Bezner 1 Paul Bezner Professor Culverson English 1102 25 March 2011 The Life and Horror of Edgar Allan

Poe The life and horror of Edgar Allan Poe begins through his poems and short stories. His expression of despair and death captures the readers in ways that are eerily prescient of the changes that have overtaken American society and the misery [and] sense of alienationthat [drives] his characters to death and murder (Bloom, 12). Poe describes his life through his short stories and poems with vivid illustrations of poverty and insanity. These descriptions may prove what Poe may want to tell the reader about his struggles of managing money and his career. Poe understands the power of imagery and irony and uses them to tell the reader what he may have been going through. The life and horror of Poe are illustrated in his writings through mood, death and confinement. Poe was born to professional actors in 1809 where soon after, his [father] abandons [the] family and two years later, his mother dies (Leer, xxvi). Soon after, Poe was taken in by a wealthy family, the Allans, who provided him with a strong education but did not support his literary aspirations. These experiences so far illustrate Poes loss and the beginnings to his horror. An example of Poes experiences relating to his stories is in The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe describes affairs to his own understanding that it wasduring the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens (Leer, 49). Poe may have given descriptions to his own life since his mother died in the autumn and this is where his story begins.

Bezner 2 In The Masque of the Red Death, Poe describes many horrors of the world he had to face in his time. Poe lived in a time of corruption and poverty as well as the outbreak of a disease called Cholera which he personifies as the Red Death. Poe mentions how The Red Death had long devastated the country [and no] pestilence had ever been so fatal or so hideous (Leer, 129).

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Bezner 8 Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Edgar Allan Poe: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. NetReader. 1999. 23 Mar. 2011. Bloom describes the biography of Poe to give the reader a sense of what the author has faced. This leads to Poes use of dark images and mood in his short stories and even his poems. Poe wrote of the double self and illustrated in graphic and terrifying detail the madness and despair that can arise from inner turmoil. This source will be used to describe the mood of Poes short stories to illustrate the life and horrors. Leer, Dan V. Edgar Allan Poe Selected Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. NetLibrary. 23 Mar. 2011