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Poe's Psychology In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

Decent Essays

Edgar Alan Poe’s writing is centered primarily on the psyche and Freudian beliefs. The Freudians would call his stories of horror expressions of anxiety, which to them always has a sexual connotation. It is true that Poe’s passions were of his mind. One of his most famous poems, “The Raven,” is a perfect example of that. “The Raven” by Poe is a psychological study into the depths of his despair primarily driven by the death of his loved ones, financial troubles he had in his adult life, and his mental illness.
Edgar Allan Poe grew up in a poor family due to his parents being small actors in a local theater in Boston. His father was said to be a victim of consumption which Edgar later inherited from him in life, and this is one of the things that eventually led to the downfall of his career as well as his life. His mother however, was a beautiful and talented woman, whom he looked up to and took pride in. It’s from her that he inherited the artistic ability, and was made to be very fond of drawing and writing stories. As an adolescent, both his parents died of disease and starvation, and the death of his mother took a bad toll on him.
Soon after her death, the theater where she so often performed burned down due to a large fire. His mother’s death, and the sight of the burning theater where his beautiful mother had so often graced the stage, must have had a powerful effect upon the dawning imagination of young Edgar, so that even at this early age there appeared to him the

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