Edgar Allan Poe: Background for His Works

foreign [Music] s were marked by contrast and contradiction he wanted to be known above all as a poet [Music] but he became most famous as a writer of prose the master of The Nightmare tale of Horror the tale of Madness in a world from which all reason has fled [Music] thank you [Music] and yet to create these Tales he developed a method based on careful logical analysis and he wrote other stories in which logic and reason were a major theme his skill and the scope of his Works have made Edgar Allan Poe one of the most influential writers in American literature foreign thank you in 1831 Poe was living in the home of a widowed Aunt Maria Clem in Baltimore Maryland the attic had been made into a room where he could be alone to write at the age of 22 Poe was determined to make a living as a writer and he was searching for a literary form which would appeal to a significant number of readers literature during the early 1800s was dominated by the Romantic Movement often taking the form of an escape into the distant past to the Middle Ages seen as a time of high drama and adventure [Music] or to a still earlier time to what was considered the Golden Age of ancient Greece and Rome [Music] using themes such as these Poe had written and published three books of poetry by 1831. one of his finest forms is titled to Helen a tribute to his first love the mother of a Boyhood friend Helen thy beauty is to me like those nice and Barks of yore the gently or a perfume sea the weary way worn Wanderer board to his own native Shore undesperate Seas long won't roam thy Hyacinth hair like classic face heirs have brought me home to the glory that was Greece and the Grandeur that was Rome though in young brilliant window niche house statue-like I see these stands the Agate lamp within thy hands uh psyche from the regions which are Holy Land but books of poetry did not sell well enough to provide a Dependable income as Poe studied the literary Market he was impressed by the popularity of a type of fiction that emphasized the darker side of the Romantic Movement Gothic tales of horror and the supernatural foreign decided to write this type of story he proceeded carefully and logically to work out a formula for composition Poe's skill in developing his formula is seen in the beginning of his story The Fall of the House of Usher during the whole of a dull dark and soundless day in the Autumn of the year when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens I had been passing alone on Horseback through a singularly dreary attractive country and at length found myself as the shades of the evening Drew on within the view of The Melancholy House of Usher I know not what it was but with the first glimpse of the building sense of unsufferable Gloom pervaded my spirit [Music] gradually by developing characters and setting Paul intensifies the vague feeling of Gloom first into the desperation of a mind obsessed and destroying itself and finally into the terror of living death from that chamber and from that Mansion I fled aghast my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand Waters and the deep and danked iron closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the House of Usher the effectiveness of pose Tales of Terror have led many readers to believe that Poe himself was a mad genius it is true that his life had many of the elements of a romantic tragedy his parents had been actors a profession not considered quite respectable at the time Poe was born in Boston in 1809. by the time he was three he had lost both of his parents and Poe was taken into the home of John and Francis Allen of Richmond Virginia as he grew up he had the expectation of a fine education of an inheritance from his foster parents and of a life as a respected Southern gentleman but by the time Poe enrolled in the University of Virginia he'd begun to quarrel with his foster father he left the university after his first year later while Poe was a student at West Point renewed quarreling led to a final break with John Allen and so at the age of 23 having lost the hope of an inheritance Poe was struggling to earn a living with his pen to support himself his widowed aunt and her daughter Virginia after Poe had lived for four years in his aunt's home he and Virginia were married she was only 13 years old at the time and suffering from a devastating illness that would end her life at the age of 24. exactly the age at which Poe's mother had died [Music] to supplement his income as a writer Paul began a career as a magazine editor his shrewd judgment helped to increase the circulation of the magazines but he often quarreled with his publishers he was never able to earn a very large salary he contributed several stories to these magazines and also wrote book reviews pose evaluations of other writers were usually carefully reasoned and Justified but his harsh tone created many enemies plagued by financial problems and deeply concerned about his wife's health foe went through periods of deep depression that sometimes led to drunkenness he actually drank very little but even a small amount of alcohol could be devastating to him no doubt Poe's personal problems are reflected in the gloom and Terror of many of his tales and poems and yet between periods of depression he had become a productive and extremely careful Craftsman all of his manuscripts are written in a firm Steady Hand indicating that his stories were probably not written while he was under the influence of alcohol while his themes were typical of Romanticism his methods of working were very different in his essay the philosophy of composition Poe told how he wrote his famous poem The Raven planning as an artist might plan a painting deciding step by step the proper length of the poem its overall effect the tone to achieve that effect and even the sound of the refrain with its key words Raven and Nevermore by stressing this systematic approach and almost certainly exaggerating it Poe was rejecting the Romantic ideal of depending on inspiration but the Raven has a typically romantic theme of gloom and despair Once Upon a Midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary over many acquainted curious volume of Forgotten lore while I nodded nearly napping suddenly there came a tapping as of someone gently rapping rapping at my chamber door to some visitor I muttered tapping at my chamber door only this and nothing more foreign made Poe famous almost overnight but it brought him very little income to earn a living he continued to work as an editor and short story writer applying his logical methods to Tales of Terror and experimenting with other themes as well some of the tales contain elements of modern science fiction one story involves speculation about distortions in time and space another story tells of a comet that passes close to Earth and causes the end of the world [Music] another concerns a trip to the moon with descriptions of what the traveler sees and how it affects him although these stories are not usually considered genuine science fiction they did have an influence on the development of that field and Poe is recognized as the inventor of another type of popular fiction the modern mystery story in the murders in the Rue Morgue foe created a shrewd detective who uses observation and logical analysis to solve a baffling mystery in fact the facility with which I've arrived at the solution of this mystery is in the direct ratio of its apparent insolubility in the eyes of the police [Music] speaker in mute astonishment I am now awaiting he continues continued looking toward the door of our apartment A person who must have been in some measure implicated should he come it will be necessary to detain him I took the pistols scarcely knowing what I did or believing what I heard Paul wrote several mystery stories emphasizing logical thought in sharp contrast to the Romantic emphasis on emotion this conflict between logic and emotion was an aspect of Poe's own personality his tragic private life and the Romantic side of his nature often led to behavior that appeared eccentric and yet all of his writings were the product of logical methods and careful craftsmanship even though his themes were often romantic [Music] Poe's achievements in poetry and criticism and in the development of the short story were quickly recognized and honored in foreign countries especially in France and after his death in 1848 his own countrymen also began to realize that Edgar Allan Poe had made a major contribution to the literature of America and of the world good [Music]