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How Did Poe Build Suspense

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Building of Suspense in Poe’s Works “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” -Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. His mother died two years after he was born, and his father left soon after. Poe was then taken in by the Allans, a wealthy family, but they never formally adopted him. Poe started writing when he was about 18 years old. He eventually moved in with his aunt and cousin Virginia. He fell in love with Virginia and they got married in secret. Poe wrote many works all based on the horror and detective genres. Poe is known as the father of the modern detective story, and is credited with. Poe’s wife eventually died of tuberculosis and he never remarried. Poe sunk into a depression and started …show more content…

“In sunshine and in shadow,…And o'er his heart a shadow…He met a pilgrim shadow-‘Shadow,’ said he,…Down the Valley of the Shadow,” (“Eldorado”). In this poem by Poe, he repeats the word shadow five times. Each time the word shadow has a different connotation. “In sunshine and in shadow,”. In this line, Poe is talking about night and day. “And o’er his heart a shadow”. In this line, Poe is talking about a deep sorrow felt by the protagonist. “He met a pilgrim shadow- ‘Shadow said he,”. In this line, shadow is personifying a creature, possibly death. “Down the Valley of the Shadow.” In this line, the shadow is telling the protagonist that the only way to get to “Eldorado” is to go to the Valley of the Shadow. The name Valley of the Shadow means that this is the shadow’s home and since the shadow personifies death the protagonist has to die to get to Eldorado. The repetition of shadow and the different connotations build suspense and leave the reader wondering what the knight decides to do. “With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me…The angels, not half so happy in heaven, went envying her and me…And neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea…”. (“Annabel Lee”). The narrator keeps mentioning the angels and demons. The narrator of this poems is blaming the angels for killing his love, Annabel Lee. The angels and demons that he mentions are “envying her and me” (“Annabel Lee”). The narrator personifies wind as angels coming to kill his love. He is obsessed with death, love, angels, and demons. The obsession with such polar opposites leads the narrator to go insane with love. Even though Annabel Lee has died the narrator believes that their love transcends death. This belief causes suspense because the reader is left wonder what things that the narrator will be driven to do by this

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Then in the last two lines of this stanza, he hints at the Angel's jealousy of their love. Stanza 3, is where Poe lets us know that this has no Disney fairytale ending. Poe explains here that a

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520 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning, the author expresses how time is never ending. The author uses precise diction to describe nightfall in which can be inferred as death. He uses “plane of light”, “sunset”, “shadow”, “last”, and “the hawk comes” in which he expresses that time will not stop even for death. Night is darkness, in which death will fall upon.

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961 Words | 4 Pages

The speaker’s relationship with his “lost Lenore,” seems to be an unexpected one. Lenore is referred to as an angel, while the narrator is surrounded by ghosts and evil feelings. The feeling of terror which was felt when the narrator opened the door to find “darkness there and nothing more,” could have been reduced had a light been nearby to illuminate the hallway, but the importance of the darkness shows the audience that the lack of religion and prayers of the narrator are taking a toll on him, as the seemingly lack of religious beliefs Poe had also affected his life. Not only did Poe allude to the evil aspects of religions in this poem, but he also threw in a few allusions that make the audience question what Poe’s beliefs truly were. Poe alludes to the Hellenistic story of Pallas Athena in line 41, the narrator points out that this Raven is “perched upon a bust of Pallas,” Poe specifically chose Pallas because she and Lenore relate to each other in the ways that the two of them will only live on in their names.

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Edgar Allan Poe Very is Effective at Creating Suspense In Edgar Allan Poe's tragic life many events occurred that inspired his popular dark and terrifying horror stories. Even at a very young age Poe lost both his parents, his mother died and his father abandoned him. Poe's wife also died due to tuberculoses. Effected by events from earlier in his life, Poe thought nature was dark,sinister and mysterious.

