Introduction
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. He went down in history as the founder of the genre of psychological prose and the form of classic detective stories. It is no secret that many of Poe’s works have contributed to the development of science fiction. However, Edgar Allan Poe, whose biography is full of interesting facts and events, has gained tremendous popularity as an author of mystical stories.
The 19th century, the beginning of the stabilization of the country’s economy is the period in which the author lived and wrote. Notable people who left a distinctive mark in the literature include Edgar Allan Poe, a prominent figure in short stories, poems, and critical theories. Poe’s works hugely impacted American literature due to his unique writing style that reflected his tribulations, societal issues, and critical reflection of his environment at any specific moment. While the country oscillated between minor wars and tranquility, Poe’s life was unstable. His early life was marked by psychological trauma after the death of his mother and being raised by foster parents. Despite all the challenges Poe faced, he kept his faith and ambition alive, leading to his successful career in literature. After reviewing the writing of Edgar Allan Poe, it becomes evident that his style is a reflection of clear, original, consistent, and thorough work combined with brevity of form, fearless tone, the manifestation of a bright, unforgettable effect, and the search for the ideal form to influence a reader’s consciousness.
Analysis
It is known that Edgar Allan Poe lived in a period in which America was experiencing rapid social and economic change. The transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society produced a wealthy and prosperous middle class. It should be noted that the writer’s family belonged to the middle class; the Allan family was engaged in the cotton and tobacco trade and was highly respected (Edgar Allan Poe 1). However, not everyone benefited from economic prosperity. Many Americans still languished in poverty and struggled with basic needs. American society at the time experienced widespread religious growth. Protestants and Mormons brought a new wave of beliefs in progress, morality, and social reforms that altered the tone of American life (Manning 4). Americans adopted Christianity to restore order, create a perfect society, and shun immoral behaviors due to alcoholism and other social evils (Manning 6). While Poe lived during the time of rapid capitalist development, his life was characterized by abject poverty, misfortunes, and despondence that drove him into alcoholism (Wang et al. 538). Nevertheless, Poe utilized literature to depict the reality of his life. Therefore, the social change impacted Poe’s writing style, themes, and tone, making him reflect on the dark side of Romanticism through topics such as death, regrets, and a flawed society.
The work of the writer, although his personality is reflected in it, is not closed within the framework of a “psychological autobiography”. To unravel the strange romantic symbolism, to reveal the real meaning of many of Poe’s stories, is an extraordinarily difficult task, and in its entirety, it remains unresolved. Poe called his novels “logical”. He did not use the term “detective genre” because, firstly, there was no such term, and secondly, his stories were not detective in the sense that developed by the end of the XIX century.
In some of E. Poe’s stories, there is no talk of murder, which means that they cannot be attributed to the detective genre. All of Poe’s logical stories are filled with detailed analysis, logical descriptions, and reasoning that are completely out of character for detectives.
The concept of a logical story is broader than the concept of a detective story. From a logical story to a detective story, the main, and sometimes the only plot motive has passed: the disclosure of a mystery or a crime. The type of narration has also been preserved: a story is a task subject to a logical solution.
One of the most important features of Poe’s logical stories is that the focus of the author’s attention is not the investigation itself, but the person who conducts this investigation. At the center of the narrative is a romantic character. The hero of a logical story has a romantic character, and in this capacity, he approaches the heroes of psychological stories. But his recluse, aloofness, penchant for solitude, and acute need for solitude go back to some moral and philosophical ideas of a general nature peculiar to the American romantic consciousness of the middle of the XIX century.
When reading logical novels, attention is drawn to the almost complete absence of external action. Their plot structure is both a surface and a deep layer. On the surface – the actions of the hero, in depth – the work of his thoughts. Poe reveals the process of thinking and shows the intellectual activity of the hero, his principles, and his logic. Such is the hero of Poe’s logical story “The Golden Beetle” – William Legrand, whose analysis we will turn to.
