His name is the subject of countless puns among English teachers. His face can be seen on everything from nerdy coffee mugs to hipster bags. His work is on every list of great American poetry, not to mention countless summer reading lists. But does anyone really know the real Edgar Allan Poe? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay For a man whose stories are shrouded in mystery and deception, perhaps the greatest story of mystery and deception is his own life. The first biography written about him was written posthumously by his arch-enemy, so it was full of errors and slander (“The Life of Poe” 1). Not to mention that Poe was a rather private man, so the real Poe is difficult to distinguish from the drunken wretch he appears to be. It certainly has its fans as well as its critics, and for good reason. His works are acclaimed as prime examples of Gothic literature in an era when literacy was becoming accessible to the masses. Poe's central themes of loss, particularly youthful death caused by illness, were all too relatable. Although the modern rate of premature mortality has significantly decreased, the theme of death has not disappeared from literature, and as a result, the profound motifs of loss and despair are as relevant to the twenty-first century reader as they were when Poe was alive. In his writings, Poe uses vivid imagery, incorporates multifaceted symbolism, and plays on the emotions of his audience to best convey his twisted sense of reality. Poe's dark and often perverse tales are believed to have influenced writers such as HP Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce, “who belong to a distinct tradition of horror literature begun by Poe” (Poet Details 1), as well as psychological thriller director Alfred Hitchcock , who attributed his love of horror to growing up reading Poe (Bits and Pieces 1). It's no surprise that the root of the world's dark, fixed obsession with Poe's writing lies in his extraordinary talent for manipulating language. In one of his most famous stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher", Poe weaves a tapestry of melancholy that revolves around the narrator's old friend, a grieving man who has recently lost his twin sister and is dying himself of an illness that affected him only as psychosomatic. The story is introduced by John P. Roberts, the editor of a collection of Poe's stories entitled Eight Tales of Terror and the author of the following analysis: “ We can choose from a list of Poe's atmospheric words: sadness, melancholy, decay, sadness. , degradation… “instability”, “terror”, “hysteria”… the (very) house is full of sinister pulsations” (Roberts, 90). The rest of the story continues in this way. The narrator goes on to describe the decaying family, which is almost personified as an outward embodiment of Roderick Usher's waning spirit. “Poe's language prevents us from seeing his characters and situations as related to real life,” Roberts explains in the introduction to his Poe collection. “The characters are like figures moving on a carefully prepared stage; they are often less important than the painted backdrop, a fiberglass curtain that makes everything soft and dreamlike. It's as if it had to be this way. If the audience... gets close enough to suspect that Ligeia or Madeline Usher must have breakfast or sew on a button or meet someone at the station, Poe's spell is broken and the story becomes a farce comedy... for Poe, the distance ispreserved by language" (Robert for his short stories than for his poetry, he has more than mastered the latter. “The laws of effect, mood, tone, music and duration of poems reached their culmination…(in) "Annabel Lee “, in which, by repetition, each stanza rewound and absorbed the preceding one before it could move forward again” (Davidson 98). The catchy, aching, and sweet rhythm of Poe's work is truly a feat deserving of the highest esteem, as it allows the reader to truly enjoy the images they might otherwise veil themselves from. by "a wind (that) blew from a cloud at night" (Poe, Foundation for Poetry). For example, he deliberately chooses the term “sepulchre,” which gives substance to the cryptic, dusty, and even sad tone that Poe is aiming for. The word “sepulchre” is darker, sadder and more disturbing than perhaps “resting place” or “burial.” The tragic loss shown in "Annabel Lee" is immortalized in a way that plays on emotionally charged words. One of Edgar Allan Poe's favorite methods of displaying his intellect is to interweave his work with classical allegory and symbolism that only those of equal education would take up. The symbols are often dark and fitting for such a macabre writer. One such example is in probably his most famous piece, “The Raven”. Poe's masterpiece of poetry recounts the bitterly painful situation of the narrator, who mourns the loss of his lover "whom the angels call Lenore" (Poetry Foundation 11). The exquisite dulcinea to whom he writes is often believed to be his wife Virginia, who died of tuberculosis after only four years of marriage (Swan 2). Of course, the poem is full of symbolism, from the “bleak December” (Foundation of Poetry 7) to the “stately raven of the