I'm writing a paper on Poe's works, and I wanted to know if anyone could give me any information or links to information about the theme of insanity in all his works. How it was used, where it was used, etc. Any help at all would be appreciated.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2000

Answers

Paul,

Try the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore site at:

http://eapoe.org or the Poe Decoder site at http://poedecoder.com

Regards,

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2000

Poe wasn't really insane, just troubled... Let me put it this way: His mom, crush, stepmom, and wife died of tiberculosis while Poe was like two up till his early twenties. His dad and stepdad both abandoned him, and he lived in poverty all his life. He had a right to in a sense be 'mad'!!! :)

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2000

hi~ if you really want to know why some of his works were so twisted, got onto yahoo.com, and put "poe, edgar allan" in the search box. they give you GREAT sources. i just had a project too, and those site's were ALOT of help!

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2000

hey.. right now i am doing a paper on the elements of insanity in poe's work too, and i am trying to prove that his characters were all insane. last year my honor's literature reading class held a trial prosecuting edgar allan poe, and the prosecution won! so if you are looking for stuff to just back up your opinions or anything, i definitely would suggest you read tell-tale heart (if you haven't already) and highlight anything about insanity that you can think of. **AND if any one knows certain people/authors who have published criticisms on poe's works (dealing w/ insanity), that would be really great!! thanx.**

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2002