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18th Century Influence On Edgar Allan Poe

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The Effect of the 18th Century on A Man Named Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer in the 1800’s. He is most known for his poems and tales of freaky and mysterious things, including ‘The Raven’ and ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ (“Edgar Allan Poe Bio”). But my question is, How did the time period Edgar lived in, effect his life? The 1800’s was a time known for making some lives terrible, such as Edgar Allan Poe, whom is known for making very horrific writings. Edgar’s life was faced with the challenges of diseases, 1800’s depression, and his complicated life, all because of the time period he lived in. Edgar Allan Poe did not have a simple life, it was very complicated. Edgar was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. Poe then faced …show more content…

Edgar had 2 family members die of Tuberculosis, it took his family and a part of himself. This disease is known for infecting patients in a way that almost looks like the person is being consumed, the patient loses weight and looks very sickly (“History of Tuberculosis”). This was only the start of the disease and the outbreak of infection. The main outbreak began in the late 1900’s. “By the late 19th century, 70 to 90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with the TB bacillus, and about 80% of those individuals who developed active tuberculosis died of it.” ("Tuberculosis in Europe and North America”). This is when the people began to take extreme notice of it & do research about it, or attempt to. They would try to isolate the people who were infected by a disease, “The sanatoria movement.” ("Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, 1800-1922”). Having 2 relatively close family members die and go through this infection would be very difficult to see, this could have impacted the way Edgar Allan Poe lived his life. By my assumption and reading the information that I have, people who did have a disease or a disease even in their family, were looked at as less and maybe even poor or dirty. Edgar Allan Poe was most likely looked at like that since there is evidence of his thoughts in his writings, from the influence of the image that other people were directing towards him. This could have over all affected the way Edgar’s confidence was and how his self-image had been, later effecting the way he wrote his poems and

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