden, Fred. "Poe's 'The Black Cat' and Freud's 'The 'Uncanny'.'" Literature and Psychology. 39.n1-2 (Spring-Summer 1993): 52(11)

Piacentino, Ed. "Poe's 'The Black Cat' as psychobiography: some reflections on the narratological dynamics." Studies in Short Fiction 35.2 (Spring 1998): 153(16).

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Poe. New York: Random House, 1992.

Pritchard, Hollie. "Poe's the Tell-Tale Heart." The Explicator 61.3 (Spring 2003): 144(4). General OneFile. Gale.  http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS .

Poe refers to an ebony clock throughout the writing, Butler, uses a tree in the back yard, as well as the corner of the footboard that he is able to see from the cage.

Poe uses terminology that is more complicated in his writing and gives the reader a more formal feel to his overall writing. Butler on the other hand uses basic terminology, as has a relaxed atmosphere about his writing one may even find that they are laughing aloud. Poe's writing is more serious and could even be said to be more vivid in its descriptiveness.

Both, are amazing in their own right, they both discuss different situations, however there is one thing the two have in common that may not be apparent at first sight. That is the undertones of death. Butler discusses reincarnation, and Poe discusses the act of death and how it appears in the…

References

Butler, R.O. (1996). Tabloid Dreams.: Henry Holt & Co..

Poe, E.A. (2004). The Museum of Edger Allan Poe. The Masque of the Red Death,. Retrieved 02/10/08, at http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/red_death.htm

Gothic and Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane And Other Poems

The writing of Edgar Allan Poe will always be connected to the gothic style of literature because Poe used death, mourning and sadness as major themes, and his first published work actually shows some of the style that would make him famous later in life. Published in 1827 when Poe was just a young man of 18-years old, the book Tamerlane and Other Poems contained several poems written when Poe was just a teenager. Because the poetry was the work of such a young man, Poe made sure to tell readers in the Preface that "they were of course not intended for publication; why they are now published concerns no one but himself. Of the smaller pieces very little need be said: they perhaps savour too much of egotism; but they were written by one too young to have any knowledge…

Edga Allen Poe tale of pemeditated mude such as "The Cask of Amontillado," eades will immediately delight in the autho's skill at suspense. Like wandeing though dakened and ancient catacombs, eading "The Cask of Amontillado" stis the imagination and maintains tension thoughout its eeie passages. Deepe analysis lends insight into Poe's employment of vaious liteay techniques to impat this sense of the tale being a campfie ghost stoy. Poe's cleve use of iony, both damatic and vebal, contibutes to the shot stoy's suspenseful mood. The opening line of "The Cask of Amontillado" whispe Monteso's plan of evenge: "The thousand injuies of Fotunato I had bone as I best could, but when he ventued upon insult, I vowed evenge," (Poe,). Befoe any action occus, the eade is made awae of the intentions of the naato. This damatic display of iony allows the eade to fully engage and paticipate in the tale.…

references to the nitre affecting his victim's health (Poe,). Montresor entombs Fortunato with impunity, and Fortunato laughs nervously, still hoping that the burial is a practical joke: "We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo...over our wine!" Montresor humors the dying man: they will celebrate over the Amontillado. When Montresor seals the crypt with the final stone and erects the "rampart of bones" to guard it, he utters an ironic victory cry: "In pace requiescat," or "rest in peace." Montresor achieved his brutal revenge, adding the bones of his friend to the hundreds that already lay still in the catacombs. Poe's tale manages to remain suspenseful until the final words because the story rests firmly on a sound literary use of dramatic and verbal irony coupled with eerie symbolism.

Poe

The worth of earlier works of American literature is sometimes proven by their application to later works. Such is the case with Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and his discussion of the Thirteen Virtues. The absence of such virtues can often be the source of complications and conflicts that drive a narrative. This is evident in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," in which both major characters reveal an absence of one or more of the Thirteen Virtues, thereby creating the problems that drive the story. In fact, three absent virtues drive the tale include silence, tranquility, and justice.