holy days of yore” (40) perched atop the “bust of Pallas just above the door of my chamber ” (43). Poe ingeniously weaves the allusion to the Greek goddess of intellect and strategy, Pallas (better known as Athena) into “The Raven,” which is a testament to the narrator's intellect. Since a statue is a statement of status and pride, it symbolizes the narrator's great pride in his own intellect. However, the bird, a crow (an omen of death and tragedy) flies into his home and casually perches on top of this bust as if it were nothing of value, which shows how the narrator's proud intellect is useless and perhaps even ridiculous next to the powers of fate and death (Davidson 87). Other elements of symbolism fill the poem: the room in which it occurs can be perceived as the embodiment of the narrator's loneliness, the rich furnishings recall his lost Lenore. The storm raging outside may represent how the speaker finds himself in the eye of the storm: calm in his own sadness, but surrounded by emotional turmoil that threatens to enter at any moment (16). Then, of course, there is the healing ointment that the speaker requests from the bird when he asks, "Is there... is there balm in Gilead? Tell me, tell me, I beseech you!" (88). The "balsam" he speaks of is believed to refer to balsam, a thick, viscous sap from certain shrubs native to the biblical tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh (grouped to form "Gilead"). It had often been used to numb and seal open wounds, although modern studies show that the fluid can cause other unexpected health problems ifingested (Moreau 2013). Even this alone is too perfect: the man's grief is so intense over the loss of "Lenore" that he would almost beg a strange bird to tell him if there is such an ointment that could ease his pain, and of course, his response is , as expected, “Nevermore”. Public reaction to Poe's “The Raven” has been varied. Some reveled in his masterpiece. In a letter, Elizabeth Bennett Browning told Poe: “Your 'Crow' has produced a sensation, a 'suitable horror,' here in England. Some of my friends are gripped by fear and some by music. I have heard of people haunted by the 'Nevermore,' and an acquaintance of mine who has the misfortune of owning a 'bust of Pallas' can never bear to look at it at dusk” (Browning 1). Others were less than impressed. Some found his work too dark, including the editors of The Richmond Compiler, which, in its February 1836 edition, responded to Poe's “The Duke of Omlette” by asking why Poe insisted on “descended into the darkness, the mysterious and in the darkness." unspeakable creatures of licentious fantasy” and dabbling in “German incantations and supernatural images” (Bits and Pieces II 1997). Jill Lepore, a New Yorker editor with a doctorate in American studies from Yale, also ridiculed his work, stating, "Most of Poe's stories have this brash, brash 'Boo!' business at the end. Poe knew that these were cheap tricks… (and) they were not to everyone's taste” (18). Lepore goes on to accuse Poe of writing not to satiate the world's need for literature, but to put food on the table. He also quotes a letter that Poe sends to his publishers and the rather wretched postscript of “ps, I am poor” to illustrate his desperation (21). Discussion is often held over whether Poe was truly a lover of poetry and literature, creating art that is the lovechild of bitter desperation and beautiful tragedy, or simply of a desperate man driven only by hunger. In any case, his dark purpose was achieved: his writing kept him alive and had a great impact on the world of literature. As stated by George Lippard in the November 1997 edition of the Citizen Soldier newspaper, “Revelling in the wild and visionary, (Poe's) mind penetrates the innermost recesses of the human soul, creating vast and magnificent dreams, eloquent fantasies and mysteries terrible. Once again, he indulges in a happy streak… which no writer copies in the language” (Bits and Pieces II). Evidently, Poe's work evokes emotions in his readers. He is like a puppeteer, whose puppets are his readers, the strings his words. One such case is in his short story “The Cask of Amontillado”. This tale records the anger and bitterness of a nobleman, Montresor, towards another named Fortunato. Montresor never explains what his “thousand Fortunato injuries” actually are, but the emotion he feels is raw and true. The petty revenge story in which Montresor lures Fortunado into the city's catacombs with the promise of fine wines (as the title of "Amontillado," a dry sherry suggests) satiates a sadistic or even infantile need to "get even." Readers can identify with Montresor's vengeful rancor, but also with Fortunato's agony. After all, even the youngest children play “he started it!” paper when the adults intervene, because it is human nature to want revenge. It gives its audience a vicarious sense of satisfaction, despite the moral solidity that admits that Montresor's crime is vile and heinous. While it doesn't make it justified, it allows for a sense of sympathy (Roberts, 1). This sympathy is the dangerous, frightening, yet extremely satisfying feeling created by Poe's work. The reader remains at.”