In your opinion, was Edgar Allan Poe obsessed with death? Explain

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

Answers

Here from Portugal, i love his work, and my answer is... he lived in the xix century, Poe was not obsessed with death, one of the caracteristics in Romance writers is all the relationship they have with the darkness, the night, death and so.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

i think he was supid and didnt know what he was talking about but he ust wanted to get fucking rich

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2004

For starters, Poe was never rich. He was so financially unstable that he stole food to survive. Poe could have been, he was once quoted as saying: "The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." But then again, death is a curious thing. When biographically examining the leading cause of death during his time (consumption), the people looked (only looked on occassion) peaceful, beautiful, tranquil - as if they were sleeping. Death isn't so much a obsession as it is a key ingrediant to his writing. The death of a character (usually a woman) was needed to create this perverse psychological desire that another character would create.

In my opinion, I think he wasn't obsessed. I would say intrigued. What lies beyond death?

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2004

The death of his love and his passionate writting became who he was and remembered.not obsession

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2004

No, Poe was not obsessed with death. During his lifetime, he was crushed by love and many times felt only agony and pain. This associates itself with death in many ways. Maybe, writing of death and murder in his stories and poems expressed his current feelings and emotions. He wasn't rick by all means. The Raven only sold for about $35 and he lived in poverty for much of his life. He was an alcoholic and had a very hard life.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2004

Death is fascinating, is there a life after and if so can you haunt. Everyone who was ever important to Poe died, a most horrible death and he was nearby for most of them. He was confused, angry, sad, and most likely just wanted answers. When illness and death came around to people you knew back then you where frightned because you didnt know what it would do, if you could get infected and how long you had to live. Also a lot more haunting stories traveled around and he was probably intrigued by it with how many people he has los in his life, and wondered if they would visit him. I think to a fine line you could say he was obsessed with death. But i think it is generaly more accepted to say that he was intrigued and very curious about death so he explored it in his writing.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2004

In my opinion Poe was not obsessed with death. unfortunatly for him he was around it all hi life.I mean his mother died when he was only three for gods sake. and everyone else Poe knew and got close to ended up dead as well. poets and authors work with what they know and poe knew death from many years of people close to him. So naturaly he will wright about death.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2004

I must repond to the fool who called Poe, stupid--or however the stupid fool spelled it. You cannot even spell, so why do you put the man down...and he was never really wealthy, as most writers are not. Writers do not write to get rich, else they would be somthing other than writers. MAYBE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T READ 19th CENTURY ROMANTIC POETRY....I think you a fool....As Shakespeare wrote in A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Lord what fools theese mortals be." I think the line was refering to you, instead of the mortal beings.....

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2004

Edger Allen Poe wrote interesting stories that even though are related to death sometimes make you smile as you begin to get his point. I think that death is part of life and is okay to write about ,so, NO he is not obbsessed its just that facing death so many times made him use his wonderful writing talent to describe it.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2005

Fuck you , you damn fuckin Nerds haha

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2005

No,Poe was not obsessed about death.I am so tired of idiotic people saying things like that about people they don't even know anything about.I think that Poe had a extremely hard life and that he felt like he was worth nothing because every woman he ever loved and got close to,died.If you notice,every one of his stories ended in tragedy,as did his own life.Its like he was foreshadowing his own death.I feel that he got cheated by life and I feel a strange unhappiness in his eyes when I see his pictures.He wrote about death because he knew he was poor and that it was only a matter of time before he got some unknown epidemic or dangerous disease,like tuberculosis.I honestly feel bad for the man,even if he is dead,because I think that he still feels his pain and will never rest.

-- Anonymous, January 16, 2005

I do not believe that Poe was obsessed with death, i believe that he was obsessed with romance though. He always wrote about how people were falling in love and how they would fall out ending in betryal and sometimes death.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2005

It was not an obsession, rather a potent subject for his time. He was in the early 19th Century, physicians still used Blood-Letting as a cure for illness(At least they were right with Trepanning) Death was everywhere, many people feared going to see a doctor when they were sick and as such, the mortality rate was INCREDIBLY high. The people of the 19th Century also glorified the virtue of passing on through Memento Mori(Photographing the dead) because it was everywhere. Poe wrote about life, experiences, love, resplendence and humoured many of the tricks the human psyche likes to play with. In the story THe Premature Burial, Poe confronts the obsessive games the mind plays through a man's obsessive fear of being buried alive in a rather humourous way, he almost laughs at how we can be so compulsive about things. Death was a MAJOR and needless to say, incredibly intriguing part of the culture at the time, like how rap is everywhere today.

Many of his loved ones died or left him, death was everywhere, what did you expect him to write about...Fucking NSync, or how Britney likes to "spread herself around"?

Yeah another thing, you fucking douche bag, writes are NOT very rich people unless they're overrated, sold out whores who spin off 20 novels a year about tedious and gratuitous violence and sex with no real insight or effort put into it. Poe was NOT a marketting whore. He had to leave college after one year because he couldn't pay for it. He wrote editorials for magazines for fuck sakes. When was the last time you heard about Johnny So and So of Some Shit Magazine being a multi-millionare?

Oh and for the record, technically Poe was NOT an alcoholic because that would require him to be drinking an alarming amount, in reality, he only drank on occassion but had no tolerance and thus would be totally out of his mind when he DID drink, leading to the popular idea of alcoholism.

(Bye the way, this site sucks, why does it make us put up our email addresses, fuckers want spammers anally raping everyone who posts?)

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2005

Poe was indeed in love with romance! Many of his poems were written to the big influencial females in his life.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2005

i think that he was obsessed with death. but of course i am to. its a mysterious thing, i mean you don't know what its like till your dead. unless you've died before like me. it may be a happy death or a sad death. just as long as your dead.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2005

Edgar Allan Poe had his beliefs, his thoughts and I'm sure his obsessions. Although it may seem he was obsessed with death, it could have just been an interest of his. He was suffering depression from the loss of his parents at a young age, being disowned by his second caretaker, and the loss of his wife. He had problems with alcohol and drinking, so many things could have driven him to write about the things he chose to write about. A person doesnt have to be obsessed with a subject to write about it. for example i write poems that arent exactly bright and happy, but i am not obsessed with the topics i write about. However, edgar allan poe had every right to be obsessed with death, he very well could have been, but that is a question that does not have a primary answer. relate the question to yourself, and then find the answer. good luck :-D

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2005