E.A.Poe

1. CeRPdel Sur,Atlántida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
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Edgar Allan Poe
Poe was born on 19th
January, 1809. His parents were Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe,
Jr., who were professional actors,members of a repertory company in Boston, Massachusetts.
Both died and he was an orphan at the age of three. He was placed into the care of John and
Fanny Allan, who baptized him Edgar Allan Poe,but never legally adopted him. John Allan was
a prosperous businessman from Richmond, Virginia and provided Poe with excellent schooling,
including five years in England, but, during Poe's first year attending the University of Virginia,
his adoptive parents found out about Poe's gambling habits and refused to keep providing for
him. Poe left home, enlisted in the army, and published his first collection, Tamerlane and
Other Poems (1827), and a second volume, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, in 1829,
both pieces of work insignificant for both the critics and the readers. After a short time, having
been discharged from the army, Poe was admitted to the United States Military Academy at
West Point. Six months later, he was dismissed for disobeying orders. He moved to New York
City, where he published his third collection of verse Poems (1831), and shortly afterwards,to
Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm and his young cousin Virginia, who
would eventually become his wife. There he published his first short stories. In 1835 Poe, his
aunt and his cousin moved to Richmond, Virginia, as he accepted his first editorial of several
positions, at The Southern Literary Messenger. During the next few years he gained prominence
as a leading man of letters due to his critical and editorial essays and Poe's works of fiction and
poetry gained popular and critical attention. All the same, he would continue working as an
editor and literary critic for financial security. “The Raven” in 1845, was his piece of work
which achieved the greatest popularity. That’s the time when his most fruitful writing would
take place and he gained popular and critical recognition, undergoing economic problems and
illness, though. In 1845, Poe became the editor, and eventually the owner, of the Broadway
Journal, but by 1846 this enterprise lost money and Poe stopped its publication. His wife died
of tuberculosis in 1847. During her illness, Poe became an alcoholic and continued that way
after her death. Despite that, he kept on writing and lecturing, and seemed to gradually recover
his health. However,on 3rd
October 1849 he was found half conscious and delirious and died
four days later.

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His work
Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic. His most recurring themes deal with questions of
death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial,
the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Many of his works are generally considered part of
the dark romanticism genre, a literary reaction to transcendentalism, which Poe strongly
disliked. Beyond horror, Poe also wrote satires, humor tales, and hoaxes. For comic effect,he
used irony and ludicrous extravagance. In fact,"Metzengerstein", the first story that Poe is
known to have published, and his first attempt into horror, was originally intended as a
burlesque satirizing the popular genre. Poe also reinvented science fiction, responding in his
writing to emerging technologies such as hot air balloons in "The Balloon-Hoax". Poe's work
also influenced science fiction, notably Jules Verne.
Poe's early detective fiction tales starring the fictitious C. Auguste Dupin laid the groundwork
for future detectives in literature, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
Like many famous artists, Poe's works have innumerable imitators. One interesting trend among
imitators of Poe,however, has been claims by clairvoyants or psychics to be "channeling"
poems from Poe's spirit.
Poe wrote much of his work using themes specifically catered for mass market tastes. To that
end, his fiction often included elements of popular pseudo sciences such as phrenology and
physiognomy.
Poe's writing reflects his literary theories, which he presented in his criticism and also in essays
such as "The Poetic Principle". He disliked didacticism and allegory, though he believed that
meaning in literature should be an undercurrent just beneath the surface. Works with obvious
meanings, he wrote, cease to be art. He believed that quality work should be brief and focus on
a specific single effect. To that end, he believed that the writer should carefully calculate every
sentiment and idea. In "The Philosophy of Composition", an essay in which Poe describes his
method in writing "The Raven", he claims to have strictly followed this method. It has been
questioned, however, if he really followed this system. T. S. Eliot said: "It is difficult for us to
read that essay without reflecting that if Poe plotted out his poem with such calculation, he
might have taken a little more pains over it: the result hardly does credit to the method."
Biographer Joseph Wood Krutch described the essay as "a rather highly ingenious exercise in
the art of rationalization".
