Symbolism And Atmosphere In Edgar Allen Poe's Short Stories

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Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most well known influential American authors. His prose captivated audiences, both local and international, and helped create the modern horror story. Poe created his famous style by letting his actual life bleed into his work along with injecting it with symbolism and atmosphere. These techniques can be seen in many of his short stories such as The Fall of The House of Usher, Masque of the Red Death, and Pit and the Pendulum where he uses them to comment on the flaws of man and on his inner darkness. Poe had a terrible life that he used to influence his work. Enduring the deaths of many of his loved ones Poe self medicated with copious amounts of alcohol. From his life he created the themes that he would use in many of his stories; The Themes of Death and Addiction. His obsession and usage of death can be seen in Masque of the Red Death. When a group of people decide to hide within a castle during an epidemic a mysterious figure arrived and essentially crashed the party. “ And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death....And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And …show more content…

Poe used symbolism to better show his themes to the reader. Without the use of symbolism the themes in Poe's work would have been lost. Unless the audience knew poe and his life they would not be able to pick up on the meanings without the help of symbols. Some of Poe's stories such as The Fall of The House of Usher are full to the brim with symbolism. The theme of the story is a struggle between Poe’s masculinity and femininity, however it is because of the symbols that the morale is visible. The cracked home represents a split of Poe's mind. The coffin in the basement represents poe burying his feeling deep within his mind. Poe's style needed symbolism due to the very personalized natures of his

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