Theme Of Alcoholism In Edgar Allan Poe

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Edgar Allan Poe did not have the idlest life. His parents died while he was at a young age, and later became an alcoholic. Many of his works are about death, alcohol, and revenge. His works could have been a way to express his anger and sorrow without having to actually put his personal life into a book. His Edgar Allan Poe applied his personal turmoil by the themes, symbols, motifs, and the narrator’s experiences.
One of the first ways he applied his personal life was through the themes of the books. Three of themes that reoccur are death, alcoholism, and a guilty conscience. Death is used many times; an example would be in the book “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In this book a brother and a sister are plagued with dieses of the mind. In the end they both ironically die together. Also In the “Cask of Amontillado”, revenge was taken out on a man and he was then buried alive. A final example would be in “The Imp of the Perverse”; a man used a poisoned candle to kill what is thought to be a family member to inherit their land.
Another theme used in his works was alcoholism. These were established in “Cask of Amontillado”, “Legeia”, and “Mask of the Red Death”. In the “Cask of Amontillado” the main character took the person he wanted revenge upon down to the cellar to bury him alive by making him extremely drunk. In “Ligeia” a women is drinking wine and drops of red fall from the cup and within three days she then dies. Then in “Mask of the Red Death” there are many parties thrown where there is alcohol present.
The last major theme that Poe uses is a guilty conscience. Some examples would be in “The Imp of the Perverse”, “Black Cat”, and “Tale Tell Heart”. In “The Imp of the Perverse” and “Tale Tell Heart” a man kills anoth...

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... narrator of “The Fall of the House of Usher” experiences grief by watching his friend and his friend’s sister suffer from great sicknesses. Also guilt is something the narrators experience. In “The Imp of the Perverse”, “Black Cat”, and “Tale Tell Heart” the narrators watch the main characters admit to their murders because the guilt of their crime would tare at their hearts.
These themes, symbols, motifs, and the narrator’s experiences all point to how Edgar Allan Poe trys to use his works to express all the pain he experienced in his personal life. He used fictional stories so that he wouldn’t have to write his life story. He used this as a way of venting and maybe a way to put all his pain in the past so he could possibly forgive and forget all the grief he suffered in the loss of his family and the choices he made that could have led to his depressional state.

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