Theme Of Alcoholism And Drugs In Poe's Short Stories

Was all of that alcohol really worth all the damage it caused to you? Poe was an alcoholic, if Poe wasn’t writing he was drinking. He drank his life away not just figuratively but literally. Yet seeing Poe outside of a saloon in soiled clothes and disoriented in Baltimore, on election day leads one to speculate about what may have happened to him. This scene could cause one to think that Poe was a victim of a political kidnapping, where they would get people drunk. Poe would have certainly fallen for this because, he was an alcoholic who struggled with this sickness his whole life.

Did you know that they still don’t know what caused the death of the famous spooky poet and author Edgar Allan Poe? Edgar was an American author and poet from the 1800’s who died from undetermined causes. There is still a great mystery surrounding Poe’s death and there are two main theories of what caused him to die. He died of alcoholism because he had a history with drinking, had a very rough life, and the rabies theories has some holes in it.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote five short stories that are very popular. “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Raven,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are the stories that I found similar. Poe’s stories were written between 1839 and 1846. All of them are similar in a way that they involve madmen. These men think they are sane, but they end up doing horrible things. Poe’s writing style is very dark. We can consider what he is writing to be gothic.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dreamed before” (Edgar Allan Poe). Darkness and sadness are strong characteristics of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing. The tragedies during his life, such as the death of his biological and adoptive moms, followed by the death of his young wife Virginia were important factors which formed his gothic style. Poe is known for his drinking problems and use of drugs. Those habits had a big influence in his life and in his works.

How did Edgar Allen Poe really die? It is a question that has been asked for years now that people are still trying to answer. There are numerous theories of how Poe died, the most popular being alcoholism and rabies. Most people at the time attributed Poe's death to alcoholism because of his dark past with alcohol. However, Poe died of rabies because he exhibited many signs of rabies, including hallucinations, delirium, and anger.

Death, sadness, and craziness are attributes that are not looked too highly upon in society. As one starts to delve into Edgar Allan Poe’s life, the sadness he dealt with is found within the pages of his texts; something sad and dark always hangs in the background, making it difficult to read some of his works. In terms of what people deal with on a daily basis, the mental health issue in the United States has come to the forefront again because we are becoming more attuned to the problems people face in a “civilized” society. In the old days, we would lock those with major mental issues up in state mental health institutions; however, as we have moved forward and tried to save money as a government, the state mental health hospitals have been shut down, and we, as a nation, must find a new way to

Poe was an amazing writer who had a troubled life and mind. Poe died too young, a brilliant mind was lost in the world of literature that day. Many people believe he died different ways. Some people believe Poe died of alcoholism, and some believe that Poe died of rabies. These are reasons why many believe Poe died of alcoholism.

Substance abuse plays a role in more than one of Poe's works. In the black cat alcohol drives the narrator to rip out his cats eye with with a pen and then hang the cat in guilt of what he had done. The narrator was a kind hearted man who loved animals and would do nothing to hurt them until he started to drink. He became an angrier person, always getting enraged with the people and creatures around him and his personality changed for the worse. Substance abuse changed him and drove him to be a different person than he really was. After killing the cat he felt little to no remorse for the deed he had committed and went back to his drinking and partying.Eventually his drinking led him to kill his wife, substance abuse changed him into a

This essay will discuss the themes in Poe’s writing that mirror his personal life and, in addition, the fear and supernatural motivators for his characters. First, I will discuss Poe’s background and explore how he became best known as a poet for his tales of mystery and macabre.

Edgar Allan Poe also mentions alcoholism and opium addiction in his short novel “Ligeia.” The narrator of the story suffers through the tragic, sudden death of his true love, Ligeia, and quickly becomes depressed. To hopefully cure his depression, opium became his pain-suppressant and he married Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine. The narrator mourned his beloved Ligeia in the first few months of the marriage and found refuge continually in opium, which would cause him to dream of his late wife. As Rowena became ill, he started to see and feel things as he was intoxicated. The narrator tried to help Rowena be on the mend by giving her some wine to drink. He has a strange hallucination, most likely caused by the high doses of opium he consumed on a regular basis. Rowena started to die and even though the narrator stayed by her side the entire time, he still mourned Ligeia to the point that he hallucinated the body coming back to life but as Ligeia instead of Rowena. In this story, the effects of opium are clearly apparent, and in most aspects the references reflect Poe’s life. The way the narrator mourns the death of Ligeia by turning to opium is very similar to Poe’s opium addiction after the death of his wife, Virginia.

