Preview

Does Poe reveal his style in his Philosophy of Composition?

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1927 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Does Poe reveal his style in his Philosophy of Composition?
Does Poe really reveal his style of writing in “The Philosophy of
Composition”?

This paper is about Edgar Allan Poe’s essay The Philosophy of Composition and it analyses the composition itself and tries to see whether he actually said the truth in his writing or not.
Being known as a poet, short-story writer, critic and editor, Edgar Allan Poe was born on January the 19th 1809 in Boston. He is one of the precursors of short stories in the
American literature and most of the themes he wrote about were macabre, dark, and violent. The Gothic era is a branch of the Romanticism period and Poe's work follows the Romantic era trend of emphasising the role of emotions in human nature, often in a dark context. He was fascinated by death, human nature and the dual nature of almost everything. He was very interested in paranoia and in some of his short stories he had the main character fearing the thought of getting caught and that made them go crazy.
These themes can be found in other stories he wrote such as The Murders in the Rue
Morgue or The Tell-Tale Heart, among others.
It is important to mention that his work had a huge influence on the American literature, and not only in the United States but also over the world. However Poe’s life was not perfect and this paper will also outline this, in order to have a glimpse of the mystery of his life.
When Poe was really young, his mother deceased and he never knew his dad. Because of that, he went to live with the Allans (a tobacco mercantile and his wife) in Richmond.
But John Allen and Poe’s relationship didn’t go very well, especially because financial problems between the two strained their relationship. The fact that Poe could not get enough money from Allan to make his living as a student led him to gamble and left him indebted. When coming back to Richmond, he was faced with the engagement of his first love, Elmira Royster, so Poe left his family.

Later on, after having published some

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The American Literature, as in any other country was based on the phase and situation where the country was going through at that moment. The 20th century, has an indelible trail on it, left by the World War I (7/28/1914 – 11/11/1918), this was a turning point to the American Literature, which was molding its shape before this event, and continued to do it subsequently. Significant movements continued to develop the authors in the faces of literature such as drama, poetry, fiction and criticism. Each one of them counting with outstanding representatives such as, Edgar Allan Poe, who was not only influencing in one these areas but many of them. In effect Poe’s writing was influenced by society, yet the key points to his job were his life experiences.…

    • 2237 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poe’s early life was difficult, his father left shortly after he was born, and his mother died when he was just three1. Being so young without parents, Edgar Poe was adopted by the Allan family, taking their last name as his middle name. As Poe grew up he bonded with Mrs. Allan but never agreed with Mr. John Allan1. This perpetual disagreement led to money troubles for Poe when he wanted to go to college, John Allen would not lend him enough money to complete his studies at the University of Virginia.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe has provided many different impacts to American Literature such as the genre of “detective fiction” (Edgar Allan Poe). He has also paved the way for the modern short story. In almost all important American writers, since his time, there are signs of influence from him.…

    • 1712 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Masque of the Red Death

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages

    It reflects his personal life because Poe had a lot of deaths happen in his life, starting with his parents when he was young. These deaths were all related because at that time tuberculosis was the main cause of death. Reading his biography we soon see that all his loved ones died from tuberculosis. Although it is not clear of what he…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe is one of those writers who try to horrify us about what is out there, as well as making us conscious of the terror within. He takes the readers to the exterior and gradually moves into the interior, as he talks about not what you are frightened off but the fear itself. These ideas are hindered upon through the short stories ‘The Murder in the Rue Morgue”, “The Man in the crowd” and “The Tell Tale Heart” as these were one of the first detective stories. Through these short stories Poe took the process of using clues to figure out the identity of a criminal and made the protagonist look at all the evidence and reason his way to the answer.…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Dbq

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Poe’s Mom died of Tuberculosis when he was 3 years old. His foster mom also died of Tuberculosis. When Poe was 27 years old, he married Virginia, who later died of Tuberculosis (Doc. A & B). In Annabel Lee, the narrator’s wife died of a disease, just like Virginia (Doc E). In The Raven, the narrator’s wife also died. This evidence supports that Poe took his life experiences of death and loss and put them into his…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poe had a really depressing childhood. His mother was an actress, which was not very high in the working class back then, who played Juliet in the play Romeo and Juliet. Six or seven times a week when Edgar was very young he would have to sit and watch his mother die in the play and then be alive again afterwards back stage. This probably messed his idea of death up greatly. Then when Edgar was almost three his mother died of tuberculosis then shortly after that his father, who was an alcoholic, disappeared. Luckily after both his parents were gone the Allan family adopted Edgar and raised him like he was there own son. They moved to England where Poe was sent to a private school. All was well for a few years, but as he got older the other students at his school rejected him. He had problems with his step father; the closer he got with his new mother, the farther he drifted from his new father. When he was 13 he moved back to Virginia with his family, where he fell in love with the mother of a girl in his class. Shortly after he fell in love with her she died of a brain tumor; this started the list of loved ones that were lost. One good thing that came out of her death, though, was it inspired Poe to write poems.…

    • 890 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    his gothic style of writing. Poe dealt with many aspects of death and madness in his…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    a. Poe lived with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife in Richmond,Virginia.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe was a famous writer born in 1809. As a young boy, he had an extremely arduous life. His father deserted the family shortly before his mother died, forcing Poe into the foster care system. His foster parents sent Poe to a boarding school and later he attended the University of Virginia. After just one year, however, he had left the university due to a gambling addiction. At 18, Poe's first collection of poetry was published. Poe enlisted in the Army and then attended West Point, an army academy. He wasn't there long before deciding it wasn't something he wanted for his life.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe lived a turbulent life. Orphaned before the age of 3 he was raised in foster care in Richmond Virginia. He later was forced to drop out of West Point due to gambling debt. Later, after finding work as a magazine editor, he worked to publish most of his work in order to support his 13 year old wife (and cousin), who had tuberculosis. Two years after her passing he died at the age of forty.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe was born in “Boston, MA on Jan 19 1809”(Edgar Allan Poe). “Edgar Allan Poe’s dad left him and his mom”(Edgar Allen Poe). “When he was only three his mom died of tuberculosis”(Edgar Allen Poe). “Edgar Allen Poe was separated from his brother and sister and was forced to move to John and Frances Allen’s house, John and Frances were his uncle and aunt”.(Edgar Allen Poe). This is more than likely what motivated Edgar Allen Poe to become a writer. Even though Poe became a world famous poet he unfortunately died poor and miserable. “His death was a mysterious one, no one really knows what happened on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, MD”(Edgar Allen Poe).…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dorian Gray to Poe

    • 29481 Words
    • 118 Pages

    used several Gothic motifs and themes in the fashion of Poe in his production of The Picture of…

    • 29481 Words
    • 118 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thesis: Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential, yet misunderstood writers in American Literature.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, Edgar Allan Poe (such as in many of his works) uses the setting to create a dark image inside our minds. He makes this specially through darkness, therefore the character makes a connection with death. "The physical setting oppresses him in the visions of his graveyard" (1).…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays