Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his short stories in a genre of Gothic fiction or Gothic horror. Poe is considered to be an interpreter of the genre as he managed to change and to renovate it by focusing on the psychology of his characters rather than on the traditional Gothic fiction elements. The theme of death is cross-cutting throughout the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His poem The City in the Sea is no exception to that rule. A well known critic T. Frederick Keefer claimed: “Edgar Allan Poe's The City in the Sea is one of the most effective products of his poetic genius and craftsmanship, but it is also the least understood of his major works.” (3, p. 436)
The main theme of the poem is death. Edgar Allan Poe likes to play with this theme in his works: He describes it from the psychological point of view and deals with every aspect of it. The author uses personification in order to show us Death as an actual character who rules in the lost city: “Lo! Death has reared himself a throne In a strange city lying alone far down within the dim West, Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best Have gone to their eternal rest.” These lines depict Death's domination over life: The setting of the sun, the location of the city and its stillness, the “eternal rest” of everything that used to be meaningful and magnificent, the way in which Death “looks gigantically down” upon his possessions, and the fact that the city is “slightly sinking”. The poem provides us with so called mental pabulum and awakes the eternal question of the rightness of our chasing-the-prosperity lifestyles. Death is inevitable and he will rule over everyone eventually. And the last lines of the poem: “Hell, rising from a thousand thrones, Shall do it reve...
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... coming to city... But no! The life of that city is Death, and he rules indisputably, as Death is the end for everything, but there is no the end for Death. Some critics suggest to read this poem in a whisper in order to be able to appreciate its mood, to feel as if Death is scouring somewhere not far or is looking upon us from his throne. The poem The City in the Sea is considered to be the best of an early works by Edgar Allan Poe as if it summaries all his literary achievements beforehand.
References
Bloom, Harold, “Edgar Allan Poe”, Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.
Butler, Chris. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. August 27, 1996. http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/17841865/lit/poe.htm
Keefer, T. Frederick, “College English “The City In the Sea”: A Re-Examination”, vol.25, No.6, pp. 436-439, 1964.
Kennedy, Gerald J. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
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.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
Walker, I. M., ed. Edgar Allen Poe: A Critical Heritage. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
Redfield, J. S. "The Genius of Poe." Foreword. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. A.C. Armstrong & Son.
Howarth, W. L. (1971). Twentieth century interpretations of Poe's tales; a collection of critical essays.. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
" Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe's Tales. ED. William L. Howarth, b. 1875. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971. 94. - 102. - 102.
Thomson, Gary Richard, and Poe Edgar. The selected writings of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Norton & Company, 2004
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.
Within the poem Poe divides the characters and imagery into two conflicting aspects of light and dark. Almost everything in the poem reflects one world or the other. For example, Lenore, who is repeatedly described as ?radiant? epitomizes the world of light along with the angels she has joined. Another image of light would be the lamplight the character uses to light his chamber, his refuge from the darkness of the outside. However, The Raven, as well as the dreary December night shows signs of darkness. These images of light and darkness go even further to represent life and death, the man?s hope of an afterlife with Lenore and his fear of everlasting loneliness.
Ljungquist, Kent. Poe, Edgar Allan. Ed. Paul A. Kobasa. P.15. Chicago: Scott Fetzer company, 2012.
Poe, Edgar A. “The Raven.” Elements of Literature. Fifth Course Literature of the United States
Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a bereaved man who is grieving for his lost love in the poem, “The Raven.” During a dark and gloomy night, the man hears a knock at his door. Hoping that it is Lenore, his dead lover, coming back to him, he goes to open the door. Unfortunately, he is only met with emptiness and disappointment. Shortly after, a raven flies into the room through the window and lands on the bust of Pallas. The man begins to converse with this dark and mysterious bird. In response to everything the man says, the raven repeats one dreadful word: “Nevermore.” The symbolism of the raven being connected to death, and the man’s interaction with the dark bird reveals to readers that he is going through the stages of dying. Subsequently, the repetition of the bird’s one worded reply makes it known that the man will never see Lenore again because there is no afterlife.
Another writer, Dwayne Thorpe, suggests Poe had Christian doctrine in mind when he wrote the poem, contending that Poe's sources were biblical in nature (395). He continues: “identification of it [biblical source] casts some infernal illumination on his use of a Christian work to create a nihilistic vision” (395). This goes back to Claudel's biblical association, but Thorpe ascribes the city a darker, more sinister meaning. While many critics look at “The City in the Sea” through a Freudian or biblical lens, a deconstructive approach reveals the image of Death's inverted Necropolis.