Poe Essay

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Alejandro Nava
Rajakumari Chekuri
ENGL- 2327- M05
20 November 2012 The Depth of Darkness Edgar Allan Poe is regarded to many as one of the greatest horror writers in American history, and in essence, one of the greatest American writers ever. Many believe him to be the first person to dwell into the depths of criminal minds and their motives. With all his gore and somberness, one would be easily deviated from his true self. Even though he is mainly reckoned for his great crime stories, many are oblivious to the few other stories in where he carefully depicted his own sufferings and emotions. Among these few are “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, and “Alone”. All these short stories are overflowing with Poe’s own personal thoughts that make it highly essential to analyze these in order to comprehend him just a bit more. It is through these methods that we can compare his ideas and further explore the realms that this man achieved through the art of writing. Edgar Allan Poe is worldly famous for his intense and horrific short stories. In these stories you can find the criminals, the victims, and all those other people typical of a crime story. However, in Poe’s “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” the sublime protagonist in between the lines is none other than his beloved wife Virginia Eliza Clemm. The poem may not be clear at first reading, but after a closer and deeper analysis, what and who the poem is about becomes very obvious; his dead wife. He clearly still loved her very much for it is why he imbues those stories with great amounts of emotion, grief, and love. In Poe’s “Alone”, the protagonist is indeed him. Many scholars believe that he directly represents himself in that story all throughout. Many go as far as saying that the “demon” he speaks of at the end is a representation of the image he had of his step father whom did great damage to him as a young child. This no one knows and still remains in speculation, but what is certain is that in “Alone”, Poe showcases his troubled childhood and the toll it had on him. Though it is clear who these poems talk about, or to whom they were dedicated, it is still far more complex and intriguing to know why it is that he wrote about them. In the case of the “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” it is already known that he is talking about his wife whom he loved very much. However, the reason why he writes to her is much more complex. For instance in “The Raven” it is seen as if he battles his own beliefs regarding to church and religion. In this story, Poe creates a unique setting in where the character has some sort of a soliloquy with the accompaniment of a crow, or raven. Throughout this “speech” the protagonist seems to be fighting his own beliefs and emotions linked to his dead wife. One of the main arguments is if he will be able to meet with her again in heaven, which he himself contradicts on his own. In the story “Annabel Lee” he writes about the greatest love to have ever existed; so much that the angels were jealous. It is through here that he professes the enormous love he had for his wife. Through this story he lets everyone know that a love like there’s will never be broken, even if the heavens don’t agree with it. As for “Alone” it is more than likely that he wrote this in regards to himself. This story leaves many people intrigued and wondering if this right here is the closest there is to an autobiography of Poe. Throughout this story, Poe lets the reader know of how different his childhood was in comparison to other young children his age. It isn’t until the end in where many believe he might have displayed the hate he had towards his dad by comparing him to the devil. Others believe it is just another way of him telling the readers that his life was just not the same as that of others. Now that the reasons of why he wrote these stories, and to whom they were dedicated to, have been discussed, it is possible now to compare these with his other stories. Based on the
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