I'm doing a research paper on the themes of death in the works of Poe due November 20, 2003 and I was wondering why Poe reverted to death in the majority of his stories.HELP!!!!!

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2003

Answers

He reverted to death because he had many unhappy things happen to him in his life. He needed some way to release all the negative energy within his soul.

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2003

Blah blah blah you qustion mens notng to me blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. U studid ha ha ha ah ha ha! studid

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2003

Why would Poe revert to death in so many stories? Many people he loved died from disease, or from going mad. He suffered from depression. His writing, in several forms, is perverse, and maybe he recognized that perversity is like driving past a gory accident: its disgusting, yet attracting. Death itself, is a mystery we have not fully understood and the idea of death is "poetical."

You should also look into why Poe was not so much focused on death - but the fact that many of his characters had TROUBLE dying (Annabel Lee, Lenore - he kept them alive in his memory, so to some degree, they are not fully dead).

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2003

Edgar Allen Poe Had "Major Depressive disorder". the only reason why I know this is cause i'm an Edgar Allen Poe freak and i'm a 10th grader...If you read " The Black Cat" you will notice that he has what seems to be an obssetion with death and occoplashing this deed. But another thing in " The Tell-Tail Heart" you notice ther he is obsseced with death again.. Well since he has M.D.D he also has signs of psychotic features.. this caused him to have Hallucinations, plus he is somewhat an alchiholic, and his wife had died from consumption at a very young age.. half of his obssetion with death in his stories are insperation from his dreams. " The Raven " He talks about a dream he once had about " an ellagent black bird that flew in the drieriest of nights to tell him that it was callera and it will soon come for him". this raven or "Black bird" had haunted him ... just like the raven in the book who had haunted him with " never more." hope that help's some cause i've got more if you need it.. bye!

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2003

Ashley is more correct in that Poe, rationally accepting the power and finality of death in fairly honest and non-religious terms, nevertheless rebles against this separation and loss and skirts both sides of the border(which is the most a living poet can do)fascinated by the undying power of memory and the irrecoverable happiness of the past.

Nor was Poe very alone on the subject. Tennyson's "In Memoriam" is an elegy longer than all Poe's poetic opus combined(including his lines on ale)- and that was inspired by the death of one friend.The Romantic energy ran directly against certain boundaries and absolutes, inspiring heroic rebellion, soaring eulogies and explorations. The experience of being most alive found itself most energized against its most indominatable limtiations.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2003

Hey i'm only going by what all i learned... don't critisize me for it.... i'm saying this calmly... no worries i'm not saying your wrong but i'm just stating what all i have learned... just trying to help... that's all this person asked for... isn't it?

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2003

Thanks Murphy. I never heard that Poe had MDD, I've heard many theories though. Very interesting. I guess we'll never fully know considering he is not here to be analyzed. =)

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2003

Hey Ashley you said that Poe is not here to be analyzed. I think that even though Poe was one of the greatest writers of all time (the greatest in my opinion) his soul and mind were so screwed up that even if he was alive to be analyzed today even freakin' Freud could not figure him out. What do you guys think?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2003

Dude Poe is THE greatest writier of all time and i would hvae to agree that he was obssesed with death but in a way thats what made his writing so good i love the way he uses words and twisted them into a diffrent meaning

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2003

Thanks Ashley, Murphy, and Seth. Your comments were a big help to me in developing the main points to my essay.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003

Poe knew death from birth. By the age of 3 both of his parents were dead. He dealt with the deaths of friends, lovers, and wife. He was surrounded by death, and it seems, by reading some of his work, that he took this as a sign from God. In the poem Alone, you get the sense that he feels God has marked him to live alone for his life, and each time he gets close to someone, that person will die an early, and very unfortunate death. Writers write what they know, and all Poe knew was death.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2004

I also wanted to point out that Poe did not have M.D.D. It was commonly believed that he did, but that was a myth and is completely wrong. Poe was actually a genious and went on to become a college professor and profession lecturer on poetry. He understood life, and was intrigued by death. He wanted to know whether his loved ones had gone somewhere peaceful, somewhere better than Earth, if they went somewhere worse, or if they simply vanished.

I would also like to make you aware that his poem The Raven was written about the death of Lenore, which you can learn more about from the poem "Lenore." Poe wrote poems to help himself understand the losses he suffered. He felt that he was damned to live life alone, which is evident in "Alone." By reading all of his work and his biography, not by listening to a teacher, seeing as many times highschool teachers are not well versed and have made up their own conclusions on the basis that the students will never learn the truth, one can determine the exact reason for his constant theme of death.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2004