A Psychological View Of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49). Although he sees himself as primarily a poet. His Gothic tales of the grotesque and dark side of life appear to be the subject of immense critical investigation ; some critics praise his works while others do not perceive him as a serious writer. However the critics divide, one important fact about Poe is that he is a great storyteller.
What I am trying to deliver in my paper is to put Poe’s work under the psychological context and to highlight his theories in fiction, because I believe that Poe is one of the greatest writers who deserves intense observance. He has this ability to convey what happens in the human minds through his artistic fiction. ( I call it artistic because I conceive his works as a drawing by an artist in a museum, and people over centuries stand in front of this picture, trying to get to the meaning behind this picture.)
Some critics damn Poe‘s work and some praise it, but if we go over his achievement and influence we assume that his defenders happen to be more right than his disparagers. Much of Poe’s success comes from his ability to suggest rather than to say outright which indicates that taking his stories seriously means to take him as a symbolic writer, and the symbols they carry pertain to the nature of art. If Poe’s stories seem to be restricted in their human relevance, it is because our assumptions about fiction involve the idea of an imitation of life. His stories are explorations of morbid psychology, but so many critics refuse to take this into their consideration relying their judgment on the idea that Poe’s stories are retreat from reality and that they do not have morals, and this is what Daniel Hoffman conceives in his book Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe (pp. 303)
Many readers are put off from Poe by the décor of his writings- the settings of his tales, the often grotesque style of his prose, what Aldous Huxley objected to as the vulgarity of his verse. His excrescent Gothic conventions which...
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