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Edger Allan Poe Essay, Research Paper

Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston on Jan. 19,

1809, deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from

tale to art. He for the most part created the detective story and perfected the psychological

thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time. Poe died Oct.

7, 1849.

Poe’s parents were touring actors; both died before he was three years old, and he was

taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Va., and baptized Edgar

Allan Poe. His childhood was uneventful, although he studied for five years in England between

the years of 1815 through 1920. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia, however, he only

attended for a year. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to

pay. Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe’s engagement to Sarah Elmira

Royster, his girlfriend. Having no where to turn, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however,

already written and printed his first book at his own expense: Tamerlane and Other Poems, verses

written in the manner of Byron.

Temporarily approved, Allan secured Poe’s release from the army and his appointment to

West Point but refused to provide financial support. After six months Poe apparently contrived to

be dismissed from West Point for disobedience of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed

the funds for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe.

Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her

daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In 1832 the Philadelphia

Saturday Courier published five of his stories, all comic or satiric. Poe, his aunt, and Virginia

moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and

married Virginia, who was not yet fourteen years old. His contributions undoubtedly increased the

magazine’s circulation, but they offended its owner, who also took exception to Poe’s drinking.

In New York City, then in Philadelphia and again in New York Poe sought to establish

himself as a force in literary journalism, but with only moderate success. He did succeed,

however, in formulating influential literary theories and in demonstrating mastery of the forms he

favored, highly musical poems and short prose narratives. The tale Poe considered his finest, ?The

Fall of The House of Usher,? which was to become one of his most famous stories.

Virginia’s death in January 1847 was a heavy blow, but Poe continued to write and lecture.

In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted anew by the fiancee he

had lost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. In a brief

obituary the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of congestion of the brain.

The short story is a prose narrative that can be told or read on a single occasion. It is

believed to be the oldest form of prose fiction. Originating with primitive accounts of

supernatural encounters, short narratives have existed in the form of parables, fairy tales, folk

tales, legends, and fables throughout history. Edgar Allan Poe perfected what has come to be

known as the classic form, as opposed to the later hard-boiled form developed in the 1920s. The

classic form is the story in which a seemingly impossible crime has been committed and the

detective relies on his or her superior perception, intellect, and often arcane knowledge to solve

the mystery.

The fall of The House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe?s, ? The Fall of the House of Usher? takes on the same basic literary

themes as do most of his stories, suspense imparticular. However, he also uses the supernatural in

this story as well. Poe?s vast description enables the reader to place himself with the narrator, and

get a better feeling of what is truly going on with the story. Using a nameless narrator allows the

reader to use his imagination on to what the narrator looks like; is it the reader himself? Poe? or a

figment of Poe?s imagination? That is to forever be unknown. However, it is also part of the

reason Poe?s work has become the superlative of the short story.

The story takes place mainly in the House of the Usher family, the exact location in is not

mentioned, however, the surroundings seem very gloomy; the house itself is described as

decaying, Poe obviously was trying to give the reader a mental image of a dark, immense, house,

isolated from the world.

Throughout the story, Poe’s imagery of the house and the inanimate objects inside serve to

give a supernatural atmosphere to the story. By giving inanimate objects almost life-like

characteristics, he is giving the house a supernatural quality. This supernatural element serves to

make Poe’s ?The Fall of the House of Usher? interesting and suspenseful in his treatment of the

house’s effect on its inhabitants. It also allows the house to become, in my opinion, the most

important character of the story, although it is inanimate. However, three tangible characters play

the decisive role in this story: Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher, and the un-named narrator.

Lady Madeline, the twin sister of Roderick Usher, is introduced as a character, however,

never speaks a word throughout the entire story. In fact, she is absent from most of

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