How Does Edgar Allan Poe's Life Reflected In His Works

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“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” This quote from Edgar Allan Poe is just one that generalizes his distinctive and often dark writing style. One of his more famous works, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, displays this twisted sense of reality and showcases why Poe was the master of this dark style. His writings are still relevant today because the standard for macabre literature was set by him. Many pieces of literature and film we have today reflect the concepts that Poe had in his writings. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe excellently used many literary devices, such as symbolism and irony, and seamlessly put them together in such a way to make his story flow while keeping the reader captivated. The…show more content…
Growing up without parental figures led Poe to write in such a manner that is often seen as dark and abnormal. He was a witness to many of the female figures in his life leaving in a tragic way. His mother died when he was only three years old. In 1826, while attending The University of Virginia, he fell into debt and decided to return home. He then discovered that his fiancée was engaged to someone else. He proceeded to attend West Point, a military academy, but was kicked out (Edgar Allan Poe Biography). It was in 1831 when he decided to focus on his literary career. His works became well-known during his lifetime, but failed to grant him monetary success. He had many works that were famous, such as “The Raven” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, yet “The Tell-Tale Heart”, is one of Poe’s works that stands out in the entirety of his career (Edgar Allan Poe Biography). Poe believed that literature should be read in one sitting, in order to receive the full-effect of the story. “The Tell-Tale Heart”, originally published in 1843, is one of his short stories that followed his literary theory (Edgar Allan Poe…show more content…
The eye symbolized obscurity, which can often times lead to a raw vulnerability (Ki, 1). For the old man, whenever he was in bed sleeping, he was in the most vulnerable state that humans can be in. “I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye -- not even his --could have detected anything wrong” (Krupat, 717). In this part of the story, Poe took an object and a place that are commonly thought of as safe and comfortable environments for us humans to shut down in that vulnerable state for hours at a time, and he turned them into a place where the narrator hunted out the old man and proceeded to not only kill him there, but also bury him there. Through this symbolism, there is also irony found in the representation of the bed and bedroom (Ki, 6). This symbolism, paired with irony, deepen that sense of warped reality that the narrator had throughout the
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