English

Extended Essay

In what ways did the events of Edgar Allen Poe’ life form recurring themes in his works
and create terror for the reader?

A study on Edgar Allan Poe’s life effect on his work and creativity

Word count: 3432

Introduction ………. p.2

Recurring themes used by Poe ..…....… p.2

Guilt and sin …......… p.3

Contextualisation ……….. p.3

The Tell-Tale Heart ……….. p.3-5

Insanity ……….. p. 5

Contextualisation ……….. p. 5-6

The Black Cat ……….. p. 6-7

The tell-Tale Heart ……….. p. 7-8

Death of a significant person ………. p. 8

Contextualisation ……….. p. 9

The Raven ……….. p. 9-10

Annabel Lee ……….. p. 10-11

Conclusion ………. p.12

Bibliography ……….. p. 14-15

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Introduction:

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the best writers brought into the world in the nineteenth century.

Not only were his works considered very controversial due to his concern with the occult and

unusual subjects during that era, but also his life and death might have influenced his creativity.

Even so, he made himself known for his unique writing style and his stories, being the subjects

of countless heated debates1, discussions and research. After being made aware of the somewhat

terrible events in Poe's life, throughout his childhood and adulthood, and perusing his works, the

question emerges as to what ways he used his personal life events to form recurring themes thus

creating terror and intriguing his audience in his works.

Recurring Themes and literary elements used by Poe:

What drives people to create a certain work? By and large, it is unmistakably their life. However,

their experiences and backgrounds are regularly different. In Poe's life, agony and misery played

an essential role. However, the way a writer presents these events is almost as important. In Poe's

case, he captivates the reader by using countless literary devices that make his work thrilling and

compelling, allowing us to understand the depths of his message in a very particular context and

creating terror while reading.

Poe's life contained predominantly dark and horrific events, which shaped the outcome of his

works, in which critics then identified them with the topics of Romanticism and the occult. Dark

Romanticism often deals with the subjects of human fallibility, self-destruction, judgment,

punishment and the psychological effects of guilt and sin, which are clearly some of the subjects

1
Foundation, Poetry. « Edgar Allan Poe ». Poetry Foundation

2
that often appear in his works2. In order to explore the ways the recurring themes in his works are

used to create terror for the reader, the term “terror” should be defined. According to the

Merriam Webster online dictionary, the word terror means “a state of intense or overwhelming

fear”3. His own feverish dreams also played a big role, which he used to create an ominous

atmosphere for the reader. The subject will be explored in a thematic approach. The thematic

approach is a comprehensive method of teaching and learning in which many areas can easily be

linked together and integrated into a theme. It allows learning to be informed more naturally and

less dispersed.

Guilt and Sin

When Poe’s father deserted the family in 1810 and his mother passed shortly after, he was sent

to live with John Allan and his childless wife in 1812. Due to his constant rejection by his foster

father John Allan during his childhood and his unbearable debts during his adulthood, Poe tried

to relieve his problems by drinking with no success. Unable to keep a constant job, he felt guilty

he couldn’t provide to his spouse Virginia. Poe’s excessive drinking problem led to him being

fired from multiple newspaper agencies4. Many psychologists for instance Marsha Linehan,

agree that children who are constantly dismissed by their parents feel regretful on the grounds

that they unwillingly imagine that they are awful and blameworthy5. Yet, they feel bashful along

these lines, as well as built up anger towards their parents caused by that rejection. Since Poe

himself was an abandoned child due to the premature death of his parents, it is not unexpected

that Poe's writings are filled with topics such as sin, unjustified punishments, and guilt.

2
Anirudh. 10 Most Famous Poets From The United States | Learnodo Newtonic
3
Definition of TERROR, Merriam Webster
4
Poets, Academy of American. About Edgar Allan Poe | Academy of American Poets,
5
“Family Invalidation: When They Make You Believe You’re Worth Nothing”. Exploring Your Mind

3
Crime and murder followed by regret are basic themes in his compositions. An outstanding

example of this can be found in The Tell-Tale Heart, in which a man, pretending not to be insane,

plans to kill the old blind man with whom he lives. He claims that such precise planning is

evidence that he could not have been insane. It seems that he was trying to rationalize the right to

murder evidently resulting from the foregoing unconscious hatred. Once he had committed the

murder and buried the old man under the floorboards of the house, he began to hear a sound.

This turns out to be the man's pulse, which ultimately makes the main character insane and

causes him to reveal his crime to the police officers who came to check on him.

