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Irony as a principle of structure
Essays on personal experience of irony
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Irony is an effective way for a poem, playwright or author to lighten an otherwise dark or cryptic story while simultaneously putting emphasis the story’s dark elements; in its obvious absence, the darkness of the story becomes more apparent. This is effective in many poems, such “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, which is about the death of a childhood lover. The persona, assumed to be male, highlights the youth of the his lover, Annabel Lee, referring to her as “this maiden” (Poe line 3) and “a child” (line 7) to underline the fact that she died too young and too soon. He blames this on the angels, who “coveted” (line 12) them and their love. Poe uses irony to contrast, and, therefore, puts emphasis on, the negative circumstances surrounding Annabel Lee’s death by retelling the events in an idyllic tone. Poe’s irony is successful due to his employment of diction and rhyme, which cause the poem to emulate the sing-song style of a nursery rhyme. The diction of “Annabel Lee” helps create the impression of a fairy tale-like love story. With words such as “maiden” (line 3), “kingdom” (line 8), “beautiful” (line 16), “high-born kinsmen” (line 17), Poe paints a picture of a whimsical, fantastic love story when, in reality, Annabel Lee dies in her girlhood. This is wherein lies the irony: the glamorization of the persona’s love of Annabel Lee …show more content…
Poe uses irony to stress the misfortune of the persona’s situation and create emphatic effect. It is especially effective because the nursery rhyme/sing-song reading of the poem is both ironic due to its serious themes, but also very poignant because it is a reminder of the young age of the persona and Annabel Lee at the time of her death. This childhood trauma and enormous loss being dealt with and talked about through a sort of whimsical, musical poem was almost strange at first, but now seems very
Edgar Allan Poe’s poems The Raven, And Annabel Lee Contrast in many different ways but i'll be highlighting three of them in this paper.The mood of these poems is sad because their true loves die in very different settings and how they handle the grief is different from one going totally insane to the other man being calm and almost a little light hearted about it.
Some believe that Annabel Lee was written for his wife, but others think that the love of his life, Sarah Emira Royster, that he was parted from as a youth of 18, was the true recipient for the beautiful but morbid poem. . Mr. Poe was scheduled to wed the same Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton just days before his death. “The significance of “Annabel Lee” to their relationship may, however, be reflected in the account of his desire to have it published for the first time with their wedding announcement in the local papers. Since Poe died just ten days before they would have been married, the poem was instead first printed at the end of his obituary written by Rufus Griswold in the New York Daily Tribune” (Poe Museum)
In “An Edgar Allan Poe Reader” several stories and poems are revealed but only a few will be considered. In the stories “The Black Cat” Poe writes irony in the story. This certain story is a first person narrative. The narrator shifts from a happy, animal loving, married man. One night the narrator gets drunk and believes that Pluto is not listening to him. So he takes the cat eyes out and hangs the cat. After the cat hanging he decides to kill the cat with an axe. But his wife would not allow it so he buried the axe in the brain. Poe says, “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain”, (245).
Within the first two stanzas of Poe’s “Annabel Lee” the speaker emphasizes the fairy tale era of the speakers relationship with Annabel Lee. In stanza one Poe uses many poetic elements to differentiate between reality and the speakers view of his and Annabel Lee’s relationship, making the story seem very much like a fairy tale. “That a maiden there lived whom you may know/By the name of Annabel Lee.” Through the diction of the line “That a maiden there lived whom you may know” Poe helps the speaker show the reader that the speaker sees Annabel Lee as more than Annab...
Irony is used very often by Poe. Irony is when something occurs that is the exact opposite of how it should be or seem. Irony varies in that it may be displayed through someone’s actions or an ironic happening. An example of irony in someone’s action are in the Cask of Amontillado is when Montressor repeatedly seems concerned for Fortunato’s health, even though his real intentions are to kill him. It also may be considered ironic that Poe named the enemy of Monstressor, Fortunato. Being that Fortunato means fortunate or lucky in Italian, it is ironic that he is very unlucky in that he his buried alive in a wall.
In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe uses two types of irony, dramatic and verbal. Dramatic irony is when the reader perceives something that a character in the story does not. Poe uses this type of irony in the character Fortunato. Verbal irony is when the character says one thing and means something else. This type of irony can be recognized in the statements that the characters, Fortunato and Montresor, say to one another.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote many wonderful stories. In many of these stories, including “ A Tell-Tale Heart”, “Cask of Amontillado” and “The masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe utilizes irony to teach either the character or the audience a lesson. Edgar Allan Poe usually includes multiple examples of irony inside of His stories, which can provide multiple examples to reinforce Edgar Allan Poe’s ideas that he is attempting to show through the story.
