The Conqueror Worm Analysis Essay

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Conqueror Worm” represents a gothic view of death through the praise and genocide of society. Poe introduces the poem with the use of romance, which only expands the horror of the poem. The poem describes a play called “Man,” representing society where the audience is the angels. ‘The Conqueror Worm’ then appears, killing the patrons but is still praised as a hero. The final applause for the worm then suggests that he has helped society end its tragedy. “The Conqueror Worm” is a gothic genre due to its romantic, mysteriously dark and genius, oppressive atmosphere as well as creating a sense of death.
The first stanza introduces the setting of a play and the main idea of the poem with the use of romantic descriptions and figurative language. Poe’s use of figurative language compares the setting to other personified traits that are coherent to the romantic era. Poe writes, “An angel throng, bewinged, bedight/ In veils, and drowned in tears,” personifying the tears is used to create a powerful description to set the scene of the poem. Poe also uses personification to describe the mood of the play with this description, “ While the orchestra breathes fitfully/ the music of the spheres.” Poe’s use of the personification to describe the orchestra and the life like beauty that it makes relates to the romanticism of the time period. This part of the play describes the accord of the play between all the aspects of life, but as the poem, at some point, denies the romanticism, it is ultimately destroyed. As the romantic mood changes drastically, the romantic aspect only elaborates more about the horror found in the gothic style. Although the poem describes a play, the figurative meaning defines much larger ideas such ...

... middle of paper ...

...y, Poe states, “the curtain, a funeral pall / comes down with the rush of a storm” and uses ‘curtain’ to represent the cover of the drapes over coffins to state that the people’s lives have finally come to an end. He also demonstrates the grief and sadness of the play and poem by showing the distress in the angel’s faces. Their sadness is concluded when Poe presents, “Uprising, unveiling, affirm / that the play is the tragedy, “Man” / and its hero, the Conqueror Worm.”
Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Conqueror Worm” represents a mundane society ultimately killed by the Conqueror Worm. The poem’s initial romanticism found when describing the setting is ultimately amplified through the gothic elements but denies the initial outlook. The poem compares the stage to life and introduces the ideas of simple society lacking expression that is relieved through their sudden massacre.