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Edgar Allan Poe's Life & Work

How a Writer Is Influenced to Write

By Bass Man EddiePublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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You can see how Poe seems to be done with life

In the author’s work, we always know that they use their source of creativity among their writing, yet the author also uses his/her life to influence the work. One author that has his work influenced by his life is horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. His writing contains the genres of horror, gothic, and detective/mystery. Some of his works include The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, etc. Edgar Allan Poe’s life has been down since he was three when his mother passed away and his father left him. As he was adopted by John Allan and his wife, he didn't have his book published at the age of 13, dropped out of college due to debt, his adoptive mother passed away from tuberculosis, and evening his wife faced the same disease. Ever since Poe wanted to be an author during his harsh time, he probably uses his depressing life as an outlet to apply to his stories.

One genre Poe always uses in his stories is gothic, which brings a dark tone he felt in his life. In his story, The Raven, the character faces a raven which he says, “And the raven… still is sitting… And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that dreaming… And my soul… lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted - nevermore.” This quote represents the gothic tone Edgar Allan Poe has used to show the symbol of death. This point out Edgar’s real-life situations from most of his loved ones passed away. In The Masque of the Red Death, the narrators a prince who invited the high class as there's a disease saying, “...Prince Prospero… summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light friends… to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys… security was within. Without was the “Red Death.” This quote adds how death can't be outrun. In his life, his adoptive mother and his wife passed away from the same disease, similar to the disease in the story. Showing how some of his unfortunate events influence his gothic genre, Edgar was terribly affected by those events that led him to struggle with him like his stories with horror.

Horror is another genre where Poe is well known in his work, which he uses supernatural occurrence that is the contrast to internal struggles like himself. In the story, The Black Cat, a character with his own internal struggles as he says, “... my disease grew upon me -- for what the disease is like Alcohol… I knew myself no longer.” This quote represents how alcohol has affected the character’s life, which it also change the way he is. To tell the truth, Edgar became an alcoholic because of the many losses that made him feel depressed and led him to his own internal struggles. In another story, The Tell-Tale Heart, a character is aware of another character stating, “... it haunted me day and night… it was his eye… resembled that of a vulture… Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold…” From applying paranormal activity in his stories, the quote resembled how the character struggles on the inside. Mentioning supernatural occurrence, it seems supernatural for Edgar to gain the terrible life he lived through like he was cursed. Even though he had suffered so much, he still had some happiness in him he reflects on his work.

As his well-known works show he suffered life, other works of poems from him shows happiness Poe had quite a bit in his life. In the poem, Annabel Lee, the narrator express his life as he speaks, “That a maiden there lived… By the name of Annabel Lee… live with no other thought than to love and be loved by me.” This gives a bright outlook of happiness from the narrator who was in love. This reflects how Edgar was happy with his wife when he was a young adult and married her before she died. In another poem, To My Mother, he wrote, “Because I feel that… the angels… can find… none as devotional as that of ‘Mother'.” This quote gives the care of mothers from the writer who loved his mother. It applies that Edgar loved his adoptive mother as his own, for she was the only one who had cared for him, unlike the adoptive father. As we witness the tone and outlet of his work, we already know that Edgar Allan Poe's life had influenced his work.

Edgar Allan Poe was a well-known author who used his life as an outlet to influence his writing. Poe had written stories like The Raven and The Black Cat that made him well known with horror, gothic, and detective genre. Most of his work does show his life's struggle, yet some of his work shows his happiness. This can be proved from analyzing each of Poe's stories and comparing them to his life. In conclusion, he expresses his life as an influence on his work to give his tone to his work for the reader’s mood.

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About the Creator

Bass Man Eddie

This is Bass Man Eddie here. This is where you read interesting stories and articles from me. These ranges from life lessons to importance of a certain film. I’m very talkative and I would like to talk about many interesting things to you.

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