Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative Techniques Essay

Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are two American writers who have defined literature as we know it today. Both authors are important in the development of American literature because of their creative way to use literary elements. Literary elements can be defined as “the typical structures used by writers in their works to convey their message in a simple manner to the readers. When employed properly, the different literary devices help readers to appreciate, interpret and analyze a…

Gothic literature, whether they are to demonstrate the human capacity for evil or to show another side of reality. Authors utilizes the lack of certainty to demonstrate how far a person’s mind will go to rationalize a situation. In works like Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” or his poem “The Raven” he uses mental issues to express the idea that one’s mind has no limit to the imagination and can drive humans to preform out of the ordinary actions. In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children…

The Black Cat This short story by Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a man that, having been condemned to be hanged due to the murder of his wife, tries to explain on the night before his execution his side of the story about the circumstances that led him to his terrible destiny. “For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I…

Edgar Allan Poe had a particularly rough childhood. His mother, foster mother, and wife all died from tuberculosis. This seemed to have a lasting impact on his mental health, for he refers to this in many of his writings. In addition to this, his father abandoned him, and his foster father disliked him to the point where he cut off all access to money for Poe. His troubled home life resulted in immense amounts of emotional destruction. This gave him a dim outlook on life, which helped to create…

Edgar Allan Poe, who is a world known author, was born on 19 January 1809, and died on 7 October 1849, at the age of 40. In his life he published over 60 short stories and poems. As a child there was no consistency with his family life. His mother died of tuberculosis and his father disappeared at the age of 3. Then he moved on to a foster family where his foster mother also died of tuberculosis and he and his foster father did not get along. Later he married his cousin, and she also died of…

Edgar Allan Poe is often considered to be the father of the modern horror story, as he is most known for exploring the dark and often irrational side of the human mind. Although an iconic figure in poetry today, his life was filled with personal tragedy and professional failure, and numerous women whom he loved died, most from tuberculosis. Poe had a low tolerance for alcohol, and drank to escape his failure and pain that had constantly reoccurred throughout his life. As a result, all of his…

“Men have called me mad, but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence,” quoted from the famous works of Edgar Allan Poe to describe a character of a madness and insanity in his work called The Tell-Tale Heart. It is a short story that intrigues the audience with a narrator who is madly obsessed with something so minor, that it drives him into a terrible crime. This story included many elements that helped Poe to develop the plot, but the major…

What is “Gothic”? Nowadays, people assume that stories with supernatural content are considered to be “Gothic”. However, the supernatural is only one of the elements to a Gothic literature. With that, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Henry Lawson’s “The Bush Undertaker” will be explored in terms of introducing more aspects of the Gothic and their similarities in regards to how the Gothic is used to convey their messages across. Gothic is a genre describing dark and terrifying events that…

Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the biggest authors in the horror genre reason being, Poe and King had a big influence in literature because of their writing styles and technique. Such as, Poe’s influence on King in his younger years, Poe being a part of the romanticism era, and king’s use of description. In addition, despite King and Poe growing up in different era’s their upbringing, writing styles and, impact in the horror community are almost similar to one another. Ultimately,…

“Resignation” Vs. “After the Burial” “Resignation” by Longfellow and “After the Burial” by Lowell differ significantly in the treatment of the author’s daughters’ deaths. For example, Longfellow’s poem is hopeful, while Lowell’s is hopeless. Longfellow believes his daughter is protected in Heaven and that one day he will get to see her in “celestial grace.” He commands a positive outlook by boldly stating, “Let us be patient!” On the other hand, Lowell focuses on the sting of death and the fact…