The virtue of silence refers to speaking only when necessary, and only "what may benefit others or yourself." Because the narrator lacks the virtue of silence, he divulges his crime to the police. Had he not broken his silence, the narrator would likely have gotten away with the crime. "Villains!" I shrieked,…

References

"Benjamin Franklin: His Autobiography." Retrieved online:  http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/benjamin-franklin/chapter-6.php 

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Tell-Tale Heart." Retrieved online:  https://www.poemuseum.org/works-telltale.php

The irony here is that the crime he failed to commit -- the killing of this cat -- led to the narrator's doom. The irony is heightened in "The Cask of Amontillado" because the entire time the narrator, who is looking back on the incident fifty years later, evinces no lack of confidence or surety until the very end, where his feelings of guilt become suddenly and drastically clear. Even though the ultimate end of the story is pretty much foretold at the beginning as far as plot is concerned, the internal effects on the narrator create an ending that is ironically more unnerving than his external actions (Henninger 35).

Both of these stories also clearly illustrate the way guilt and punishment necessarily follow crime. The narrators of both stories end up feeling guilty for their actions, and both are surprised by their fates. In "The Black Cat," the narrator…

Works Cited

Baraban, Elena. "The Motive for Murder in "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 58, No. 2 (2004), pp. 47-62

Henninger, Francis. "The Bouquet of Poe's Amontillado." South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Mar., 1970), pp. 35-40

Matthiessen, F.O. "Poe." The Sewanee Review, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1946), pp. 175-205.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Black Cat." Accessed 16 November 2009.  http://www.poestories.com/text.php?file=blackcat

Poe, Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is perhaps the best-known American entry into the genre of Romantic and Gothic tale, yet it is worth asking what elements actually identify it as such. Spitzer describes the level of Gothic excess here:

Roderick and Madeline, twins chained to each other by incestuous love, suffering separately but dying together, represent the male and the female principle in that decaying family whose members, by the law of sterility and destruction which rules them, must exterminate each other; Roderick has buried his sister alive, but the revived Madeline will bury Roderick under her falling body. The "fall" of the House of Usher involves not only the physical fall of the mansion, but the physical and moral fall of the two protagonists. (Spitzer 352).

To a certain degree, this marks Poe's story out for particular…

Works Cited

Allison, John. Coleridgean Self-Development: Entrapment and Incest in "The Fall of the House of Usher." South Central Review 5.1 (1988): 40-7.

Bailey, J.O. "What Happens in The Fall of the House of Usher?" American Literature 35.4 (1964): 445-66.

Butler, David. "Usher's Hypochondriasis: Mental Alienation and Romantic Idealism in Poe's Gothic Tales." American Literature 48.1 (1976): 1-12.

Damon, S. Foster. Thomas Holley Chivers: Friend of Poe. New York: Harper, 1930.

The narrator cleverly with holds information from the reader. He knows he will die at the hands of a hangman and his is final punishment.

The Cask of Amontillado

The narrator of the Cask of Amontillado is also presented in the first person voice. How this narrative differs from the Black Cat is this narrator has more interaction and dialogue with his obsession. Much of the story takes place in the interaction and not in description. There is less poetry in the prose but still a tone of suspense. The set-up is realistic and not fanciful as before. It is not clear exactly what sex or age the narrator is but one can assume from the dialogue the narrator is male and upper class European. He refers to his friend as part of a brotherhood, which in those days was a common male practice. Still the narrator is quite mad…

Poe and Faulkner

Despite the gap in a century or more between the periods when both Edgar Allan Poe and illiam Faulker were writing, both Poe and Faulkner have been loosely considered representatives of the "Southern Gothic" style of fiction in America. Indeed, pioneering Faulkner critic Cleanth Brooks of Yale University has noted that the connections with Poe's style would limit the way in which Faulkner has been received critically: Brooks is at pains to demonstrate that Faulkner's stories represent "more than an attempt to outdo Edgar Allan Poe, more than the prime example of what has come to be called modern Southern Gothic" (Brooks 15). ith an emphasis on grotesquerie and on the spiritual journey of its characters -- often a dark spiritual journey into consciousness of damnation, as in the heavily religious Gothic fiction of the late eighteenth century, or else some form of the supernatural -- "Southern…

Works Cited.