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272 Words | 2 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe, born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts is one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story. He is best known for his mystery tales and the macabre of his stories. Poe was considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. His life full of drinking led to his stories being full of unsound thoughts, erroneous opinions, and morbid feelings. A very different writer

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753 Words | 4 Pages

Lastly, Poe exhibits his thoughts that the power of love contains the ability to withstand any chaos including death. After the devastating death, the author pulls himself back up and overcome obstacles regarding death. Poe says, “and neither the angels in Heaven above / Nor the demons down under the sea / Can ever dissever my soul from the soul”(Poe 30-32). To exemplify how nothing can stop their love, from up high to down low, Poe uses an alliteration and antithesis of “Heaven and demons” bringing back the sea

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972 Words | 4 Pages

  Poe was born on January 19, 1809, a middle child, to actor parents who were constantly traveling. Unfortunately, his father left him and by the age of three both his mother and father were dead. As a result, Poe and his siblings were all split up and sent to different homes. Poe was sent

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

So he was alone in this “kingdom by the sea” once again. Another great symbol is the Angels/Seraphs. Often we don’t see these majestic creatures in such a evil/jealous light, but what can you expect from Mr. Poe. Interestingly enough the lofty seraphs are the bad guys in this sad story. For this distressed young man, I believe that the angels represents not only the cause of the sickness that took Annabel Lee but also maybe Poe is showing us what jealousy can do to relationships.

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731 Words | 3 Pages

In this poem, Poe continuously refers back to Annabel Lee in order to convey the narrator’s longing for her. For example, Poe states, “...neither the angels...nor the demons...can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee,” (Stanza 5). In this quote, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates the narrator’s undying connection and longing for his “beautiful” Annabel Lee. This can be observed when the narrator claims that death, represented by demons and angels, will never divide the couple’s souls and love. Furthermore, in the poem

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756 Words | 4 Pages

This poem is a representation of life and death. During the time of Poe writing this story, he was in a very dark place in his life. His life was full of death and lost. He resulted in gambling and Alcohol which he soon became addicted to. He was not able to keep a stable job nor stay in the same place for too long.

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458 Words | 2 Pages

This work can have countless meanings, but ultimately what Poe is trying to prove is that his loved one is lost forever, it 's contrary. Therefore if you will nevermore see your loved one, you are left with a sorrow forever. Here is another abstract example from the poem: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost

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834 Words | 4 Pages

Lastly, in lines 11-12, Poe uses imagery by describing the angels that have come for Annabel Lee. “With a love that the winged seraphs in Heaven, coveted her and me” (Poe 11-12). This gives the reader a visual image of angels coming down from Heaven to take Annabel Lee back with them. The use of imagery by describing Annabel Lee’s place of burial, the wind that killed Annabel Lee, and the angels that took Annabel Lee to Heaven develops the theme of loss and mortality because Annabel Lee’s place of burial is where she is laid to rest and she is dead, the wind is what killed her, and the angels are what took her to Heaven after she

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1459 Words | 6 Pages

The poet uses a metaphor in the line 3 about in the sunshine and the shadow in his poem. It is contradicting us from the understanding between the lighter and darker places of the poem. Also, it is describing us about the knight is traveling from day to shadowy time. He stated lines 4-6 that the knight is taking a long journey to find the lost city of Eldorado, and he’s traveling very happy as well as he’s singing a song. Therefore, it serves a moment of having a good time in traveling was like for us when we are traveling to different

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1384 Words | 6 Pages

From the following lines of the third stanza, Poe explains about the knight’s aging process caused him to see a shadowy figure like a spirit: “ He met a pilgrim shadow-/ “Shadow,” said he,/ Where can it be.../- This land of Eldorado?” (15-18). Poe uses the imagery of a pilgrim shadow, who’s helping the knight to find Eldorado. He expressed the shadow of pilgrim because pilgrim is a person who travels on a journey to find their life purpose.

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936 Words | 4 Pages

The dark night sky resembles the end of the speaker’s life. In the third stanza, there is a shift in the poem at the start of line 10. At this point, the speaker has accepted the fact that he will die and begins to imagine the afterlife. The idea of the sailor crossing the sandbar is clear that it is a metaphor for death.

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