The Writings of Edgar Poe

The provided research focuses on Edgar Allen Poe’s stories and poems with careful consideration for particular historical events which influenced his writings on fictions both detective and scientific. As an acknowledged author in the eighteenth century, Poe’s life as a writer and an author was majorly inspired by his life’s hardships and the lessons he learned from them.

Through his famous works such as The Raven, there is a clear link between the characters and personalities used in the stories to Poe’s life as an individual. For instance, most of his works begin mildly on the onset of writing them but end all punctuated with tragedy in the end (Poe, pg. 5). That aspect of the events can only be associated with how his life personally culminated into a series of tragedies.

Aforementioned then directs the main idea of studying his work with a critical interest in finding out whether Poe’s works were inspired by literary works or rather his imaginations and the experiences he went through that shaped his life as a man. The unique and often dark style of writing adopted by Edgar Poe was stimulated by the major events that occurred in his life since birth. As a young boy he was separated from his parents and siblings and to make things worse, he witnessed all or almost the rest of his family die around him (Poe, pg. 3).

The most obvious case of his writing being a reflection of his personal life is in his story, The Masque of the Red Death. The story is a symbolic use of a deadly disease in his days that took many lives and affected many people like a plaque. The disease in the story led victims and those it infected be subjected to isolation lest they infect another, the similarity then comes in the sense that Poe lost his mother and wife allegedly to a similar disease, tuberculosis (Poe, pg. 12).

Such events can then be said to influence the writing of Poe’s articles and stories somehow. Following the death of Poe’s wife at a very young age of twenty-four, some of his works depict similar instances of young women losing their lives at very tender ages. Consider for example his works such as The Fall of the House of Usher. In this story, a character by the name of Roderick falls in love with his young sister who later dies young (Poe, pg. 12).

The story echoes Poe’s own life in which he married his cousin at the age of thirteen only to die at the age of twenty-four as already indicated above. The beautiful young women are still put to lose their lives in the stories published by Edgar Poe. Consider again another of his poem Annabel Lee as an ideal example. In this poem, he describes the young lady undergoing a horrible painful death which can be likened by the type of gruesome experience his wife had undergone before she passed away (Poe, pg. 8).

Under the same issue of death, Poe creates the same scenario of a young woman dying. Confirming his fascination or lack thereof of a young woman dying in the poem The Portrait are all associated and linked by the fact that he lost his mother, foster mother and wife all before he was able to reach the life of forty where he too passed away. The above-indicated incidences of Poe losing his loved ones spiraled him into pools of depression and compelled him into abusing drugs and alcohol I particular.

This is also evident in his frequent use of an alcoholic character in his many works with a case in point example being The Black Cat. He portrays the character becoming violent to his cat that keeps him company and wounds it through the attacks. He points out clearly in the story that one night, returning home he reached for a pen knife in his pocket and cut the cuts eyes from the socket (Poe, pg. 11).

The story and many others were written in personal styles and hence can be conclusively be associated with Poe as a person and the kind of life he led. Following the order and chronology of events that shaped Edgar Poe’s life, the death of his wife inspired key works published after his death like The Bells. The story is a general reflection of one’s life and the fears most people harbor inside themselves such as the possibility of dying, or worst case scenario being buried alive and the phobia associated with losing one’s life.

The life translates the real life situations like celebrations and merry made when one is born and the despair involved when a loved one is lost. It directly reflects on the life cycle of human here on earth. As already mentioned Poe’s publications begin on a happy, joyful tempo but all wind up I despair and agony just like is the case in The Bells (Poe, pg. 19).

Finally, it then confirms our beginning idea and fact checking basis informing this whole article that Edgar Poe’s writings and imaginations were inspired by his real and actual experiences rather than literary studies as is the case for other scholars.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. The complete tales & poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Race Point Pub, 2014.

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