A Descent into the Maelström

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelstrom,” the power of nature is underestimated. Aspects of the natural world are depicted in an extreme, otherworldly and almost unfathomable form, and serve as indicators for a journey into a world that is within nature, but simultaneously borders on the supernatural. Common elements of the natural world are intensified and serve as symbolic, rather than everyday elements. Their exaggerated forms signify a break from a more familiar, assumed understanding

The Portable Edgar Allen Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy, is a phenomenal compilation of works from one of America's greatest writers of the nineteenth century. Published in 2006, the book contains short stories, poems, and letters, written by Edgar Allen Poe. Full of lies, hope, revenge, and guilt, the stories in this assemblage are suspenseful and convey powerful messages. Of all the amazing stories that comprise this anthology, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Pit and the

Emerging in the 19th century, various poets and authors began to dab into the significance of evil. They began to morph the synopsis of romanticism, into a dark supernatural era because some authors thought the romantics were just sugar coating everything and not saying how society truly was, so they wrote about the crime and stuff that happened that transcendentalist masked, so it was kind of like a literary gilded age. This was a literary movement unmasked a utopian society to reveal the world

Rappacini’s Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorn’s story Rappacini’s Daughter is about a man named Giovanni who, upon coming to Padua to attend university, finds himself living next to Dr. Rappacini and his beautiful daughter Beatrice. Dr. Rappacini has a garden full of beautiful and poisonous plants, many of which are species he has created himself. Giovanni observes that although Dr. Rappacini must take precautions while handling the plants, his daughter can touch them without any issues. Giovanni also

Ahab that Ishmael doesn’t realize or share with the reader. Starbuck and Ahab’s differing religious views show why Ahab has such an obsession with killing Moby Dick. When introducing the Pequod’s mates, Ishmael describes Starbuck as “a Quaker by descent” (101) and “uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence” (102). Christianity has been a part of Starbuck’s life for generations, and like his religious beliefs dictate, he kills whales because whaling is his job

Edgar Allan Poe "The boundaries which divide Life and Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends, and where the other begins?" Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial (Bartlett, 642). To venture into the world of Edgar Allan Poe is to embark on a journey to a land filled with perversities of the mind, soul, and body. The joyless existence carved out by his writings is one of lost love, mental anguish, and the premature withering of his subjects. Poe wrote in a style that

Art is in everything. Artists can be experts with a paintbrush, phenomenal with piano or a master of their pen. Authors and poets have a chance to manipulate words like no other artist can. Poets in particular can use their words to encompass different kinds of art by painting a picture with lyrical rhythm and imagery. Poets may be common, but for their poetry to be timeless it must be universally relatable. Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as one of the most famous poets in American history due to his

The principal themes in Usher are terror and madness. These, the text suggests, arise from the maelstrom of forces that form human destiny. Events result not simply from individual circumstances, but from a collision of circumstances. For Usher, this refers to family history, and the decaying vegetation surrounding the house telegraphs the descent of the Usher family into madness through its symbolic value. On the other hand, the principal theme in When Lilacs Last in

Opposing the core idea of the Age of Enlightenment that the universe is a mechanism in which man is just its cog, Romanticism envisioned humans as part of divine creation. German philosophers and writers such as Goethe and Schiller, and other members of the German literary movement of the 18th century, Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), focused on human emotions, senses, and intuition in their poetry and prose, thus forming the foundation of a new aesthetic and philosophic movement. As a continuation

What is art? How can one define simply, a subject so broad, so complex, and as subjective as artistic expression? Leo Tolstoy postulates, “Art is architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry in all its forms…” (Tolstoy 15) I believe that although Tolstoy, may never have imagined it in his original definition, video games may certainly fit as a viable mode of artistic expression; I believe videogames are art. According to Tolstoy, architecture is a perfectly respectable medium for artistic