Fear’s Use.
Fear is a primitive and basic emotion we all experience. The emotion that pulls forth from us dread, despair, anxiety, and a host of other negative feelings. Fear can push us forward or hold us back. Utilizing fear in writing does a couple things, like providing power, creating connections, and exploring the mind. Poe capitalizes on all of these topics.
Poe has many fears and obsessions in his life. For his writings, he often recreates his anxieties. I think Poe uses fear because it is his greatest vehicle, and the emotion he is most intimate with. On one hand, I can see how Poe may be taking more control over his own tragic situations. By perpetuating fear, he is able to gain power over his audience because he is deciding what …show more content…
The traits included a focus on emotions, individuality, nature, imagination, and an in-depth look into the human experience more so than previous movements. (Encyclopedia Britannica, pp 1-2). What this meant for Poe is that his mind is able to reach its full capabilities. Because of this new-found acceptance and celebration of individual emotions, Poe flourished.
Using fear, he was able to study and investigate the human mind, and how it worked. The first example I want to draw attention to is “The Fall of the House of Usher” from The Essential Tails and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. With an immense amount of detail, Poe brings us into Rodrick’s world. A world where the family is of the utmost importance, but also the demise of itself. The fear of death, especially being buried alive permeates each paragraph. It starts with the decaying house referred to as having “Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-working from the eaves.” (Poe 161) Death is evident right at the opening of the story, suggesting the thought that it is always on the …show more content…
The reader cannot escape the crazed madness throughout the piece. “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.” (Poe, 284) Poe brings the reader on a journey through the mind of a madman, who does not see himself as mad. The eye… the smallest, most insignificant spur drives the narrator to murder. “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually- I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. “(Poe, 281) What if one day something clicks inside of us, that drives us insane? What is our mind capable of? Fear can cause many mental maladies. I think Poe gladly investigates this idea within his work and tries to communicate his thought process with his audience. Fear, becomes common place in Poe’s life and in his
Fear is a primitive and basic emotion we all experience. The emotion that pulls forth from us dread, despair, anxiety, and a host of other negative feelings. Fear can push us forward or hold us back. Utilizing fear in writing does a couple things, like providing power, creating connections, and exploring the mind. Poe capitalizes on all of these topics.
Poe has many fears and obsessions in his life. For his writings, he often recreates his anxieties. I think Poe uses fear because it is his greatest vehicle, and the emotion he is most intimate with. On one hand, I can see how Poe may be taking more control over his own tragic situations. By perpetuating fear, he is able to gain power over his audience because he is deciding what …show more content…
The traits included a focus on emotions, individuality, nature, imagination, and an in-depth look into the human experience more so than previous movements. (Encyclopedia Britannica, pp 1-2). What this meant for Poe is that his mind is able to reach its full capabilities. Because of this new-found acceptance and celebration of individual emotions, Poe flourished.
Using fear, he was able to study and investigate the human mind, and how it worked. The first example I want to draw attention to is “The Fall of the House of Usher” from The Essential Tails and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. With an immense amount of detail, Poe brings us into Rodrick’s world. A world where the family is of the utmost importance, but also the demise of itself. The fear of death, especially being buried alive permeates each paragraph. It starts with the decaying house referred to as having “Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-working from the eaves.” (Poe 161) Death is evident right at the opening of the story, suggesting the thought that it is always on the …show more content…
The reader cannot escape the crazed madness throughout the piece. “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.” (Poe, 284) Poe brings the reader on a journey through the mind of a madman, who does not see himself as mad. The eye… the smallest, most insignificant spur drives the narrator to murder. “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually- I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. “(Poe, 281) What if one day something clicks inside of us, that drives us insane? What is our mind capable of? Fear can cause many mental maladies. I think Poe gladly investigates this idea within his work and tries to communicate his thought process with his audience. Fear, becomes common place in Poe’s life and in his