An Analysis of the Grimm Brothers by Edgar Allen Poe

An Analysis of the Grimm Brothers by Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe wrote a paper on the philosophy of writing good short

fiction. It was published in a book called ‘New short story theories’

by Charles E May. He stated:

‘What I here propound is true: -therefore it cannot die:-or if by any

means it be now trodden down so that it die, it will ‘rise again to

the life everlasting’ nevertheless, it is as a poem only that I wish

this work to be judged after I am dead.

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Perhaps he knew that his work would be most appreciated after his

death, as with most artiste work. Or perhaps he is trying to calm the

nerves of new writers whose stories are deemed ‘un-printable’ by the

critics, stating that while today they may not be appreciated, in a

hundred years time, they shall be analysed and admired to thousands.

When the Grimm brothers wrote their stories, they wrote them to begin

with, as an extension to their medieval studies. They never planned to

be a writer according to the research; they simply discovered a talent

for it as life progressed. While their work was published in their

lifetimes, they could never have known that there stories would

progress around the globe, and into the mind of any every child’s head

as a form of entertainment. Almost every person in the world has heard

at least one of the works of the Grimm brothers, and like Poe said,

this kind of reconition can only happen after you are dead.

‘In the construction of plot, for example, in fictitious literature,

we should aim at so arranging the incidents that shall not be able to

determine, of any one of them, whether it depends from any one other

or upholds it’

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This is perhaps the most crucial piece of advise to any writer wishing

to write a story. The key is to keep a reader until the very end. The

only reason to do this is to give them a question, which needs