Brooks, Cleanth. "Faulkner's Short Stories." In Claridge, Henry. William Faulkner: Critical Assessments. Cornwall: MPG Books, 1999. Print.

Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Accessed online 15 April 2011 at: http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/barnburning.htm

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart." Accessed online 15 April 2011 at:  http://www.poemuseum.org/works-telltale.php 

Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar Allan Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1991. Print.

The death of a beautiful heroine always leaves someone behind, or the device simply would not work. Poe's narrator laments his loneliness as much as he laments Lenore's death. Poe writes, "Leave my loneliness unbroken! -- quit the bust above my door! / Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" (Poe). Poe may have had very personal reasons for including the death in his poem, too. Kopley and Hayes continue, "The impetus for the poem doubtless arose, at least in part, from Poe's loss of his mother - and of others whom he had loved" (Kopley, and Hayes 194). Thus, while the literary device worked effectively, Poe's own haunting memories of his mother and lost loves may have contributed their own unique blend of sadness, longing, and loneliness to the poem that help give it an even more poignant and melancholy quality.…

References

Hayes, Kevin J., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Kopley, Richard, and Kevin J. Hayes. "12 Two Verse Masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume.'" The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 191-203.

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Raven." Personal Web Site. 7 Oct. 2005. 10 Oct. 2005. http://www.coment.ca/~forrest/raven.html

According to Dougherty, it is generally accepted that death is the "indefinite object" (Dougherty) of "The Fall of the House of Usher" but if we take a moment to read the poem that rests in the text, we might discover "evidence of a more culturally and historically specific source for Usher's terror" (Dougherty). This source, in Dougherty's opinion, is a "wild and mournful interlude" to the tale that "so powerfully impresses the narrator, Usher dreams nostalgically about an ancient ruler who sits at a glorious throne" (Dougherty). The lord in the poem seeks pleasure and needs reassurance of his superiority. Dougherty notes that many critics maintain that the poem is a "microcosmic account of Usher's one great story" (Dougherty) but Dougherty believes that the poem reflects a microcosm of a "white colonial nightmare about the impending destruction of the southern slavocracy" (Dougherty).

Dougherty believes that the "experience of violent slave…

Works Cited

St. Armand, Barton, Usher Unveiled: Poe and the Metaphysic of Gnosticism." Edgar Allan Poe Society Online. Information Retrieved March 10, 2009.  http://www.eapoe.org /pstudies/PS1970/P1972101.htm

Dougherty, Stephen. "Foucault in the House of Usher: Some Historical Permutations in Poe's Gothic." 2001. Information Retrieved March 10, 2009. GALE Resource Database.  http://www.infotrac.com 

Hoffman, Daniel. "The Fall of the House of Usher': An allegory of the Artist." Readings on Edgar Allan Poe. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 1998.

Magistrale, Tony. American Writers. Parini, Jay. et al.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 2003.

Poe

"Always in debt, Poe both sought and sneered at the popular audience of his day." -- Andre Carrilho

Poe is said to have believed that fiction was art only as much as it avoided didactics and carried the meaning lightly, leaving much to the imagination of the reader (Jannaccone 1974). Telling a story that engages readers deeply and introducing characters that readers truly care about are attributes of interesting fiction. Poe's literary style is invitational, encouraging readers to fully engage in the story. Fans of Poe will enjoy his "virtuosic, showy, lilting, and slightly wilting quality, like a peony just past bloom" (Lepore 2009). If the readers are enthralled in a gothic tale, they may anticipate an ending capable of thrilling and astonishing them; nonetheless, they will remain gripped by the emerging story until the dramatic ending. Poe further compelled his readers by setting realistic details in his fiction…

References

Corbett, Edward P.J. (1985), "Introduction." Rhetorical Analyses of Literary Works. Oxford University Press.

