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Edgar Allan Poe Insanity

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Edgar Allan Poe had the most terrible, grotesque, pathetic, and heart wrenching life out of every well known American author. Poe’s tortured soul created what some argue to be some of the most celebrated and influential pieces of literature in American culture. His works are best known for their dark themes of death and insanity, contrasted with beauty. By looking into the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one can deduce the reasons behind his centralization on specifically dark elements.
Edgar was born to a pair of traveling actors in Boston in January 19, 1809 but his parents died within three years of his birth and he was taken in by a family in Richmond (“Who Was Edgar Allan Poe”). Edgar’s mother, Elizabeth, was very beautiful and when she was …show more content…

This repetition of viewing his mother committing suicide and coming back to life again instilled Edgar’s confusion with life and death at a young age in his young and impressionable mind, especially since his widowed mother did not have enough money for a babysitter, Edgar sat in the middle seat of the front row watching her performance eight times a week. Later, Edgar mother got a job in Richmond Virginia, but as soon as she arrived, she fell sick with consumption. Edgar happened to be looking at his mother when she died and stated that she looked even more beautiful in death than in life (Engel, …show more content…

Youth, beauty, women, and death became main figures in Poe literature mainly because of his experience with beloved women in his life dying. An odd symbolism choice made in many of Edgar’s works was the tie between the color red and death. Many tie this back to fact that many important women in his life died of consumption. It was a horrible death in which the victim drowns in their own blood. Having seen this happen to a few women in his life, Edgar utilized the color along with his four previously mentioned themes (Engel,

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2017 Words | 9 Pages

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2427 Words | 10 Pages

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