Edgar Allan Poe 1809 1849

1
Edgar Allan Poe1809 - 1849
2
Poe was a product of his time, called the
Romantic era

• He reasoned man felt and sensed things before he
  thought about them.
• He rejected rational and intellectual thinking in
  favor of intuitive and emotional.
• His characters are usually dominated by their
  emotions, which explains some of their erratic
  behavior.

3
Setting and time

• Poes settings were usually obscure, unknown, or
  set in some distant past so the reader would not
  be diverted from the story into an everyday world.

4

• His readers will not find a story that is set in
  some recognizable place in the present time.
  Instead France, romantic castles on the Rhine,
  an Abbey in remote England, or during the Spanish
  Inquisition.

5
Characterization

• Often his characters are not named or given only
  part of a name.
• We usually dont know the name of the narrator.

6
Subject Matter

• Poe chose subjects that could affect the reader
  in a manner he would not encounter in everyday
  life.

7

• Romantic writers often emphasized the strange,
  the bizarre, the unusual, and the unexpected.
  Poe was no exception.

8
What Poe wrote about

• Lost loves
• Courage
• Greed
• Fear and guilt
• Gloomy mansions

9
Timeline of Poes life

• 1809 born in Boston
• 1811 1829
• Taken in by the Allans as a foster child
• Goes to school in England
• Begins to write poetry
• Attends West Point
• Joins the army
• Loses the support of his foster father

10
1830

• Poe becomes a skilled journalist and literary
  critic.
• He continues to work hard on his own stories and
  poems.

11
1842 1844

• Lived and worked in Philadelphia.
• He wrote many of his short stories during this
  time.

12
1845

• Poe achieves international fame with his story
  The Gold Bug and his poem The Raven

13
Edgar Allan Poe wrote two types of literature
14
Poetry- his first love in writing.Poetry should
elevate the soul, not teach a lesson
15
Short stories-to make a living
16

• Known as the creator of the modern short story

17
Poe felt that a short story

• Must be short enough to read in one sitting.
• Must create one single effect.
• Must not contain one word that does not point to
  that single effect.
• Must convey the impression of being a complete
  work in itself.

18
Poe wrote 3 types of short stories
19
Terror/Suspense

• Deals mostly with mood, atmosphere, and plot
  rather than characters.
• Has an accumulation of horrors, piled one on the
  other, rushing to a swift climax.
• The reader is held in a state of unbearable
  suspense and fear before he is released at the
  last possible second.

20
Detective

• Based on analysis and rational deduction.
• The solution is found by a step-by-step
  recreation of the crime.
• The readers interest is centered on HOW the
  crime was committed rather than on the suspects.

21
Humorous

• Broadly ridiculous
• Satirical (the use of irony, ridicule, and
  sarcasm to attack vices and pretensions)
• Exaggeration

22
Poe was a master at

• Establishing setting
• Sustaining an atmosphere
• Creating unforgettable characters
• Building intriguing plot
• Developing powerful themes