In “The Raven,” Poe exploits severalthemes that are found throughout his creative works,
including the tragic death of a beautiful woman at a young age,and the grief of the devastated
young man whose affection for his lost love transcends the physical boundaries of death and
life. The motif of the “devil-beast” as the harbinger of misery and sorrow, found here in the
form of the raven, is another theme common to the creative works of Poe. In “The Raven,” the
ebony bird stands as the embodiment of grief caused by loneliness and separation, referencing
not only Poe's fascination with the imagery of young lovers wrenched from one another by
death, but also the pain he experienced at a very young age with the untimely death of his
mother.
The rhyme scheme used by Poe in his poem “The Raven” is described as ABCBBB. Every
stanza in “The Raven” follows this rhyme scheme to create a very structured poem. Poe also
uses internal rhyme where two words in the third rhyme will rhyme with each other and with
another word in the fourth line. In the second stanza the word morrow in line three rhymes with
the word borrow also in line three and sorrow in line four. Poe also uses repetition to not only
conform to his rhyme scheme, but to emphasize the word as well. “’Wretch,’ I cried, ‘thy God
hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee” is an example of Poe using repetition to
rhyme. Poe used trochaic octameter for his poem. Poe used many other devices in his poem
such as alliteration and consonance. “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream
before;” is an example of alliteration and consonance. Poe used alliteration to increase the effect

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of the line. “The silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” is an example of an
onomatopoeia used by Poe in his poem.
In this poem Poe uses severalsymbols to take the poem to a higher level. The most obvious
symbol is, of course, the raven itself. When Poe had decided to use a refrain that repeated the
word "nevermore," he found that it would be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature
to utter the word. It would make little sense to use a human, since the human could reason to
answer the questions. In "The Raven" it is important that the answers to the questions are
already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself. This way of
interpreting signs that do not bear a real meaning, is "one of the most profound impulses of
human nature" (Quinn, 1998:441).
Another obvious symbol is the bust of Pallas. Why did the raven decide to perch on the goddess
of wisdom? One reason could be, because it would lead the narrator to believe that the raven
spoke from wisdom, and was not just repeating something, which would spoil its reason to be
there, and to signify the scholarship of the narrator. Another reason for using "Pallas" in the
poem was,according to Poe himself, simply because of the "sonorousness of the word, Pallas,
itself".
A less obvious symbol might be the use of "midnight" in the first verse,and "December" in the
second verse. Both midnight and December,symbolize an end of something, and also the
anticipation of something new,a change,to happen. The midnight in December,might very
well be New Year’s eve,a date most of us connect with change. This also seems to be what
Viktor Rydberg believes when he is translating "The Raven" to Swedish, since he uses the
phrase "årets sista natt var inne, " ("The last night of the year had arrived"). Kenneth Silverman
connected the use of December with the death of Edgar’s mother (Silverman, 1992:241), who
died in that month; whether this is true or not is, however, not significant to its meaning in the
poem.
The chamber, in which the narrator is positioned, is used to signify the loneliness of the man,
and the sorrow he feels for the loss of Lenore. The room is richly furnished, and reminds the
narrator of his lost love, which helps to create an effect of beauty in the poem. The tempest
outside, is used to even more signify the isolation of this man, to show a sharp contrast between
the calmness in the chamber and the tempestuous night.
The phrase "from out my heart," Poe claims, is used, in combination with the answer
"Nevermore," to let the narrator realize that he should not try to seek a moral in what has been
previously narrated.

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Poe's theory of the short story is very important on influencing the way he writes "The Cask of
Amontillado." A major component of his short story theory is that the stories are brief and
engaging. "The Cask of Amontillado" achieves both of these goals. Poe merely devotes three
paragraphs on setting the scene before he gets right down to his endeavor to "not only punish
but punish with impunity". This artistic choice is crucial to keeping the reader's interest. Poe
gets right to the point, wasting no time for giving examples of Fortunato's wrongdoings or for
giving any justification for the degree of punishment that Fortunato is to be submitted to. Not
wasting the reader's time is very important to Poe, and that is even more obvious after reading
"The Cask of Amontillado."
