The Tormented Genius of Edgar Allan Poe Essay - 2150 Words

It has been said that one cannot be truly great till they have experienced hardship. This, perhaps, is the reason that Edgar Allan Poe is thought to be one of the greatest story tellers in all of history. His life was not sprinkled with tragedy, but completely drowned in it. From the beginning of Poe’s life till the very end, he was, according to The Haunted Man by Phillip Lindsay, â€Å"born to live in nightmares† and that Poe’s life â€Å"might [as] well have been one of [Poe’s] own creations (Lindsay 2).† Death, hardship, and betrayal followed him wherever he travelled, causing him to become a depressed alcoholic along the way. It is widely believed by literary critics that â€Å"had he not been this tortured creature seeking a coffin for a†¦show more content†¦Along with his mother, his beloved wife Virginia was also stricken with the tuberculosis. The all too real pain of Virginia’s death appeared through the story, heavily in the first paragraph. James Hutchisson, the author of POE describes the passage as being â€Å"awash in blood,† pointing out that the words â€Å"red† â€Å"blood† or â€Å"bloody† were used six times in six different sentences in the first paragraph alone (Hutchisson 139). The prince’s death also signifies Poe’s belief that one cannot hide from death. In a critical essay by David R Dudley, he argues that â€Å"mortality was terrifying for Poe because death resists all cognition and ends all communication† and that â€Å"Prospero, much like Poe, tries to control death by fitting it into his own work (Dudley).† Prospero tries to block it out with his masquerade and red and black room, Poe controls it with his stories and poems; however, both fear death and both succumb to death eventually. In the opinion of Charles E. May, author of â€Å"Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of the Short Fiction,† Prospero has â€Å"[created] a plac e of art, by which he attempts to lock life, and thus death, outside (May 102),† in the same way that Poe attempted to lock death into his stories and away from his reality. However, in the end, death cannot be escaped. Poe ends â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† by stating that â€Å"Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominionShow MoreRelatedThe Raven By Edgar Allan Poe964 Words   |  4 Pages Essay 1 In the poem â€Å"The Raven†, Edgar Allan Poe expresses a current state of drunkenness, drug use, and depression as existing in a dark and dreary prison like setting, tormented by the memories of a lost love. Poe’s literary career was undoubtedly influenced by the many tragedies he suffered in his life. These misfortunes are evident in the correlation between his characters in his writings and real life events. It is clear that Poe had a problematic life from a young age; he struggled with mentalRead MoreCriticism of Poe Essays1019 Words   |  5 PagesThough Edgar Allen Poe is most famous for his short mystery stories of the macabre and poetry, he is also known as one of the foremost figures in literary criticism. Poe alienated many of his colleagues due to the unyielding standards he demanded in the building of a worthy national literature, he is now credited for being one of the most influential figures in the advancement of literary traditions not only in America b ut in Europe as well, leaving an indubitable mark on the world of literatureRead More The Creation of Art and Life2275 Words   |  10 PagesLife for Edgar Allan Poe seems to help him build his literary creations of art, but contrary to that notion, Poe’s creations are what build his life. A complete mirror opposite of what has been theorized and proven. Think of this as the energy one puts out in to the world is the energy one will get back from the world. The death of loved ones, the scandals, and the brutal gossip mountains that encompass Poe’s life, help him to develop into a twisted mad man struggling to cope with no chance of gainingRead More The Creation of Art and Life2321 Words   |  10 Pages Life for Edgar Allan Poe seems to help him build his literary creations of art, but contrary to that notion, Poe’s creations are what build his life. A complete mirror opposite of what has been theorized and proven. Think of this as the energy one puts out in t o the world is the energy one will get back from the world. The death of loved ones, the scandals, and the brutal gossip mountains that encompass Poe’s life, help him to develop into a twisted mad man struggling to cope. Of course, there isRead MoreEssay Biography of Edgar Allan Poe3244 Words   |  13 PagesBiography of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe is a man who is considered to be a true American genius of our time, and by many, the personification of death. His works have been collected and celebrated for over a hundred years from this day. He was a man who’s dreary horror tales captured and frightened the minds of millions. Poe differed from most other acclaimed writers though. The readers of his work do not admire him because they fall in love with his characters or because his writing touchesRead More Big Heads and Short Tempers: Edgar Allan Poe in Context Essay2064 Words   |  9 PagesEdgar Allan Poe was the epitome of a tormented genius. He possessed uncontrollable and self-inflicted internal problems. In addition, Poe was plagued by external difficulties—some preventable, some not. Most doctors today would pronounce Poe to be bipolar, chronically depressed, and perhaps even OCD. Most people today, and any day, would declare Poe to be self-obsessed and arrogant, or—at the leastâ€⠀snobbish. His personal life would also be considered less than ideal, though how much he was personallyRead MoreWords to Describe Edgar Allen Poe Essay1683 Words   |  7 PagesWords to Describe Edgar Allen Poe Hoaxter, liar, impostor, and plagiarizer (45) are words Kaplan used to describe Edgar Allan Poe. Poe as he claimed to be, was the best when it came to deception and perversion. In living his life and even in his manner of negotiating death, Poe was a captive of the imp of perversity. But with art as his shield, the realms of perversity became a haven for his troubled soul. . . Perversion is a complex strategy of mind, with its unique principles for regulatingRead More An Analysis of the First Two Stanzas of Edgar Allan Poes The Raven877 Words   |  4 PagesAn Analysis of the First Two Stanzas of Edgar Allan Poes The Raven Picture yourself alone one night. You are sitting up in bed, your legs buried underneath your comforter while you read for what seems like the hundredth time that same paragraph from Franklin for your American Literature class, and trying to ignore the storm that is only getting stronger outside. Suddenly, the power goes out, and you only have candlelight to read by. The silence becomes deafening, and you watchRead More Edgar Allan Poes Writing Essay2378 Words   |  10 Pagesworks. In the gothic times, dark, threatening, horrific, morbid, depressing, bizarre, bewildering, death and insane are just some words that best describe the popular type of literature at that time. One man’s name can summarize these words, Edgar Allan Poe. He is considered to be one of the greatest obscure American authors/poets whom many literary scholars still try to make heads or tails of. People throughout the history often wondered why Poe’s writings are so fantastically div erse and unusualRead More Edgar Allan Poe Essay1718 Words   |  7 PagesEdgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American poet, author, and critic. Poe is often described as a rebel against society and art-for-arts sake supporter who experimented in making his poems without didacticism and devoid of any meaning, but he is also respected as a genius in terms of his commitment to art and his ability to experiment with various forms of expressions (Fromm 304). In my opinion, Poe was not a rebel because he remained true to himself. Although he was influenced by traditional artists