Introduction
This essay will explore and attempt to answer the question: Through analyzing The Oval Portrait and Metzengerstein, how does Poe’s “Unity of Effect” effectively impact the reader’s emotion at the end of the text? Each work of literature has a specific intention to itself, whether that is to teach the audience a lesson, provide individual meaning for each reader, or simply to provide a good story to think about once one is finished reading. It is my belief that Edgar Allan Poe’s intention is the last option: to provide a good story that can be thought about once one is finished. However, Poe’s stories are often more complex and come with another, more specific, goal under this intention. In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay called “The Philosophy of Composition” that introduced and spoke at length about a concept called the “Unity of Effect”. The essay laid out how Poe wrote his stories and poems and what he was attempting to achieve in writing them. The “Unity of Effect” is a concept that Poe uses very often in his writing. It is the idea that all the elements of a literary work are used in such a way to create the strongest intended emotional
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His writing pushed the known envelope of gothic literature and expanded its boundaries. He added to the basic foundation for what is known as dark literature today and has become a classic in our time. While remaining a classic, Poe also managed to create a technique that elicits strong emotion in readers of his work: the unity of effect. This technique is original to Poe and is the base and drive of his stories and poems. His short stories Metzengerstein and The Oval Portrait effectively illustrate the idea of the Unity of Effect and how it impacts the reader’s emotion at the end of the text; an analysis of language style, symbolism, and
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
Redfield, J. S. "The Genius of Poe." Foreword. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. A.C. Armstrong & Son.
For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.
In the article, “The Question of Poe’s Narrators” James W. Gargano discusses the criticize in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and tries to help the readers understand why Poe writes the way he does and identifies some of the quotes in his work. According, to Gargano, other authors view’s Poe’s work as “cheap or embarrassing Gothic Style” (177). The author is saying that Poe’s work makes the reader look at themselves not only the work. The author explores three main points. Some author thinks that Poe’s life is reflected in a lot of his work, uses dramatic language to show his style in work, and explains how Poe’s work manipulates his readers to understand.
Edgar Allan Poe primarily authored stories dealing with Gothic literature; the stories were often quite dreary. Poe possessed a very sorrowful view of the world and he expressed this throughout his literary works. His goal was to leave an impression with every detail that he included in his stories. Although Poe’s stories seem very wretched and lackluster they all convey a certain idea. A trademark of Poe’s is his use of very long complex sentences. For instance, in his work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tried to ensure that every detail was as relevant as possible by integrating a wide variety of emotion. In the third paragraph, of page two hundred ninety-seven, Poe wrote, “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around…” This sentence illustrates the descriptiveness and complexity that Edgar Allan Poe’s works consisted of. The tormented cognizance of Poe led him to use a very gloomy diction throughout his writing. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbols and the way he conveyed his writing expr...
Howarth, W. L. (1971). Twentieth century interpretations of Poe's tales; a collection of critical essays.. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”
The short story is generally a study in human terror. Furthermore, the author explains Poe use of a particular style and technique, to not only create the mood of mystery, but to cause the reader to feel sympathy for the narrator. Poe makes a connection between the storyteller and reader with knowledge and literary craftsmanship.
Edgar Allan Poe was an american short story writer and poet. When Poe was younger he faced many challenges and through these hard times came some of his best works. Due to the hardships that inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s work, he became one of the most well known writers and poets. Edgar Allan Poe (Birth name) was 3 years old both his mother and father died and Poe was taken into the home of John Allan and his wife, who were later thought to be his godparents. Poe was later taken to Scotland and England to get a proper education.
This abstraction had the electrical current of a “galvanic battery” to “shock” the non-physical soul of the protagonist. The complexity of this excerpt is seen through the multiple dependent clauses, lists of adjectives, and conjunctions; this complex and “serious” style is what Allen Tate, in his essay found in “Modern Criticism”, believes “makes the reading of more than one story an almost insuperable task” (Foster 389). However, this failed criticism does not truly comment on the Poe’s style, but rather, comments on the reader’s interpretation. This style doesn’t create an insuperable task of reading, but rather creates a gradually intensifying sense of Poe’s methodical complexity that incentivizes the reader to keep reading, while providing specific ambiguities through indirect concretizations like the aforementioned “shock” to bolster the direct concretizations of the interactions between the Wilsons, especially in the final revealing scene. The final scene is the most physically disturbing and perceptible of all scenes, I thrust him furiously from me.
Edgar Allan Poe has a unique writing style that uses several different elements of literary structure. He uses intrigue vocabulary, repetition, and imagery to better capture the reader’s attention and place them in the story. Edgar Allan Poe’s style is dark, and his is mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. What might be Poe’s greatest fictitious stories are gothic tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love, or both. His choice of word draws the reader in to engage them to understand the author’s message more clearly. Authors who have a vague short lexicon tend to not engage the reader as much.
Edgar Allan Poe was a man considered by many to be the personification of Death. He is regarded as a true American Genius whose works seized and frightened the minds of millions. However, Poe greatly differed from other acclaimed authors of his time. He had a unique writing style that completely altered the reality surrounding his readers. Rather than touch their hearts with lovable fictional characters he found a way of expressing himself that no other author had at the time. Poe’s combination of demented genius and difficult past experiences led him to become one of the greatest writers of all time.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most celebrated classical authors, known for his unique dealings within the horror genre. Poe was a master at utilizing literary devices such as point of view and setting to enhance the mood and plot of his stories leading to his widespread appeal that remains intact to this day. His mastery of aforementioned devices is evident in two of his shorter works “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
In "The House of Poe", Richard Wilbur elucidates his criticisms of Poe 's work. He firstly comments on a critic 's purpose, then how Poe 's stories are all allegories. He then addresses the possible opposition to his argument, and then begins his discussion of the common themes in Poe 's writing and provides examples from his stories. This dissertation will analyze Wilbur 's criticism by cross referencing Poe 's work and how it exemplifies Wilbur 's assessment. There is a great deal of evidence to support Wilbur 's theories, but a close examination of each one will determine how legitimate his argument really is.
Pruette, Lorine. “A Psycho-Analytical study of Edgar Allan Poe.” Ther American Jounal of Psychology.31.4 (1920): 370-402. University of Illinois Press. Web. 28 March 2014.