The story complies with Poe's other components of a short story as well. Everything in the story
is written for a reason and leads to a final event. Poe does not add any unnecessary details. He
simply explains his intent to get revenge on Fortunato, and then shows how he gets it. Every
part of the story affects the story as a whole. Finally, Poe's story leaves the reader somewhat in
awe,with an undercurrent of suggestion wondering what has happened to Fortunato, after he
has finished reading.
In "The Cask of Amontillado", as in most Poe stories, the narrator tries to steer the reader away
from seeing the perverseness of his actions. Montresor tries to convince the reader that walling
up Fortunato is his way making himself "felt as such to him who has done the wrong". In
reality, Poe tells the story from Montresor's point of view in order to increase the astonishment
and perverseness that the reader feels when reading the story.
People have always been trying to explore human mentality, to figure out how the brain works.
They have been particularly interested in psyche of madmen. Many writers also shared that
interest and one of them was Poe,who, in his “The Cask of Amontillado”, presents Montresor,
whose insanity leads to a murder. After fifty years,unpunished and probably not even suspected
to be able to do such a thing, he tells this story. His insanity is caused by his inability to control
emotions, which results in excessive sensitivity and cruelty. However,his logical brain, unlike
the emotional one, still works properly, which makes him impossible to be recognized as mad.
Montresor’s madness is a result of his problems with emotions. He easily gets angry and is very
sensitive upon other’s people opinion about him. He is vain and proud, because of which unable
to stand an insult, which, to his mind, damages his reputation. Because of his vanity and pride,
he treats this as a serious hurt, although Fortunato doesn’t even suspect, that Montresor can
want revenge for something he has done. On the other hand, for Montresor, this murder is
something quite natural. Saying: “It is (…) unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself
felt as such to him, who has done wrong”, he admits that, in his opinion, his revenge is equally
painful for Fortunato as the insult is for him.He also takes pleasure in others suffering. His
murder is very cruel. Fortunato is fettered to the wall, without food and water,and with an
illness, which makes him sensitive for the dampness of the vaults. During the whole story
Montresor is also very ironical, saying, for example: “And I to your long life” and “We will go
back; you will be ill and I cannot be responsible”. He also enjoys giving the clues about his plan
to Fortunato, who doesn’t understand them.
Despite his madness and hate and anger overwhelming him, Montresor’s logical brain still
works properly. His isn’t impulsive and his murder is carefully planned. He says:“At length I
would be avenged. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity”. The whole murder is
arranged in details. He tells his servants to take a day off, so that no one can see him going to
the vaults with Fortunato. Knowing about Fortunato’s connoisseurship in wine, Montresor
skillfully makes Fortunato eager to go with him, claiming that he has rare and precious
Amontillado. Saying “I was silly enough to pay (…) without consulting you in the matter” and
then “As you are engaged, I’m on my way to Luchesi. If anyone has a critical turn it is he”,

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Montresor takes advantage from Fortunato’s pride. Acting naturally he gives no reason for
anybody, including Fortunato, to suspect him to be mad or to have bad will (“…neither by word
or deed I had given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will.”). During the fifty years of keeping
his secret to himself, no one considers him to be mad and the truth is revealed by him only
before his death (“You, who so well the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however,that gave
utterance to the threat”). Most of the time, he behaves as a normal person.
Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting in many different ways in his various works. There are two
primary settings in "The Cask of Amontillado," the carnival and the catacombs. There are
severalreasons that make the carnival the ideal setting for Poe to lure Fortunato away. "It was
about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season,that I encountered
my friend". This sentence contains two important details as to why the carnival is a perfect
setting for Montresor's undertakings. The first is that it is dusk, which makes it harder for people
at the carnival to notice what is happening, and also adds some gloom to the story. The second
and most important detail is that the carnival is a scene of "supreme madness". Fortunato, along
with most others at the carnival, has likely been drinking most of the day, is relaxed, and more
likely to disappear with Montresor on a quest into the dark catacombs than he would be on a
normal day. The "excessive warmth" that Fortunato greets Montresor with even further proves
his intoxication and relaxed state.
