Edgar Allan Poe Insanity

Edgar Allan poe is one of the most incredible gothic writers, with a library of many famous works. He is famous for his dark and ominous way of narrating, as well as his brutal and obscure endings to his tales. Arguably his most famous works are the poem entitled “The Raven” published January 29th 1845, and his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” published a few years earlier on January 1843. Both of these pieces of literature pulled the listener directly into Poe's mysterious world, with suspense and intensity in every line. “The Raven” and “The Tale-Heart’ written by Edgar Allan Poe both develop the gothic theme of madness by using dark imagery, similar symbolism, and torment.

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the greatest Sci-Fi/Mystery writers of all times. Two of his most popular poems, “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” have elements that relate to each other but at the same time they differ. The use of suspense in his poems is proficient, and it makes the readers want to read on because they are intrigued and they want to know what is going to happen next! Poe gives a good example of what an unreliable narrator is in his poems, he shows that sometimes they can’t be trusted because of their actions and what they say and do. The themes in the two poems are greatly different, but show a clear panorama of what the poems are going to be about. While the theme in Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” are different, the way he used suspense and unreliable narrator are alike.

It is a well known fact that Edgar Allan Poe‘s stories are famous for producing horror or terror in his readers beyond description. However, it is one of this essay’s attempts to precisely describe these two characteristics present in The pit and the pendulum and The black cat. Horror may be defined as “the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence.” On the contrary terror is described as “the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience” These two concepts are thought to be crucial when analyzing Poe’s writings. It is going to be

Edgar Allan Poe has been known for writing stories of mystery and horror. He has

Edgar Allan Poe was an extraordinary author whose horror and mystery stories leave an impression on readers even today. In some of Poe’s works, the narrator’s thoughts and actions make the reader question the narrator’s sanity. Two good examples are Poe’s poem “The Raven” and his short story “The Black Cat”; there is plenty of evidence to support that both of the narrators are not completely sane. In Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Black Cat,” both narrators exhibit symptoms of mental illness, including hallucinations, illogical thinking, mood swings, and substance abuse.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe, uses the horror elements of isolation, madness, and plot twist to add suspense to the story. In the beginning, the narrator is standing in front of what he describes as judges as they decide his fate, which adds suspense because the audience doesn’t know what could happen to the narrator when the judges punish him. Secondly, he is all alone, or so he believe. He is the only one experiencing the things that are being done, he is isolated from everyone and it is very dark. The narrator thinks, “My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed. The blackness of eternal night encompassed me,”(Poe 3) as he lays on the damp ground. Towards the middle, the narrator going mad because the Spanish

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity”. A quote from one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more famous stories The Tell Tale Heart. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing is still famous to this day. Not only his writing but his life. He is known for having a difficult life and writing about it in a not so obvious way. Through all his poems and short stories there are little hints everywhere that relate to his life. Depression, insanity and Tuberculosis were all common topics from Poe’s writing that related to his life.

Another example of insanity being the common theme in Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories can be established in “The Cask of Amontillado.” Montresor, the narrator, becomes enraged when he revisits a time long ago when his worst enemy Fortunato insulted his family. While recalling the occasion years later, Montresor confessions to a crime involving Fortunato. Considering the humiliation and disrespect Montresor felt was inflicted on his family, he wanted revenge stating, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (Poe 250). He felt that retribution was the only way Fortunato could feel the same way as he did when the insult to his family was made. As Montresor and Fortunato walk down into the vaults to look over some newly bought wine,

Edgar Allan Poe used the narrator’s insanity to build suspense by revealing the events in the story slowly and in an interesting way. When the narrator was looking at the old man when he woke up, he stood still for an hour until shining the light on his eye and deciding to kill him. These insane actions are unpredictable and makes you wonder what is going to happen next. At the house, when the police were present and the narrator was hearing the heartbeat, his thoughts made us curious about what he was going to do. Because he was insane, the suspense built as the character decided how he wanted to deal with the noise.

Aristotle once said, “No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” Poe’s works present a mix of dark and insane characters who all experience different situations that lead to death. He tends to base his stories from his personal life, experiences, and other factors from the Victorian era. Poe presents themes of family, sanity and insanity, and human experience to reflect ideals of his life, romanticism, and the Victorian era. To begin with, Poe presents the theme of sanity and insanity.

In Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum,” there are many signs that the narrator of the story is both unreliable and insane. A quote that first shows the reader that the narrator is not mentally stable states, “I was sick-- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.”

“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.” This was a quote said by the famous writer of Edgar Allan Poe. Just like it says in the quote, Edgar Poe has been called mad, or insane many times before because of his extraordinary writings. Some believe it is because of how many women he has lost throughout his life, while others say it is because he has been affected from the lack of fatherly figures in his life. While these could both be true, both of his fathers abandoning him have certainly affected him in a major way. These including Poe having to move a lot throughout his life, becoming very poor, and making him focus on his writing full time. For example, as stated in an article, About Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar’s father left his family when he was very young.

Numerous authors, whether they be short story authors or not, are able to set different tones and moods in their respective through a number of different ways. Whether it 's through setting or another literary device a writer has the ability to set a unique mood appropriate to their style. Through this paper I will be writing on one of America’s greatest writers, Edgar Allen Poe, and provide proper support and evidence by scholars that show through mainly the development and character traits, Edgar Allen Poe is able to provide such a dark mood that is expressed through most if not all his works. I will specifically go through; The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Tell Tale Heart.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most acclaimed short story writers of all time and is considered the father of the psychological thriller. He has achieved ever-lasting fame for his work in various fields of literature, from prose to verse. However, it is his Gothic narrative, in the short story realm he is greatest known for and is regarded as one of the foremost masters of horror that the United States has ever fashioned. The crucial component to these horror stories is usually the characters’ insanity. The madness that inflicts the main characters in these stories drives them to commit the acts that they do. For instance, it is the madness of the narrator in Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” that allows him to murder his beloved employer. Edgar Allan Poe weaved stories of intrigue, such as "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart,” each of which have characters that share the common element of insanity that renders them incapable of controlling their dangerous impulses of murder.

Dark Romanticism took a variety of forms, but Edgar Allan Poe was most fascinated with madness, death, and evil. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing style can typically be identified as dark and gothic, yet euphonic. Poe’s predictable style is clearly demonstrated to his readers. Edgar Allan Poe raises the level of dark romanticism in the stories, “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” by using symbolism as a representation of death, by creating unreliable narrators, and by using a haunting tone to set the weary mood.