The poem opened up with a fairy tale line and right off the bat you had the idea that it was going to be about the narrator sharing his love. Not to mention, it was a poem of rhyming to help make the reader feel a type of way. This poem was written after the death of his beloved wife, Virginia Clemm (the woman who married him at the age of thirteen) so it is most likely based off of her and the love that he had for her. Love is the main theme in the poem and the love that Annabel Lee and the narrator shared starting in their childhood. In the poem, Poe demonstrates that even after Annabel’s death that their love was too strong to be destroyed by the angels or demons. Just about everything that he sees reminds him of Annabel, the stars, moon and he lies by her tomb at night by the sea. Loving her wasn’t complicated at all for him, even when he was known to struggle with relationships throughout his whole life. Even though she is dead, he makes us believe that he can still see her bright eyes and that they will soon meet again in the future. The one line that caught my eye the most about their love is this, “But our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we—“ (Poe). Their love was said to be so strong that even the older and wiser people couldn’t understand the strength of their love. The main purpose of this poem was to show all of the outsiders that there was nothing that could ever come in-between their love, no matter if she was dead or alive. Their souls will forever be united until the day that they will meet
“Annabel Lee” is based on a couple in a kingdom by the sea and the girl, who’s name is Annabel Lee, dies ("Shmoop.com"). So Annabel’s partner is reminiscing about the memories he once shared Annabel. However, the partners’ tone of voice slowly changes throughout the poem from a caring and happy voice to a sad longing voice as if to say Annabel’s name would somehow bring her back ("Shmoop.com"). Throughout the poem, it is evident that the theme of the poem is that the speaker was in love with Annabel Lee. Furthermore, in line 9 it says, “But we loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe) which is basically stating the couple loved each other so much that they felt something that was more than love. The speaker uses symbols to help the reader visualize his point. Symbols such as a chilling wind, a highborn kinsman, and winged seraphs that apparently “took” Annabel Lee from him ("Shmoop.com"). The poem of “Annabel Lee” may be a tragic love story, but in the end it is a very interesting piece of literature written by Edgar Allan
Throughout the whole short story “The Story of an Hour” the reader sees’ irony but the best usage of irony occurs toward the end of the story in the last few paragraphs. As the reader reads the story they notice that Mrs. Mallard’s husband Brently Mallard died in a railroad disaster. The reader also finds out that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble, and great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. (157) There ar...
The poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe is a beautiful story that outlines events that happened between the speaker and his love. The story paints a mental picture of a love that is so strong that angels become jealous and take Annabel Lee away from the speaker, but even though she is gone, his love for her never ended. The story is full of imagery that leads to the central message of the story, which is love.
Poe was born into a family of professional actors. He experienced death at an early age when his parent died before he was three years old. John and Frances Allan raised Poe as a foster child in Richmond. John Allan gave Poe excellent schooling opportunities. Though he never finished college, Poe became very successful by using his life experiences to write dark, twisted literature that appealed to adults ("Edgar Allan Poe"). The last of Poe’s poems to be published was “Annabel Lee.” It is thought to be inspired by his late wife Virginia (Johnson). In this poem the speaker mourns the death of his young bride, Annabel Lee. His loss encourages him to proclaim that jealous angels caused Annabel Lee’s death to separate the young couple. The speaker reveals that he has not been able to accept their separation and has been spending night after night at her tomb (Johnson). The use of figurative language further establishes the theme of jealousy. Poe uses personification of the wind to explain the death of Annabel Lee ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'."). The “chilling” wind is what takes Annabel Lee away from the speaker (Poe Line 26). The article "Overview: 'Annabel Lee'" states, “A chilling wind emerges from the sky, and so her death is tied to heaven and the jealousy of the angels” ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'"). Poe uses imagery to refer to the jealousy the angels have for the speaker and Annabel Lee’s love. Poe states, “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, /Went envying her and me” (Poe Lines 21-22). This imagery that the angels are not happy in Heaven further emphasizes the extent of their jealousy. The double naming of Annabel Lee’s burial chamber is a metaphor to allow the theme of death to overshadow the theme of love. This is able to show that their love can conquer the grave and overcome the jealousy from the angels("Overview: 'Annabel
Edgar Allan Poe's life can be summed up in just a few words: death, love, loss, sorrow, and mystery. What better way to express this than through a poem? Poe did exactly this in "Annabel Lee," made famous by its smooth flow and rhyme. The poem details a relationship between two young lovers. Annabel Lee, is killed by the envious high angels of heaven in order to destroy the love between herself and the narrator. However, this setback was evidently minor because their love still existed, and even thoug...
For poets, it is essential that they write about what they know and what they feel, as the substance of what they are revealing will enhance their work and ultimately attract audiences. Edgar Allan Poe is one poet whose personal endeavours can be extracted from his poems. His works such as The Raven, Annabel-Lee and Ulalume are just a few of his most celebrated poems that reflect diverse aspects of Poe’s own life. Poe’s reoccurring themes of death in conjunction with love, the subconsciousness of self and ambiguity attracted audiences to become entranced in his work (Spark Notes, 2014). Adjacent to these intriguing themes is how Poe’s personal life was inexplicitly perceived in his poems, in particular The Raven.
Irony is the most significant technique that the author uses in this story. It shows the contrast between Louise's expectation and her limited reality. It also gives the story more twists and turns. The reader knows Louise's desire. However, her sister and her friend do not know.