In this story, Poe uses various symbols and imagery that play a part in the complexity and

disturbing, yet somewhat alluring, atmosphere of the story. For example, the narrator repeatedly

mentions the "evil eye" in reference to the old man's blind eye. Thus getting the physical image

that the eye is coated with a kind of glaze, possibly indicating a disease. However, in a symbolic

view, this could imply that the old man has problems with his "inner vision", for example , his

perception of reality. He sees the world in an obscure and blurred way. Subsequently, Poe

therefore used this symbolism to portray his “blurred” vision of the world due to his many years

of negative experiences, leading to his incapability to see the beauty of the world.

The eye can likewise represent a piece of the storyteller's character that he won't acknowledge.

They are by and large seen as mirroring an individual's actual self and as being fit for uncovering

a part of somebody's character that the different senses may cover up. The storyteller expects that

this body part does, in light of the fact that uncovers something of the elderly person that no one

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else can tell. He even limits the elderly person's personality down to his eye, when he claims: "I

saw (the eye) with perfect distinctness...I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person;".

Upon further analysis, it is also shown that the storyteller himself is spoken by the eye as well.

We can prove this by examining the words he uses. For instance he describes the eye as "bad"

and in comparison to that of a "vulture". However, these allegations better fit the narrator's

actions. They can be viewed as "evil" when he unnecessarily murders the elderly man,

dismantles his body, hiding it underground, even mocking his death and the policemen by

allowing them to sit on the location of the body. As for his "vulture" like actions, he

demonstrates them by acting like an animal; stalking his victim and overlooking his human

attributes. Eventually, he also has trouble ackowledging his own acts, when the story starts out

with his denial of his demented state.

With the detailed description of the senses and the feeling of being trapped and time to process

the fact that the narrator is slowly going mad, Poe creates a sinister atmosphere, in which the

reader may even get goose bumps just thinking about the story's message, which is again guilt

and sin. It is intriguing to perceive how Poe makes use of a detailed description of advanced

means of hearing and creative mind in order to obtain the reader's attention. The use of basic

descriptive terms such as: “vulture”, “film”, and “hideous” conversely with the truly dreadful

occurences in the story represents the tormented mental condition of the storyteller. With bizarre

actions and unreasonable choices made in Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" get snippets of

the author's behavior resulting from pressing factors of his own childhood. By thoroughly

analysing this example, we can accept that Poe expended his emotion of guilt developed in his

childhood through his work.

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Insanity

In informal language, we regularly use the term "insane". However, do we really consider it why

or how somebody gets into this psychological state? What could be considered insane? From a

natural, clinical perspective, insanity is brought about by a dysfunctional cerebral activity6. This

subject didn't just begin from Poe's own life, however from the social states of the time. In the

Victorian Age, due to the incomprehension of psychological science, it was quite frequent that

people that had common mental illnesses were deemed as unstable and insane. In Poe’s case it is

without doubt that events in his life disrupted his mental and emotional stability so much so that

his mental state was from that time on described as “never very far from panic” as it is said that

at the death of his spouse (13 year old cousin) Virginia, he had a habit of pacing around her grave

countless number of times every night, possibly indicating that he suffered from paranoia and

OCD7 (obsessive compulsive disorder). So it was very straightforward on why he was so

attached to add this condition, at the time, seen as a touchy subject since the mental illnesses

were not . In the short story “The Black Cat”, Poe wrote about alcoholism while experiencing

this problem himself throughout his life8. As a teenager, his liquor problem made him do

impulsive and at times dangerous things. For example, while at the West Point Military

Academy, he played a prank using a dead and bloody goat to simulate the severed head of an

academy staff member.9 It is very likely that he suffered from insomnia and alcoholism. His

emotions and actions never seemed to balance each other properly.

6
Health (US), National Institutes of, et Biological Sciences Curriculum Study
7
“The Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of Edgar Allan Poe”. UKEssays.com
8
Health (US), National Institutes of, et Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. Information about Mental Illness and
the Brain. National Institutes of Health (US), 2007.
9
Teive, Hélio Afonso Ghizoni, et al. « Edgar Allan Poe and Neurology ».

6
The topic of insanity is amazingly shown and described using various literary devices in The

Black Cat. For instance, the use of anaphora and first person narration altogether can be observed

when he states “I blush, I burn, I shudder [...]”.10 This anaphora added with repetition portrays

the obsessive compulsive mental disorder of the narrator, where one cannot get rid of fixed ideas.