Poe's descriptive setting is an asset to the appeal of the story, particularly when the story
proceeds to the catacombs. "We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together on
the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors". Descriptions such as this, are a very
distinct characteristic of Poe stories, and are one of his greatest strengths. His descriptions allow
the reader to put themselves in the story and get the same feeling as the characters. In this
example, the reader subconsciously puts himself in Fortunato's position, walking along with a
madman in the catacombs of Montresor’s, not knowing your fate. The only difference in this
case is that the reader has a better sense of Fortunato's fate than he does.
Besides using it as appealto continue reading a story, Poe also uses the setting in symbolic
ways as well. "The drops of moisture trickle among the bones" is symbolic of what Fortunato's
bones will someday look like after he is walled up in the catacomb. Also, when the narrator
walls up Fortunato with the Amontillado, it is symbolic of Fortunato's pride for his wine tasting
ability that he is walled up with the wine.
The scene where Montresor walls-up Fortunato is by far the most perverse scene in the story.
The scene is particularly effective because of the cordial manner maintained by the narrator up
to the point where he is nearly finished. There is no struggle or resistance put up by Fortunato:
"He was much too astonished to resist". If Poe had Fortunato put up a struggle or had the
narrator shown any anger, it would have destroyed the consistent mood of the story up to that
point. Instead,Poe has Fortunato remain intoxicated right up until the point where it is too late
for him to struggle.
The immediate sobering-up of Fortunato when he is near death also adds to the effect of the
scene. "It was not the cry of a drunken man" tells the reader that Fortunato now knows well
what is happening to him. It is followed by a yelling match and then silence, which creates such
a sinister atmosphere that even Montresor is trembling and hastening to finish.
It seems as if Montresor almost has a sense of humor in his madness to punish Fortunato for his
so-called wrongdoings. His constant insistence that Fortunato leave the catacomb with him
provides even further ‘insult to injury' for Fortunato. "Come, we will go back (...) Your

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cough...". Montresor says this because he knows that Fortunato's pride in his wine tasting ability
is too great for him to turn back, so he makes remarks such as this one simply for his own
amusement. The comments aren't necessary in helping Montresor achieve his goal, they are said
simply to raise a smile in his own mind. The fact that the narrator finds enjoyment out of killing
someone supports Poe's common theme of perverseness in his stories.
In addition to Montresor's sense of humor, Poe's uses irony in a humorous way a few times. The
manner in which Poe dresses Fortunato, as a clown, is ironic because Fortunato is being
virtually made a fool of by following Montresor into the catacombs. Also, when Fortunato says
"I will not die of a cough," and Montresor responds "True-true," it shows a perverse sense of
humor in the irony of Montresor's response.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to Poe's other short stories in many ways. For example,
the narrator walls up Fortunato in "The Cask of Amontillado," just like the narrator walls up his
wife in "The Black Cat," and the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart."Another parallel between
"The Cask of Amontillado" and other Poe short stories, is the basic layout of the story. First, the
narrator starts off trying to justify or explain his actions. Second, the narrator tells the story, and
finally there is always a twist or surprise at the end. In "The Cask of Amontillado," this twist
occurs when the narrator calls Fortunato and he doesn't answer.
Threre is a certain uniqueness, though, that this story has that separates it from other Poe short
stories. This uniqueness is found at the end of the story. While other Poe short stories are
narrated from a jail cell or from death row, the narrator of "The Cask of Amontillado,"
Montresor, tells his tale over fifty years after its occurrence. He is not in jail, and has seemingly
served no time for his crime. Montresor, unlike many of his short story narrator counterparts,
has apparently gotten away with his crimes. He doesn't break down and confess his actions to
the authorities as Poe's narrators often do. Instead,Montresor goes on with his life and waits
until he is of old age to pass on his tale. "In pace requiescat" is more than just a traditionally
saying for the narrator, it is a phrase of triumph. The triumph of the narrator, and ultimately
perverseness,over justice, makes "The Cask of Amontillado one of Poe's most unique works
and is an example of Poe's perversity at its best.