The social environment, such as the religious revival that swept through American society, influenced the mentality and perception of many Americans inducing Allan Poe. Although many critics believe Poe was not religious since his writings do not have any definitive statements on the topic, analysis of his poems shows symbolic religious allusion (Wang 533). For example, Poe describes hope symbolically as dreams in his poems. According to Wang (533), symbolism is a major artistic style that Poe employs to express the desire of humans to know themselves and the world. In “A Dream,” Poe writes about the importance of dreams or aspirations in life (Poe, Lines 9-16). Poe also writes about “That holy dream—that holy dream” and “A lonely spirit guiding,” giving him hope at the end of the tunnel (Poe, Lines 9, 12). Identically, the poem “Dream-Land” is about a person traveling through a nightmarish world controlled by spirits (Poe, Lines 1-18). The nightmares in the poem represent the challenges in American society that Poe faced, while the spirits allude to the Devine power. Therefore, the evidence from the poems indicates how religion influenced Poe’s writing.
Poe’s background significantly impacted his writing style, tone, and mood. Allan Poe was born in 1809, and his parents died a few years later, forcing him to grow up under foster parents (Edgar Allan Poe 1). Although he attended school, Poe did not graduate from the university after he was forced to drop out due to accumulating debts and fee arrears (Edgar Allan Poe 1). Poe married, but his wife died of tuberculosis eleven years later. From this, it can be concluded that life confronted him with many difficulties, obstacles, and sufferings, but this circumstance only hardened his spirit. He had to battle grief for important people he lost in his life. In addition, poverty haunted him as his writings did not pay as much as he expected. As a result, Poe’s life was plagued by hardships that impacted his views. Despite the devastating challenges, Poe held on hope presented in the three poems as dreams. Thus, Poe’s painful life ordeals influenced his dark and emotional yet fantastic poems reflecting his experiences and social environment.
The personas in Poe’s poems represent real-life people of the society at the time of his writing. For instance, in the poem “A Dream Within a Dream,” the character finds it challenging to cope with the realities of life. The speaker is full of sorrow, frustration, and confusion, forcing him to wonder whether everything in life is nothing. Poe’s life story has the same features as he feels lost, frustrated, and hopeless after losing all the people close to him (Edgar Allan Poe 1). The same way the narrator struggles to hold the “grains of golden sand” tightly on his palm” is the same manner Poe strives to see the positive side of life (Poe, Line 11). The harsh realities of life, such as death, hit him the same way the gains of sand slip away from the palm of the poem’s narrator. The demise of Poe’s parents, wife, and foster father crushed him severely, impacting his view of life (Edgar Allan Poe 1). Therefore, the narrator in the poem is a direct reflection of Edgar Allan Poe.
An in-depth analysis of the early 1800s reveals important concepts mirrored in Poe’s poems and real life. Among the notable ideas discussed at the time were religious freedom, capitalism development in the form of Westward expansion, temperance, and technological advancement. However, a few of these factors are evident in Poe’s poems, indicating their influence on his writing. For instance, in “A Dream Within a Dream,” the speaker pleads to God twice (Poe, Lines 19, 21). In both instances, the appeal is in the form of questions. Such an idea shows the religious liberation brought about by the Great Awakening (Manning 5). The “Dream-Land” poem also bears the same message where Poe tries to show his spiritual imagination of the existence of a Devine Universe that is all-encompassing. Therefore, Poe’s religious side reveals itself through the poems, indicating the religious freedom at the time.
Conclusion
Overall, Allan Poe’s life and writings during the 19th century reflect hope despite painful hardships. The characters were representative of impoverished lower-class citizens in American society, and the major themes reflected the social environment of Poe’s era. The poems “A Dream,” “Dream-Land,” and “A Dream Within a Dream” provide convincing evidence that Poe wrote about his life experiences influenced by social events surrounding him at the time. Therefore, it is clear that social issues and events affect an author’s writing style, the themes developed, and the characters of their story. That means what was happening in society during Allan Poe’s time influenced his thinking, ideologies, and perception of life. As a result, the thoughts shaped his writing, showing that the social climate is powerful in impacting an author’s writing style, mood, tone, and characters.
Works Cited
“Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
Manning, Katherine. “Nineteenth-Century American Religion and Politics in the West: Doctrinal Shifts in Mormonism and the Creation of Utah.” Western Kentucky University, 2017, pp. 1-66. Web.
Poe, Allan. “A Dream Within a Dream.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
Poe, Allan. “A Dream.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
Poe, Allan. “Dream-Land.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
Wang, Chao, Xiaoyi Xiao, and Bao Liu. “Symbolic Analysis of Animal Images in Edgar Allan Poe’s Works.” Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, vol. 5, no.3, 2018, pp. 533-539.