An Analysis Of Edgar Allan Poe's Spirits Of The Dead

Improved Essays
Edgar Allan Poe boasts a very unique style of writing. His tales often entail dark and mysterious undertones. Most of this can be attributed to his upbringing as a child. Poe never knew his own parents, as his father left his family early on and his mother died when he was three. Poe would become separated from his siblings and the Allan family would take him in. He would struggle with finances, stating that his foster family did not provide for his costs to attend the University of Virginia. Eventually, he dwelled into gambling and acquired great debt. Returning home after leaving his university, he would find that his neighbor and fiancé, Elmira Royster, had left him for someone else. He would then join the army for support and severe ties with his foster family. He would become independent yet isolated from others. This background of his would foreshadow the gloomy backdrop of many of his works. I would like to draw parallels through some of his works that he produced. …show more content…
Even at a young age, Poe showed flashes of maturity that would soon be seen throughout his literature ( ). Readers were also introduced to the style that he would implement in his writings. In this poem, a dark and mysterious theme was initially set with placing the reading inside of a cemetery. The settings of his poems are also usually at night to fit the dark narrative, just like this piece. Poe writes of one’s soul after our lives have ended. The soul’s path, isolation, hopelessness, and resolution highlight this poem. He wanted to illustrate an after death perspective for his readers. Ultimately, Poe drew his readers into the realities of life. He had learned these realities through hardships he had faced in his young life. He would turn these tragedies into experiences that filled his imagination. A dreary imagination that has reached tons of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe faced many hardships in his life, all of which heavily contributed to his writing style. Adversity plagued Poe around every corner, ranging from his wife dying from Tuberculosis to his father abandoning him when he was just a child. Poe’s misfortune inspired him to write seventy poems and sixty-six short stories throughout his writing career. Although there are many texts written by him, Poe’s works all revolve around a comparable mood, theme, topic, and setting. “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” exemplify these similarities, reflecting how Poe thought as he dealt with his burdens.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The ideas and subjects expressed in Edgar Allan Poe’s works are a reflection of his life and times. Poe, the widely known author of “Annabel Lee,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Raven” married his wife Virginia in 1836 (Poe/Bio 1). He loved her very much, and it is said that he based some of his stories on their affection (Poe/Bio). Sadly, his wife died in 1847 of tuberculosis, and “Poe became increasingly depressed and erratic” though he still continued writing (Britannica 1). Many considered Poe to be an alcoholic, which a prominent factor why people thought he possessed an unsound mind (Britannica 1).…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The life of Edgar Allan Poe can best be described as depressed. In his poems and stories, someone always dies. His writings are about love ending in death. They start off happy then end up being dark and sadness. The author uses fairy tale archetypes and symbolism to create a gloomy mood that reveals a theme of death is inevitable.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe grew up having a life which would have been hard for anyone to deal with, yet he did it and managed to benefit from his hardships by writing about his misfortunes. From a young age, Poe felt abandoned and lost, which resulted in his turning to writing as a lifestyle rather than just a hobby or a passion. His hard life resulted in Poe writing in the gothic style, with much emphasis on the darker side of human nature and the dark, twisted parts of the world. Edgar Allan Poe fosters a sense of dread which is synthesized with repetition such as that found in “The Raven” as well as the intense diction found in “The Premature Burial” in order to convey the idea that fear deteriorates a person’s mental sanity as time goes on.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This passage describes Poe's genres, life and all of his influences. Poe grew up pretty lonely having his mom die at a young age and his dad soon after abandon him. After Poe lost both his parents, he was adopted and attended boarding school when he was 6 and 11. He then ended up moving to Boston and wrote his first poems. In Poe's later years, he moved in with his aunt Marie and his cousin Virginia in Baltimore.…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Influences on His Writings Edgar Allan Poe was an ominous author who introduced the horror style of writing in American Literature (The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe’s Life on His Morbid Writings 1). Compelling stories by him gave modern-society a dark image of what he was like. Similar to many of the characters in his works, Poe struggled with alcoholism, which made him insane (Handmade Writings 1). Many thrilling horror stories by Poe were connected in some way to his impenetrable life experiences and struggles.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe was a writer with a very tragic and sad life. His writing was deeply impacted by his difficult life. Poe was known for his short stories and poems filled with horror and suspense. Although Poe is very famous nowadays, throughout his life he was not known as the famous writer he is today. Poe had an unstable family, suffered from alcoholism and most of his life he dealt with poverty.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The mind can be philosophically defined as the “element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons”; and also as the “conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism” (Merriam-Webster). For the purposes of this essay, I would like for you to imagine the mind as the begotten embryo of a beautiful, fertilized ripened ovule that inflorescences inside of our brains and is the foundation of our inimitable “character, sentiment, moral nature, and guiding beliefs” (Merriam-Webster). While the mind is an ever-blossoming Athenian seed are sources of much wealth and opulence, they are complexly enigmatic and can be futile if not properly gardened and cultivated. In regards to literature,…

    • 1843 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this story, the reader sees the man begin to lose his sanity because of the Raven 's ongoing torture. Many of these themes come from the feelings Poe had throughout his…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe had different ways of expressing his constant struggles with everyday life through his work which shaped the way he wrote. Poe was a man with many challenges to overcome and with a little help of his deranged imagination produced infamous pieces of literature. In “A Tell Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe draws on his own experiences with mental illness and death to create unique works of gothic fiction that explore guilt,religion, and mortality. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. Poe’s parents, who were actors, died when he was a young child.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With all the hardship Poe had endured during his short life reading his stories gives us an inside look to the tormented soul he truly…

    • 1269 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The classic, honored, and gothic genre author, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his famous works like The Raven, A Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, Annabel Lee, and The Cask Amontillado. Some of these stories and poems style could have been influenced by Poe’s past. Before Poe even turned three both of his parents, two professional actors, died. From there he was taken in by Frances and John Allan in Richmond, Virginia. Thenceforth, he was sent to the best boarding schools and later to the University of Virginia.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809-October 7, 1849), a famous American writer, suffered much tragedy and death throughout his life. Examples include his mother, wife, and foster mother all prematurely dying from tuberculosis, and both his true and foster father abandoning him. Such a cruel life influenced his writing heavily. His works are extremely recognizable for many reasons, such as having a dark plot or sinister setting. In fact, many of his works possess uncanny parallels; his writings are very similar to one another.…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched” (“Edgar Allan Poe: Death”). Edgar Allan Poe a mad man whose life was catastrophic, and expressed his pain through his work with literature. His short stories influenced many young authors to study his work and write their own. On January 19, 1809 Edgar Poe was born to two traveling actors Eliza Poe and…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe experienced personal tragedies in his life which influenced his writing. His works were considered gothic and usually contained a melancholy and depressed tone. Most of his works also dealt with the theme of death, usually of a woman in the narratives. This style of writing most likely stemmed from the loss of his young wife Virginia. Poe became extremely depressed after her death due to his grief and feelings of loss over Virginia.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics