Why did Poe use supernatural events in his writings?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Answers

Actually Poe used supernatural-like, shadowy suggestiveness, pushing the envelope of wild plotting and excited minds to the extreme. Few stories, and those mostly alloegorical, actually use clear elements of the supernatural. More than most Romantic writers or contemporaries Poe was honest to his here and now state. He derides in some stories even his own apparent inclusion of the supernatural, and sometimes(somewhat tongue-in-cheek) will mention he does not believe in ghosts and ghouls- then proceed to some haunting climax of terror suggesting the opposite. There are limits what he would do to satisfy his readers' like of the same, and his own high interest in such matters. His serious writings and poetry prove a high interest in things beyond the normal and the present, but never to be able to cross the barrier.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002