The Influence Of Life In Edgar Allan Poe's Works

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Does an author’s life often affect their literature and the way they write? For Edgar Allan Poe, his life experiences greatly affected his writing. He wrote with a dark tone and because of what he went through with life, it affected his writing. Edgar Allan Poe faced many tragic events throughout his life which caused his writings to get the “dark” theme and tone. The word dark means a low mood and a deep feeling. It is clearly evident that Poe’s dark tones and themes as well as psychologically turbulent literature were a result of the dark, depressing life he lived.
To begin with, how does someone’s life be considered dark? What makes a life “dark”? There are no real set qualifications of a dark life. Everyone has a different perception of …show more content…
One way Edgar’s works were dark was the descriptive language he used. He used descriptive words that painted this depressing image in one’s head. The language was dark and he used words that express a dark tone. The poem The Raven has many examples of this dark language usage, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor” (Fall River 68). This quote describes the month of December as bleak and makes the embers of the fire seem dead which is dark. Also, another example in The Raven is, “Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore” (Fall River 70). This also describes the dark theme because the bird’s “master” was unmerciful and causes a disaster in the birds soul. Also in the two lined poem Deep in Earth, “Deep in earth my love is lying and I must weep alone.” This quote uses dark depressing descriptions to show how the character in the poem is feeling and how he is in mourning for his lover who had died. The Pit and the Pendulum also expresses dark tones, “The sentence- the dread sentence of death- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears” (Fall River 443). This expresses a dark tone because the last thing the character assumed they heard was the sentence of death. The sentence of death was …show more content…
He had abandonment issues and was an alcoholic. Those psychological problems affected the way he wrote. This is also very true for many more authors and that the way they experience life and the way they see the world can affect the way they write and what they write about. For example, in Dreamers by Kimberly Thompson “The officer explained that a drunk driver hit a father and daughter head on” (Thompson 16) shows that her first marriage is ending which gave up her idea of the perfect family with the perfect husband and kids. And the alcohol caused that marriage to end. Also in the same story, “It had been a long time coming and they summed it up best. DREAMS CAN COME TRUE” (Thompson 40). This is when she remarried and her new husband came along and made her dream come true of having the perfect family and her true love. Edgar battled with abandonment issues because he never had a father, his mother died when he was very young, and his step mother also died. He expresses the theme of death a lot in his works. For example, in the poem Dream-Land Edgar writes, “Sheeted Memories of the Past- Shrouded forms that start and sigh As they pass the wanderer by- White-robed forms of friends long given, In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven” (Fall River 67). This explains that he covered his memories and past and he “dresses” the memories and bury them. It also explains that his memories “died”
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