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Themes in edgar allan poes writing
Gothic literature and poetry
Gothic literature and poetry
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When I think of traditional gothic style writings, I picture dark, creepy, and gloomy situations. Most writings in a traditional gothic style may cause your heart to beat a little more rapid and give you chilling goose bumps. However, I feel that when I read writings by Edgar Allen Poe the ‘gothic’ theme is taken to the next level giving a petrifying suspicion. Poe leaps past ordinary and traditional writing by including symbolism within words, mysteries with hidden meanings, and more dramatic and horrifying conditions than normal. David Galloway says, “Poe was a master of intensity of the picture he is able to construct from essentially ‘Gothic’ materials. But Poe attempted to go beyond the popular gothic tradition, and deplored the meretricious use of terror and grotesquerie.” I believe that the variety of Poe’s works not only met the requests of the marketplace, but was also an expression of Poe’s own thoughts about life in a deeper meaning. Just from my experience, only having read a few of Poe’s extraordinary poems and short stories, I have noticed that symbolism within words gi...
Gothic texts are typically characterized by a horrifying and haunting mood, in a world of isolation and despair. Most stories also include some type of supernatural events and/or superstitious aspects. Specifically, vampires, villains, heroes and heroines, and mysterious architecture are standard in a gothic text. Depending upon the author, a gothic text can also take on violent and grotesque attributes. As an overall outlook, “gothic literature is an outlet for the ancient fears of humanity in an age of reason” (Sacred-Texts). Following closely to this type of literature, Edgar Allan Poe uses a gloomy setting, isolation, and supernatural occurrences throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” are both written around 1840’s and written in the gothic style. Poe displays his horror short stories, in which the reader can differentiate his signature style. Although many of Poe’s significant works may have a similar theme, the reader can distinguish the themes through the characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart.”
“Then the mere consciousness of existence, without thought- a condition which lasted long. Then, very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state.” (The Pit and the Pendulum) Poe used many gothic techniques in his story to add more effect to the story and help the mood of the story seem more creepy. People like Poe use gothic techniques to obscure everyday objects. Edgar Allan Poe used an abundant amount of these techniques, but used the most often are unreliable narrator, Doppelganger/ghost twin, and the placement of the setting.
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...
The oval portrait by edgar Allan Poe has a few elements of gothic literature. The three element I chose were, setting in a castle which is the action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied, next an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, which means Gloomy, decaying setting (haunted houses or castles with secret passages, trapdoors, and other mysterious architecture), and lastly the vocabulary of the gothic, meaning the constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set creates and sustains the atmosphere of the gothic.
Gothic literature is known for captivating readers by bringing to light the dark side of humanity. The Gothic possesses many key elements such as paranoia, anxiety, death, etc. It strikes fear and suspense in the reader not by creating fictional monsters, but showing the reader the types of monsters that lurk within human beings. In “the Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, various themes of the Gothic are present throughout the short story such as gloom and doom, darkness, and madness. These elements are used to enhance the central theme of the piece: revenge. I will argue that Poe uses a number of the Gothic elements to craft an intense dark tale of revenge: an unreliable narrator, madness, darkness, a haunted setting, and evil/devil
Conclusively, Edgar Allan Poe’s distinctive writing style comes from his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, figurative language. Commas, dashes, semicolons, and exclamation marks appear frequently in his writing. Simultaneously, they affect the organization and length of his sentences. Word choice sets the tone. Literary devices imbue it with life. On comparing “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, this is observed.
Literature would not be the same if the author didn’t take symbolism into account while writing the piece. One of the world’s best writer’s, Edgar Allen Poe, is a superb example of this representation that has intrigued mankind for centuries. Poe uses various forms of symbolism to play off the emotions of his readers. Using elements of nature, dread, superstition, and legend, Poe can create a world of trepidation in the minds of the readers; his poems and stories would not be the same without these elements. In his poem, “The Raven”, Poe has added unique elements to scare his readers, fascinate them to read on, and find themselves in an alternate world of mystery and lost hopes.
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.
As an American writer in the nineteenth century, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his mysterious, dark, gothic writing. He used his creative talents set fire a beginning to a new and different literary genre. Because of Poe’s accomplishment of writing such influential tragically amusing literature, he raised the bar even higher for those literary writers aiming for the terror themed writing. Looking at no more than his short stories, Poe skillfully arranged his writing to have his readers switch to a deranged point of view, “No one did more to persuade the world ”(Merriam Webster 's). Poe had the gift to make a psychotic piece of writing seem interestingly amusing, in a way to make you feel bad about finding his writing pleasing. Edgar Allan Poe
Gothic literature has had many different effects on the people, writers and even the way that it is perceived over the years. The great elements inside a Gothic story will never change or waiver, their will forever be that supernatural effect or idea, the different reverences to death and decay throughout it, and the underlying sense of suspense threw out the whole literary work and that overall dark tone to the story. Throughout time we as a country and a race have developed an even greater understanding of what Gothic literature was and why it has been deemed so important throughout literary history.
There is one known very influential writing style called Gothic Literature. It is not only considered to involve the horror or gothic element but is combined with romance, superstition, women in distress, omens, portents, vision and supernatural events to name a few (Beesly). The history and beginning of this era is not well known. From a few writers came this writing style that has impacted the world. A famous artists known for this type of writing is a man named Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many short stories and poems that include horror, gothic, and romance just mentioned.
A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.” (Literary Style of Edgar Allan Poe). Poe is an important author to American Literature. He is credited for inventing the detective genre and using short story. His gothic and scary style is interesting and creates a suspenseful and spooky mood. Poe was part of the literary movement of Romanticism. This movement emphasizes emotion and imagination, rather than logic and scientific thought. Poe’s stories revealed the dark and depressing nature of human beings.
Edgar Allan Poe is a writer known for mystery and macabre, his stories are dark and Gothic to many readers. In a story, it is all the way the reader interprets it, one reader may read the story a completely different way than the next. In the poem, "The Raven", many would think that Poe is representing gothic elements. He uses symbols and metaphors in his story to represent things in the story to his own life events. Poe 's life was very dark and Gothic, and the story is about a period in his life that was very depressing and disheartening for him.
This story was written by Edgar Allen Poe whom many may describe as Psychotic or Gothic. In the story the narrator’s friend has fallen ill. Once he arrives he finds out a lot of unusual things about the ushers.