In the “Tell-Tale Heart”—it is one of his shortest stories—Poe uses his words economically to
provide a study of paranoia and mental deterioration. Poe strips the story of excess detail as a
way to heighten the murderer’s obsession with specific entities: the old man’s eye, the
heartbeat,and his own claim to sanity. Poe’s economic style and pointed language thus

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contribute to the narrative content, and perhaps this association of form and content truly
exemplifies paranoia. Even Poe himself, like the beating heart, is complicit in the plot to catch
the narrator in his evil game.
As a study in paranoia, this story illuminates the psychological contradictions that contribute to
a murderous profile. For example, the narrator admits, in the first sentence,to being dreadfully
nervous, yet he is unable to comprehend why he should be thought mad. He articulates his self-
defense against madness in terms of heightened sensory capacity. Unlike the similarly nervous
and hypersensitive Roderick Usher in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” who admits that he
feels mentally unwell, the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” views his hypersensitivity as proof
of his sanity, not a symptom of madness. This special knowledge enables the narrator to tell this
tale in a precise and complete manner, and he uses the stylistic tools of narration for the
purposes of his own sanity plea. However,what makes this narrator mad—and most unlike
Poe—is that he fails to comprehend the coupling of narrative form and content. He masters
precise form, but he unwittingly lays out a tale of murder that betrays the madness he wants to
deny.
Another contradiction centralto the story involves the tension between the narrator’s capacities
for love and hate. Poe explores here a psychological mystery—that people sometimes harm
those whom they love or need in their lives. Poe examines this paradox half a century before
Sigmund Freud made it a leading concept in his theories of the mind. Poe’s narrator loves the
old man. He is not greedy for the old man’s wealth, nor vengeful because of any slight. The
narrator thus eliminates motives that might normally inspire such a violent murder. As he
proclaims his own sanity, the narrator fixates on the old man’s vulture-eye. He reduces the old
man to the pale blue of his eye in obsessive fashion. He wants to separate the man from his
“Evil Eye” so he can spare the man the burden of guilt that he attributes to the eye itself. The
narrator fails to see that the eye is the “I” of the old man, an inherent part of his identity that
cannot be isolated as the narrator perversely imagines.
The murder of the old man illustrates the extent to which the narrator separates the old man’s
identity from his physical eye. The narrator sees the eye as completely separate from the man,
and as a result, he is capable of murdering him while maintaining that he loves him. The
narrator’s desire to eradicate the man’s eye motivates his murder, but the narrator does not
acknowledge that this act will end the man’s life. By dismembering his victim, the narrator
further deprives the old man of his humanity. The narrator confirms his conception of the old
man’s eye as separate from the man by ending the man altogether and turning him into so many
parts. That strategy turns against him when his mind imagines other parts of the old man’s body
working against him.
The narrator’s newly heightened sensitivity to sound ultimately overcomes him, as he proves
unwilling or unable to distinguish between realand imagined sounds. Because of his twisted
sense of reality, he obsesses over the low beats of the man’s heart yet shows little concern about
the man’s shrieks, which are loud enough both to attract a neighbor’s attention and to draw the
police to the scene of the crime. The police do not perform a traditional, judgmental role in this
story. Ironically, they aren’t terrifying agents of authority or brutality. Poe’s interest is less in
external forms of power than in the power that pathologies of the mind can hold over an
individual. The narrator’s paranoia and guilt make it inevitable that he will give himself away.
The police arrive on the scene to give him the opportunity to betray himself. The more the
narrator proclaims his own cool manner, the more he cannot escape the beating of his own heart,

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which he mistakes for the beating of the old man’s heart. As he confesses to the crime in the
final sentence,he addresses the policemen as “villains,” indicating his inability to distinguish
between their real identity and his own villainy.
In my opinion Poe’s work is worth admiration for many reasons. First of all, it is very rich in
number, considering how young he was at the time of his death. Second of all, it is diverse,
regarding the different genres he produced. And last but not least, his pieces of work have the
quality to depict the darkest side of the human mind and produce the expected effect on the
readers in the way that just the most talented writers are able to.
Sources
www.literaryanalysis.org
www.wikipedia.org
http://bookstove.com/classics/literary-analysis-of-the-raven/#ixzz0wifAa2V7