Why do people read Edgar Allen Poe? Because they like to be scared. Poe does a magnificent job creating terror in his stories. The prevailing themes are presented in Poe's works through mood, character, fate, and mental disturbances, and these four topics frighten many people. First off, this essay will state why people are scared after reading Poe's stories and poems because of his characteristics corresponding to the main character or narrator. Following that, this paper will prove that Mr. Poe's use of writing in comparison with mental problems create an even frightening scenario. Third, this report will do the same, but instead of the characteristics of the mental problems, I will use the characteristics of the fate of the victim. Then, finally, you will see how Poe's use of mood startles today's society.
Edgar Allen Poe was a very talented man when it came to getting into character.
Illustration for "The Black Cat" by Aubrey Beardsl...
Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Cask...
Poe Cottage (LOC)He somehow knew exactly what a crazy man would think, and how one would feel. For example, the passage from "The Tell-Tale Heart"; "True! Nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? The disease has sharpened my senses- not destroyed- not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?" The character describes how he can hear things where no one else can, and how funny it is that everybody else cannot hear them either. How did he know how they think? Perhaps Poe was crazy, and kept his sanity long enough to lead a semi-normal life. Poe also gets into character in "The Black Cat" and in "The Cask of Amontillado". He knew exactly...