How Did Edgar Allan Poe Influence Society

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Edgar Allan Poe says, “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world”. Although not many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works surrounded the idea of the death of a woman, most of his poems, if not all, portrayed death. He became renowned for his stories and poems about mystery and horror (Say Media, 1). The extent of Poe’s influence on our culture is immense. He in fact invented the modern day detective story that many people enjoy and cherish today. Throughout Poe’s life, he went through many rough patches and struggled with poverty (Say Media, 1). Although Poe became enormously troubled, his hardships that he faced throughout his childhood and growing up heavily influenced his writing. His life works, though …show more content…
Many thought he was called this because of his writing style, but the true story behind it was because his beloved wife became extremely ill. His muse 's illness kept in occupied, but this is also a time where his best works were written. She inspired him to write, "Masque of the Red Death", "The Mystery of Marie Roget", "The Tell-Tale Heart", and “Lenore" (Ackroyd Peter, 96). These accomplishments were immense but Poe started to drink himself into a state of despair because his wife was not recovering (Encyclopedia Virginia, 5). He wrote about Virginia, "at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity... but I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Throughout Poe 's …show more content…
To this very day, the cause of his death is still unknown. Many people concoct their own fantasies about what happened, but no one idea is correct. One evening on October 3, a man walking by found Edgar Allan Poe delirious in a gutter on the streets of Baltimore. According to the man Poe needed immediate assistance (smithsonianmag.com, 1). Edgar Allan Poe was taken to Washington College hospital where he received care. A few days later he died at 5 a.m. Sunday, October 7, 1849. Dr. John Joseph Moran, Poe 's physician, said that Poe never became responsive enough to explain how he came into this condition (smithsonianmag.com, 1). The doctors that cared for him while he was in critical condition all came to the alleged conclusion that the cause of death was "brain swelling". Although a logical diagnosis, there are many theories of the cause of death. The first theory about Poe 's death looming around was that he might have been beaten to death. The assumption was that Poe went out with some old friends from WestPoint and after he got drunk his friends left him to wander the streets, therefore he

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