Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- essays research papers

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born near London on the 19th of January 1809. His mother was an actor and his father was a doctor. When Poe was 2 years old his father disappeared. His mother, who was seriously ill in tuberculosis, took Poe and his sister to Richmond, Virginia. Poe's mother died soon after this. The two siblings became then separated and Poe was taken care of by the wealthy family of the Allans. Due to Mr. Allans work the family had to move to England, where they spent five years. In 1826 Poe started at "The University of Virginia". Although he was a good student he didn't succeed due to his gambling, fighting and drinking. When Mr. Allan found out about this Poe had to finish school and start working in Mr. Allan's tobaccoshop. After some time Poe moved to Boston where he started publishing his small poems and short stories in newspapers. In 1827, Poe's first book "Tamberlane and other poems" came under the pseudonym of "A Bostonian". These poems were very influenced by Byron and showed a youthful attitude. Later the same year he joined the army. He succeeded there and In 1829 he signed for an officer-training. This was the same year as he published his second book "Al Aaraaf, Tamberlane and minor poems" but this time under the name of Edgar A Poe. Before he left his training he got financial help from the other cadets to publish his third version of the book, although Poe called this book a second version. In this book there are famous poems as "To Helen" and "Israfel". These poems show the musical effect that has come to characterize Poe's poems. Later Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his ant. There he married his cousin who was only 13 years old. Then Poe moved to New York to become famous, but with almost no success. Poe had after 1837 his best period with his greatest works as "The murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) and "The fall of the house of Usher" (1839). Poe's wife passed away in 1847, and Poe took it hard. Yet he continued with his writing until he died the on 7th October 1849 by alcoholic poisoning. Edgar Allan Poe was mostly known for his analytic and criticising analyses. It was them which gave him respect as a critic. Poe was influenced by the British 18th century's romantic horror short stories. That is why he wrote those. He was also v... ...g to put together the impression with sentences like: "The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face." The whole story is about Roderick who has become isolated in his castle and there he has grown extreme sensitivity to senses. I think that Poe is trying to tell people that they shouldn't isolate themselves. They will then become like Roderick where the only thing that matters is his sister that passes away after some time. Along with that the sister dies, everything falls apart. I really mean fall apart then. Just after that the young man has left the house everything falls into pieces and it is suddenly obvious that the framework was weak although the house looked table. I had major expectations when I started reading this short story and I was not disappointed. It was great. The atmosphere was very realistic and the story was good. The ending comes as a surprise. It isn't at all what one can expect. As the matter of fact I liked all the short stories that I have read that Poe has written. He is really a great horror-writer. Maybe the best. But Stephen King is also great.