Gursimesek, Odul and Krotner, Kirsten. (2014, November). Lost spoiler practices: Online interaction as social participation. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 11(2). Institute for the Study of Culture, Media Studies, University of Southern Denmark.

Jannaccone, Pasquale (translated by Peter Mitilineos) (1974). "The Aesthetics of Edgar Poe." Poe Studies, 7 (1). doi:10.1111/j.1754-6095.1974.tb00224.x

Lepore, J. (2009, April 27). The humbug: Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of horror. The New Yorker.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a psychological thriller because the narrator tricks himself.

The least common experience in Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek," is the hanging. However, the story is presented in such a way that the reader does not need to relate to the experience so much as he or she needs to allow the author tell the story. The readers remember the story because of how the human mind operates. The story begins with a man standing on a bridge "looking into the swift waters twenty feet below" (Bierce 63). Everything that occurs in this story occurs in the character's mind. Bierce keeps readers engaged by tricking them. Readers are aware of Farquhar's thoughts and feelings and they are so real and vivid, readers believe they are true. hen Farquhar falls, he is aware of the pain in his neck and his "sensations were unaccompanied by…

Works Cited

Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Bain,

Carl, ed. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1991.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-tale Heart." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

Minnesota: Amaranth Press: 1984.

The most ironic thing we read in "The Black Cat," is the narrator's unstable state of mind. e should know that our first clue to his madness is his intent to assert that he is not. He writes, "Mad I am not" (Poe Black Cat 182), as he begins to pen one of the most insane narrations ever written. It is as if he is trying to convince himself of this lie. His alcoholism only makes matters worse as he wavers between extreme emotions. One moment, he loves the cat and the next moment, he hates the cat. He kills the cat to rid himself of it and, ironically, it haunts him. Of course, we cannot mention the story without mentioning how the narrator kills his wife in an effort to kill the cat. e can say that even this act is ironic because the narrator is so open about…

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minnesota: Amaranth Press: 1984.

The Black Cat." Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minnesota: Amaranth Press: 1984.

Platizky, Roger. "Poe's the Cask of Amontillado." EBSCO Resource Database. Site Accessed August 01, 2008.  http://search.epnet.com 

Stevenson, Robert. "Literature: 'The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.'" GALE Resource Database. Site Accessed August 01, 2008  http://www.galegroup.com

This is the moment when Victor Frankenstein uncovers the secret that will allow him to create his "monster," and it is one of the most important parts of this novel. Victor has discovered something other scientists have never dreamed of, and the brilliant light symbolizes this knowledge and discovery. Throughout the novel, Shelley continues to use light to show Victor's growing knowledge and understanding, there is always a brilliant light when something important or amazing is about to occur.

Shelley's use of light as a symbol offers some kind of hope to the reader, and it symbolizes what seems to be good in the novel. Poe uses light differently, to highlight strange and bewildering occurrences that are almost always climatic and have to do with the outcome of the story. Poe's light is the light of lightening storms, blood-red moons, and fiery destruction, while Shelley's is the light of creation…

References

Poe, Edgar Allan. Thirty-Two Stories. Ed. Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2000.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein Or, the Modern Prometheus. New York: Collier Books, 1961.

.. They are neither man nor woman- They are neither brute nor human- They are Ghouls..."

Graham's (2003) analysis of "ells" show that Poe intentionally creates different categories of bells in order to illustrate the various emotional states individuals have had experienced in their life. She argues that the poem "not only...powerfully convey emotional effects to...readers, but also makes readers subconsciously convey those effects with facial expressions...," a characteristic found more strongly in Poe's depiction of the Iron and razen bells.

Indeed, through "ells," readers undergo what Poe identifies as 'excitements' that are "psychal necessity" or "transient." Emphasis on these point proves that shifts in emotions ultimately results to restlessness, instability of one's psyche, and ultimately, escape from this instability, which may be achieved by either succumbing to insanity or death. This is the natural state of the human mind that Poe provokes in his poem, a situation similar to…

Bibliography

Frank, F. (1997). The Poe Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Graham, K. (2003). Poe's "The Bells." Explicator, Vol. 62, Issue 1.

