Obsession In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

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Edgar Allen Poe led a poet's career of melodramatic and Gothic tales. Mysterious shrouds Poe past, as his literature reflects on the notion. Poe was born to two poor traveling actors, Elizabeth and David Poe. After the abandonment of his father in a young age and the death of his mother, Poe was adopted by John and Frances Allan. After accompanying them to England, Poe was enrolled into the upper class school as his father was a tobacco merchant. After the tobacco crash, the Allan was forced to return to the United States and forcing Poe to enroll into the University of Virginia. While enrolled into the University of Virginia, Poe developed an interest into poetry. Although a good student, Poe began to dabbled into the hands of alcohol and …show more content…

Vanity can be defined as obsession. Obsession is the main theme of "The Raven", as the speaker goes through the stages of mourning the loss of a love one. "The Raven” begins with the speaker grieving for the lost of his Lenore. The narrator believes that Lenore has left and the narrator is awaiting her return. As the speaker awaits his beloved Lenore, a raven enters upon his home and land upon the bust of Pallas. Pallas—in other words, Athena—represents the source of wisdom towards the speaker and adds creditability to the Raven, as the fowl answers Poe’s questions the narrator is asking questions to the raven for the raven to answer; except the Raven only respond with Nevermore. Upon questions after questions, the reader realizes how the speaker obsesses the lost of his Lenore and enters through a stage of hopelessness. Poe uses the ebony bird to demonstrate are variety of reasons. For example, the Raven can represent grief, evil, and wisdom. After Poe asked questions, such as “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore…Quoths the raven, Nevermore”(Baym Levine, 690). The raven acts as guide to the speaker’s own personal underworld. The raven guides the speaker into realizing his obsession with the lost of his beloved Lenore and its now entering into the mad world of …show more content…

"The Cask of Amontillado" begins with Montresor, an unreliable and ominous narrator, which leads the reader through the journey of Montresor premeditated murder. The piece begins as, Montresor plans to exact revenge towards Fortunato, after Fortunato insulted him. Montresor explains to the reader, that Monresor is acting upon his family motto and the bear of arm. His family motto is, “Nemo me impune lacessit”, which means no one will insult me without consequences (Literature, 49). His family bear of arm is, “a huge human foot that depicts the foot crushing a serpent rampant whose fangs is imbedded in the heel” (Literature, 47). His family bear of arms represent the slow death that Fortuanto will soon experiences later on towards the piece. Eventually towards the end of the piece, Monresor encases Fortunato into a wall of the catacombs, where his screams will not be heard in the public and would slowly die in his wine cellar; therefore Monresor exacts his revenge on Fortunato. "The Cask of Amontillado", Montressor symbolize the darker shadows of extreme emotion. After wronged by Fortunato, Montressor succeed in exacting Fortunato death by burying him, without the chance to survive. Human are becoming accepted as imperfect, there is no perfect human without skeletons in the closet. Which make it harder for the reader to understand Montressor and his revenge; he is unsympathetic and

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