The numerous repetitions thus make a dramatic impact in the story. After the cat injures him, the

narrator says that “the fury of a demon instantly possessed me”. This also contributes to the

exaggeration that even a small injury from his cherished cat can lead him to perpetrate such

horrendous acts like taking out its eye. The story focuses on mental illness, which often leads to

perversion by exposing the wicked side of every human being. Insanity is used to create terror, as

it is rare for other individuals to be aware of how to react to a mentally disabled patient. By

analysing the story, we can follow the mind-set and personality change of the main character

because of his reckless alcohol use, finishing off with insanity. The narrator tells the readers that

“day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered

myself to use intemperate language to my wife...[and] offered her personal violence”, his

violence is linked to various outer factors, such as alcoholism or even cat behavior, and he denies

the existence of his mentally unstable health. after alcohol is later shown to be the source of his

madness. He murders his adored cat, and the guilt joined with his psychological deterioration due

to alcohol eventually drives him mad.

Another example of Poe’s use of insanity to portray some of his personal traumas appears in the

Tell-Tale heart. The comparability between The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale heart is clear. In the

two cases, the principle character commits murder, and can't stand the heaviness of his deed.

10
Giordano, Robert. “The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe”

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This eventually prompts their own blame driving them insane. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the

narrator, upon hearing the growing sound of his victim’s heart beating even after murdering him

led him to reveal the truth behind his crime; “ ‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit

the deed! –tear up the planks! –here, here! –it is the beating of his hideous heart’ ”.11 The sound

of the beating heart also symbolises the growing regret of the narrator, caused by his

psychological outburst to admit to the murder in chances to stop the vicious noise slowly driving

him insane; “the same craze that led him to kill the man is the same craze that led him to his

demise”. In both of the short stories, the fact that the narrators based their murderous actions on

these illusions and hallucinations makes their insanity very profound. It is very likely that they

were simply driven insane by the mental illness from which they suffered. As we have seen in

the previous quotes, Poe uses many changes of tone and rhythm to construct the sense of stress

that characterizes the narrator's mental state. Throughout the plot, the narrator tries to convince

that there is not anything wrong in himself and is perfectly normal. Thus exploring the themes of

insanity, guilt and a delusional reality.

Poe's choice of diction and allusion throughout the story sets an atmosphere of terror and anxiety.

Terms like " nervous", "night", "haunted", "death", "terrors'', "fears", etc... create an

uncompromising tone of discomfort and fear. This dictation can immediately make fear dominate

the reader’s mind. Such words lead the motifs of gloom and death on the mind of the readers.

With his use of diction and symbolism, Poe conveyed a strong message on the power of fear on

our mind that could lead to our own destruction. Though not all fear leads toward murder, it can

sometimes push one to commit certain desperate and damaging acts that can cause us suffering.

A similar pattern can be observed in Poe’s life. Even though his writing was making good
11
Giordano, Robert. « The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe »

8
progress in the 1840’s, several more problems arose. His wife, Virginia started showing signs of

tuberculosis just like his foster mother had done. to forget his issues by drinking with no results.

After Virginia passed on in 1847, his depression and alcoholism exceeded impressive extents.

Where this concerning consumption in the end brought about losing his consciousness, further

impairing his mental state.

Death of significant person

The list of similarities found in Poe’s life and his work continues with the theme of the death of a

significant person. This arrangement of misfortunes began with Poe losing his parents, followed

by his fiancé getting drawn to another man, his loving foster mother passed on before long, his

sibling's death due to major liquor consumption and sadly, his true love and only wife, Virginia,

passing on due to tuberculosis. These misfortunes are obviously spoken to in his works and

further add to my conviction that there is a solid association between his life and the works he

made.

The theme of loss of loved ones value judgement in Poe’s most famous poem “The Raven”. In

the poem, during a cold December night, the narrator is sitting in his home library, when he

unexpectedly hears a tapping at his entryway. He turns out to be increasingly more

uncomfortable by the tapping, as he was considering his presently finished relationship with his

wife, Lenore. Touching the topic of bitterness and sorrow which he feels for losing his beloved

wife Virginia. While writing "The Raven," Poe's wife, Virginia, was suffering from a severe case

of tuberculosis12. Poe was unable to purchase medication for his beloved wife because of

12
Edgar Allan Poe - a tormented literary genius - Hektoen Internationa

9
financial difficulties. All through the poem, he captures the intense feelings of sorrow he felt in

his wife's remaining days, as seen in both the opening and closing verses:

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,[...]"13

"[...]And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted nevermore!"