Magill, F. (1998). Notable Poets. CA: Salem Press.

Magistrale, T. (2001). Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport: Praeger.

In this story, we find this terror, especially at the end of the story when Fortunato sobers up. Montresor tells us that the cry he hears as he places the final bricks in the wall is "not the cry of a drunk man" (Poe 94). The drunk man and the crazy man are pitted against once another in this tale and there is nothing Fortunato can do when he realizes what has happened. The real terror emerges as Montresor follows through on his plan to the last detail without any hesitation.

Edgar Allan Poe allows us to realize how close to life terror actually becomes. His life was no ideal life but rather a playground for terror and death of all sorts. A young boy abandoned by both parents becomes an adult to witness death take his loved ones at much too early an age. By taking his life experiences…

Works Cited

Magistrale, Tony. American Writers. Parini, Jay. et al.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 2003.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981.

The Masque of the Red Death." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981.

The Tell-tale Heart." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981.

You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was" (92). This statement is significant because it reveals Montresor's sense of revenge as well as another motive for his actions - his health. It would seem that Montresor blames Fortunato for his ill health - whatever that may be. Montresor has no angst regarding what he will do. This is evident when Fortunato assures Montresor that a cough will not kill him and Montresor answers, "True -- true" (93). Here we see the depth of Montresor's madness because he is willing to go to any lengths to commit murder. Even as Fortunato realizes what has happened to him and is begging for mercy, Montresor has already accomplished his task and we can almost see him dusting his hands. To validate his madness, Montresor exclaims, "In pace requiescat!" (95). Even after Fortunato is buried behind the wall, shrieking,…

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. "Ligeia." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981. pp. 132-42.

The Black Cat." The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004.

The Cask of Amontillado." Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981.

William Wilson." The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Minneapolis: Amaranth Press. 1981.

Paradoxically, based on the outcome of the story, it can be argued that the snake in the crest is not poisonous or else Fortunato's "bite" would have had more severe consequences on Montressor; however, the story ends with Montressor getting away in Fortunato's murder.

Symbolic foreshadowing can also be seen in the conversation about masons between Montressor and Fortunato. As Fortunato questions Montressor about being a mason, Montressor assures his victim that he is and pulls out a trowel "from beneath the folds of [his] roquelaire" (277). Ironically, Fortunato is asking if Montressor is a Freemason and not a mason by trade. Furthermore, Montressor's assertion that he is a mason also hints at how he will carry out his revenge.

Lastly, symbolism and irony are evident in the characters' names. Montressor's name can be loosely translated into my treasure, which can refer to the type of slight that was committed…

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar a. "The Cask of Amontillado." The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

New York: Vintage Books, 1975. pp. 274-279. Print.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe may be counted among the leading American writers to have defined contemporary literature. These personalities significantly elevated short story standards, banking of every literary element in order for strengthening their styles. However, the two utilized these tools rather differently. On the one hand, Hawthorne delved into and discovered human nature’s realities, while, on the other, Poe examined the hearts of people by critiquing their thinking, values, and actions. Both were able to emerge successful when it came to the exploration of short story details, employing words for developing a vibrant world for their readers. Via the genres of gothic and romance fiction, Poe and Hawthorne have effectively widened the horizons of readers, replacing unexciting, old stories with intriguing ones that deal with an enigmatic human reality as well as the inevitable realities underlying human nature.

The novels and short tales of fiction teem with…

Lastly the point of engendering the idea that alcoholism and in short inappropriate decadence ruled the day is the description of the isolation environement; "There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, 3 there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. ithout was the 'Red Death.'"

The Black Cat is a slightly more plebian story, about a man who had a particular affinity for pets and who adopted many and shared this love with his patient and loving wife. The man developed severe alcoholism and his entire demeanor changed, as he went about cruelly attacking verbally and physically all who were close to him, including cutting out the eye of his previously cherished pet a very large and loving black cat and eventually hanging the cat to death by a tree limb. The mans alcoholism did not wane as it might have…

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. Thirty-Two Stories. Ed. Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2000.

Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld, and Poe is foreshadowing a hellish and horrific experience for the narrator. He also sets up an expectation in the reader and truly tests the thin but palpable sympathetic emotional response that is built in the opening lines of the story. He foreshadows the narrator's actions by stating subtly that the narrator has begun to feel strangely as the story unfolds. The narrator states, "(I) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them.." The reader, now draw into the story, begins to feel like the narrator is not quite…

In conclusion, Edgar Allen Poe was the master of Gothic horror fiction, and his stories are still popular today because of his abilities. Poe was not above parody and humor, however, and this tale shows that. It is so ghastly that it gently pokes fun at the entire genre of horror fiction, and it is so unbelievable it remains as one of his most memorable tales. "The Fall of the House of Usher" gives the reader much more than a glimpse into a macabre family and their estate. It gives the reader a true taste of Gothic fiction as it appeared at the time, and the elements of the story combine to form the perfect testament to the genre, a parody of everything it stood for and attempted to create.

eferences

Boyd, Molly. "The Fall of the House of Usher,' Simms's Castle Dismal, and the Scarlet Letter: Literary Interconnections." Studies…

References

Boyd, Molly. "The Fall of the House of Usher,' Simms's Castle Dismal, and the Scarlet Letter: Literary Interconnections." Studies in the Novel 35.2 (2003): 231+.

Hustis, Harriet. "Reading Encrypted but Persistent": The Gothic of Reading and Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher'." Studies in American Fiction 27.1 (1999): 3.

Peeples, Scott. "11 Poe's 'Constructiveness' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher'." The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 178-188.

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Online-Literature.com. 2008. 24 Nov. 2008.  http://www.online-literature.com/poe/31/

Uncontrollable Urge: The Effect of the Imp of the Perverse on Manifestations of Horror and Terror

In many of his works, Poe often explores fears through a combination of horror and terror. Through intricate storytelling, Poe explores the effects that horror, terror, and impulsivity have on the narrators in "The Imp of the Perverse," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Black Cat."

"The Imp of the Perverse," like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat," attempts to provide a logical explanation as to why the narrator acted as he did. In this case, the narrator begins by attempting to explain the role that phrenology, a science that attempts to establish and define the correlation between a person's character and the morphology of the skull, has and its unprecedented failure to explain why people can be impulsive ("The History of Morphology"). The narrator instead argues that "[t]he intellectual or logical man, rather…

Works Cited

"The Gothic Experience." Department of English. Brooklyn College. 24 October 2002. Web.

Accessed 17 March 2012.

"The History of Phrenology." 28 September 2006. Web. Accessed 17 March 2012.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Black Cat." Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York:

He had sent all the servants for a leave with an excuse that it was carnival time, though his intention was to conceal his action (Rawls 54). He managed to convince Fortunato to put on a cloak so that nobody would recognize him on the way and this was another way of concealing the intended action.

Some of the remarks that Fortunate made on the way hurt Montresor making him to justify and accomplish his mission. At one time Fortunato told Montresor that he does not remember Montresor's court of arms. He tried to illustrate as containing a human foot that crushes a serpent with words such as no one that has impunity that can attack. The illustration and the message was a way of showing that Montresor's family was always on revenge mission. Montresor considered it as an insult and triggered his urge to revenge. On the way, they…

Work Cited

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1999. Print.

Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print.

e see the creative mind at work in "The Fall of the House of Usher" as Poe creates a parallel between the house and Roderick. The suspense with this thriller is heightened with the fact that the narrator is inches from the same fate as Roderick. There is undeniable connection between the two that is never fully disclosed. The narrator looks for logical ways to explain what occurs in the home and he also wishes to find out the reason behind Roderick's agitation. Interestingly, Roderick believes the house is the source of all of his tension, yet he rarely leaves the house. The image of the house sinking dramatizes Roderick's sinking state of mind. In essence, both are experiencing a type of split. The house is sitting upon an unstable foundation and Roderick does not attempt to fool anyone by denying he suffers from a mental disorder that shakes his…

Works Cited

Cangeri, Francesca. Aspects of Edgar Allen Poe's Cosmology and His Theory of the Short Story

Hoffman, Daniel. "The Fall of the House of Usher': An allegory of the Artist." Readings on Edgar Allan Poe. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 1998. Print.

