The Influences Of Poe Essay Research Paper — страница 2

  • Просмотров 251
  • Скачиваний 5
  • Размер файла 16
    Кб

whose borders his faculties could not go in their ordinary wide-awake operations. Not all of his creative insights came to him in this way, but it is to his experiences as a sleep-walker that we owe his vision of ethereal beauty—the vision that produced such poems as ‘The Sleeper,’ ‘Israfel,’ and ‘Lenore’” (Buranelli 27). Poe also drew upon the ideas of romanticism and a German idealism called Naturphilosphie. Poe used these two ideals to “smash imaginatively the work day world and then rebuild it just as imaginatively according to his own specifications.” Poe then took these ideals and formulated them into the words and philosophies which became “Eureka.” “Eureka” traces the evolution of the cosmos, describes its structure, and anticipates its fate at

the end of time (Buranelli 28). Dreams, however, were not the only factor contributing to Poe’s writings. Poe drew mainly on his own personal experiences. As mentioned above, Poe’s foster father, Mr. Allan, was a harsh dictator. Other men used to laugh and make fun of him. Poe never got over his paternal father abandoning him as a small child. He always resented and hated the man for putting his mother through so much pain. Poe hated his foster father in much the same way. Most of the men in Poe’s life abandoned him at one time or another, which eventually led to a growing hatred. Poe tried not to be like other men; he tried to be loving and caring. He tried not to be like other men because he hated them so much. In his writings, Poe tries to make men look bad. The reader

can see in his writings that men are usually doing something to an object or someone else. Two examples include, the cat in “Black Cat” is being treated unjustly by the man in the story, and Usher’s attempted murder of his sister in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The women in Poe’s life also seem to “abandon” him. Each of the women that Poe was closed to died, usually of tuberculosis. This wrecked havoc on Poe’s emotional state and pushed him to the brink of the “twisted kingdom,” or insanity. The death’s influenced his writing, which is seen in nearly every poem or short story. His writings are usually grotesque and have an obsession with death. In many cases, the deaths in his stories have obscure circumstances surrounding them. Poe’s chronic

alcohol abuse is also reflected in his writings, but not as one would think. Many people think that Poe’s hallucinations and deranged thinking lead to some of his best works. If the reader takes a good look at his writings, he can see that it’s the alcoholism itself that is represented. The descriptions drunken men in “The Man of the Crowd” come to show Poe as he saw himself. They staggered and stumbled to the gin houses “in shreds and patches, reeling, inarticulate, with bruised visage and lack-luster eyes” (Poe 477). Poe is describing himself as he looks whenever he is commonly drug out of the gutters. In “Black Cat”, the main character is an alcoholic who exclaims “for what disease is like Alcohol” (Poe 224). In a drunken stupor, the man gouges out the

cat’s eye because he thought it was avoiding him. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Fortunato is lured to his death by the drug. Poe rarely uses alcohol in anything positive. The drug is usually used in association to destruction and anger. He retaliates against the drug and attacks it in his writings. His characters show his inability to enjoy the drug and his seeing it as an instrument of destruction. Poe died in 1849, but his memory did not die with him. His life influences influenced his writings which, in turn, influenced the lives of others. Through his pain and anguish, others have learned to appreciate the darker side of literature. Poe’s works often show us how fine a line there is between sanity and madness.