The narrator sees a raven on his porch, he tries to elicit answers from the raven, concerning why

it is there, what his name is, and why it can't disregard him in his affliction. Regardless of the

issue asked, the raven can just answer with one word: “Nevermore”. Firstly, Poe used

Alliteration in this story to represent his haunting past; “From my books, the cause of

sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore”. With repeating the same consonant sound in the same line

(sorrow—sorrow), it can be seen that the narrator is perhaps desperately attempting to escape the

memories of his beloved Lenore without much result, emphasizing that pain and yearning for the

past can overwhelm a man's logic and haunt his thoughts. The narrator’ feelings could be

interpreted as Poe’s infamous love for his deceased wife Virginia. Mourning from her loss, he

drowns himself in alcohol. As the narrator of ‘The Raven’ escapes the memories of his beloved

Leonore which in this case could be interpreted as Virginia.

Symbolism also played a contributive role in the poem. The Raven itself is a very significant

symbol. He is meant to represent a ‘mournful never ending embrace’:

“Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

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By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.

‘Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,’ I said, ‘art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!’

Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’ ”

With use of symbolism, Poe portrayed "The Raven" in an evocative and unsettling mood, making

readers dread to imagine what lies concealed in the darkness, thus managing to create a gloomy

atmosphere and creating terror for the reader.

Another example of this theme would be the poem titled Annabel Lee, which is about a painful

memory and the narrator reminiscing about their love with Annabel at the point when they were

children and how they used to live in a realm by the ocean in bliss14. This is again touching the

topic of bitterness and sorrow which he feels for losing his beloved wife. Annabel's passing was

brought about by some wind that descended from the clouds and made Annabel sick, eventually

killing her. The first and most noticeable aspect is the presence of a dead or dying lady. This is

nothing unexpected as all the women in Poe's day to day existence passed on from tuberculosis.

In "Annabel Lee," the main character turns out to be the deceased lady. As well as having an

undeniable beauty, Annabel also suffered from tuberculosis. "The physical signs of tuberculosis

include pale, luminous skin and red cheeks" which relates to the casualty in "Annabel Lee" as

her beauty disappeared”. Since Poe had many women in his lifetime that shockingly all died of

tuberculosis (his mom, foster mother Frances Allan and his wife Virginia) it is as yet indistinct

14
Giordano, Robert. “Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe”

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regarding whom Anabel Lee was related to as said by the author Peltak: “Many believe the

deceased character represents "all the women he loved and lost".” 15

Now, it should be noticed that there is a common pattern in a significant number of his works

other than the themes. This is the usage of first person and anonymous/unknown narrators. It

gives the feeling that Poe would not like to make outside characters, however recount the stories

as if he ever was part of them. It additionally reinforces the suspicion that there is a nearby

relationship between his life and works, for instance, he is the subject who encountered all the

events present in his writings.

Conclusion:

Whether Poe simply implanted his life events into his works, he employed a range of conscious

methods to engage or bewilder his readers. We can say that he effectively joined these two. From

the earliest starting point of his adolescence, he essentially lost everybody he adored and could

depend on. It is henceforth to be expected that he went insane and relied on liquor and perhaps

different substances to endure. In any case, he found the best accessible approach to adapt to

these thoughts, events, and sentiments: writing. Regardless of whether he likely couldn't name

the specific root of his troubles that were consuming his thoughts he began writing and projected

his feelings onto the paper, which helped decrease his terrible life problems. As well as

employing beautiful literary techniques to make probably the most terrifying, overwhelming, and

still superb bits of literature pieces. His capacity to expand on his own awful life and writing in

high awareness makes Edgar Allan Poe probably one of the best writers of his era. The literary

15
“Correlation Between Poe’s Life And Annabel Lee English Literature Essay”. UKEssays

12
devices he applied were highly characteristic of his style. His works lead the readers to the

emotive reality of life, while emphasizing the many ironies of life. Psychologically insane justice

is presented, as well as the extremes of life and death. As Poe seemed to be an eccentric and

delusional writer himself, his mental state allowed him to examine his soul and probe his

thoughts in order to create a work of art in his papers and depict his emotions so that the reader

could feel the terror and thrill of his words. His character could be summarized with one of his

most famous quotes: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.16” While being

sane, life was unbearable and meaningless for him. But while being insane? That was the time

when he could really live and create.

16
A quote by Edgar Allan Poe, GoodReads

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Giordano, Robert. “Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe”. PoeStories.Com,https://poestories.c

Giordano, Robert. “The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe”. PoeStories.Com,https://poesto

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