Magistrale, Tony. American Writers. Parini, Jay. et al.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 2003.

Print.

.. sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible."

YOUR EDITION of POE) the Narrator of the Fall of the House of Usher has turned the perspective of Tell-Tale Heart on its edge. In this instance, it is a perfectly sane man who is introducing us to the mind-destroying propensities of Roderick Usher's ancestral abode. From this point onward, we can "understand," or "sympathize," with the plight of the Usher family. As in so many other tales by Poe, the author is trying to tell us that insanity begins as sanity. e enter into the minds of the deranged and depraved - or those who observe them - and we come to comprehend the forces that cause that slow descent into the maelstrom of psychic torment. e learn, too, how difficult it is to come back up, once we have plunged…

Works Cited

 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27812334 

Kennedy, J. Gerald. "The Limits of Reason: Poe's Deluded Detectives." On Poe: The Best from American Literature. Eds. Budd, Louis J. And Edwin H. Cady. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. 172-184.  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101359115 

Magistrale, Tony. Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94372516

Fiction

"The Fall of The House of Usher" is a very interesting story. It talks of a man who received a letter from his friend Roderick Usher asking him to visit. The letter talks of the torture and torment Roderick was going through and is a plea for help. In the letter, Roderick explains his distress over his mental illness and the state that he is suffering from. The man was a good friend to Roderick when they were young boys and so he decides to visit his friend. He decides to visit Roderick despite the fact that they had grown apart over the years, and had not communicated for a while. On arrival, he describes the house as "mansion of gloom" that aroused mixed feelings of joy and sadness (Poe p. 5). The narrator finds his friend in very bad shape. He suffers from severe mental disorder. He also…

Work Cited

Mu-ller, Bianca. The Fallen Narrator in 'the Fall of the House of Usher'. Mu-nchen: GRIN

Verlag, 2009. Internet resource

Schlegel, Christian. Edgar Allan Poe: the Raven - an Analysis. Mu-nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH,

2007. Internet resource.

Poe "not only created art from the essence of his own personal suffering but also came to define himself through this suffering" (263). This is a sorrowful assessment but we can certainly see how Magstreale comes to this conclusion. Terror was not fiction in Poe's world; it was real and it pushed the pen on the paper. Poe took on what some artists might shy away from and that is death. Many of his characters die tragic and gruesome deaths but they are deaths we remember. An example of the power of death is in "The Masque of the Red Death." This tale is unique in that no one manages to escape the grip of death. This is oddly much like the individuals in Poe's life. Nothing could save them from their fate. Humanity's helplessness is demonstrated with Prospero's "strong and lofty wall" (Poe the Masque of the Red Death…

Works Cited

Bleilel, E.F. "Edgar Allan Poe." Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons. 1985. Print.

Carlson, Eric W. American Short-Story Writers Before 1880. The Gale Group, 1988. Information

Retrieved Dec 13, 2010. Web. GALE Resource Database.

In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," the setting is of a very different nature, but also concerns life, death, and the irony that often accompanies the interaction between the two. The main character and first-person narrator, Montresor, leads Fortunato to his grave for an unnamed trespass. Under the pretence of wanting his expertise regarding a cask of amontillado, Montresor leads his friend into the recesses of an extensive vault, which also serves as a grave for a centuries-old family. The story is filled with increasingly grim descriptions of damp darkness and "piled bones" belonging to the generations of Montresor's family. The increasing darkness then correlates with the theme of Fortunato's impending doom. At the final turn, Montresor traps him in a crypt and seals him inside. The darkness can then serve to indicate the darkness of Montresor's action as well as the horror of Fortunato's final doom.

In Hawthorne's story,…