Edgar Allen Poe has created many stories that are dark, suspenseful, and murderous such as The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat. His works tend to resemble one another in style, mood, theme, and plot. The ways in which these elements are displayed show contrast between the two. The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat are two brutal tales with similar themes about being insane. Both stories are told from the first person point of view with a maniacal narrator.

The symbols used in ¨The Black Cat.¨ “Poe uses a cat to show a difficulty of human reason.” (Moreland,Rodriguez 6). This is important because the cat was always there when something bad happened. Poe had a lot of difficulty making his decisions because of his alcoholism. “ Poe used procrastination to show how humans do things and deiced things and when it’s time to explain them then it can only be explained in a negative way.” (Moreland,Rodriguez 9). This is important because it shows how Poe was very creative while using symbolism. In the story, Poe took a very long time to kill his wife and when he did, he tried to hide it but failed. “A black cat in ancient popular notion is witches in disguise.” (Moreland,Rodriguez 6). This is important because in the story, bad things only happened when the black cat was around. Poe used this to show how he believes in bad luck and how the black cat symbolized bad luck. Poe used a lot of symbolism throughout all his short stories to point out the significance of the story. The cellar that Poe describes in the story is symbolized as a jail cell. This could be because Poe knows that he has committed a crime and must pay for it and the only way he would be able to pay for it is in jail. Poe also uses a lot of imagery to describe the cellar in his story, which gives the reader a vivid image of the cellar being symbolized as a jail cell.

Edgar Allan Poe is well-known for his captivating tales of the macabre through eloquence and wit. In many of his short stories, Poe was able to exploit his audience's fears through allegory and descriptive details of murder and madness. One of Poe's captivating, yet mad, narrators helms "The Black Cat," a tale of paranoia, alcoholism, and murder. There are several things that make the narrator an intriguing character including his psychological state, the imp of the perverse, and the effect that alcoholism has on him.

“The Black Cat” is one of Poe’s most memorable stories. The story first published in 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post, is a study of the psychology of guilt, paired with other works by Poe. The start of the narrative should intrigue readers, by the imagery that is recognized by writers. John Cleman wrote the article “Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense” analyzing the work written by Poe and his usage of themes and symbols. At the beginning of this article, Cleman stated this: “Near the beginning of the tale, the narrator says he would be “mad indeed” if he should expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness” (630). Poe is creating a sense of confusion for the readers and making them think more about the story before reading. The story is centered around a black cat and the idea of deterioration of a man. From his prison cell, the narrator is writing the story about his life, which is falling apart; He has a love for animals, and for his wife that he married young. One of the things that he takes on as a hobby, is drinking, and when he starts to drink, his personality shifts, as he starts abusing his wife and pets. The narrative is full of gruesome scenes in which he hurts his pets, including murdering them. Later, he continues the abuse and kills his wife, also. Eventually, the cops show up, and take down the wall. “Then quickly they began to pick at the stones, and in a short time they saw

Stories like the “black cat”, “The tell- tale heart”, “The masque of the red death”, and “Morella” all deal with horror, murder, and sudden death. The short story, ‘The black cat’ gives the audience a story line visual of the mind of an alcoholic and the way his behavior changes over time, in different scenarios the character starts to turn abusive to the animals that he once loved. The man then starts to isolate himself from the black cat which was his favorite animal until one day he snaps and kills the black cat by hanging it to a tree with a rope. Days later a cat comes back around him that shows almost the same identity of the black cat, but the only difference is the white patch which is the bottom part of the cat body. the man then starts to grow jealous as his wife shows attention to the new cat which then leads him to murder his wife and stuffing her dead body in a wall, he later confesses to the crime and spends life in prison. This story is very dark and gives a clear identification of the mind of a troubled individual who then takes out his anger by being abusive to the animals in his environment and later his wife. Different aspects in Poe’s stories look deep into the mind of a person and the reasons that leads to murder and death.