Literary_Analysis_on_Poe's_Writing

Aaron Tsuprun 12//09 Period 4 English Literary Analysis on Poe’s Writing In Edgar Allen Poe’s series of short stories, many symbols can be found that help develop these stories. Symbols can range from anything, whether it is a character, a figure, or even a color. But even though symbols are almost always different in every story, they all have one universal purpose, to represent ideas and concepts. More importantly, Poe uses these symbols, along with a dark setting, to develop the characters and themes found throughout the course of his short stories. Particularly in his stories, symbols range from anything to eyes, animals, drugs and alcohol, and even walls. Poe’s writing style and use of symbolism is a great example on how a short story should be written. Symbols and setting are essential in the creation of a story, especially if you want the story to be good. A very important symbol found in a number of Poe’s short stories are the eyes. Eyes are a very important symbol in Poe’s stories, and this symbol most definitely helps build the plot for some of these stories. Like in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” for example, the narrator grows paranoid from the idea that the old man’s “vulture eye” is always staring at him. The narrator believes that the eye is planting a curse on him, and this drives him even more insane. The narrator becomes consumed by the eye, and makes it his sole duty to try to rid the old man of it. But the narrator later states that the eye is part of the man’s identity, and cannot be removed without taking the old man’s life. Similarly, in both “The Black Cat,” and “Ligeia,” eyes are also very symbolic in the story. In “Ligeia,” Ligeia’s mysterious eyes symbolize her dark identity. The narrator in the story cannot see past her eyes, and because of this, is constantly tormented by them. Likewise in “The Black Cat,” where the narrator is also plagued by eyes, in this case his cat Pluto’s. After a drinking binge, the narrator comes home drunk, with the cat staring at him. This infuriates the narrator, and causes him to cut the cat’s eye out. Another key symbol in Poe’s short stories would be the animals. Although not as important as eyes, animals are important because they are underestimated, both in these stories and in everyday society. In “The Black Cat” for example, the narrator, after murdering Pluto, loses his sense of logic and rationality. After Pluto’s death, another cat comes along, and this cat has the qualities similar to those of Pluto. But this cat, as it turns out in the end, is more deceiving and devious than Pluto. The second cat leads the narrator into killing his wife, and ultimately getting caught by the police for this serious crime. “The Tell-Tale Heart” also has some symbolism of animals in the story. Although the story doesn’t have any animals, Poe tries his best to draw some comparisons into it. The closest comparison to an animal would have to be the old man’s “vulture eye.” Of course, it isn’t an animal, but the narrator describes this eye as “pale with a blue film over it.” Throughout the course of the story, he is constantly plagued by this eye, and compares himself to a “terrified creature tormented by a hideous scavenger.” But as the story progresses, the narrator slowly but surely goes insane and ends up killing the “vulture eye,” along with the old man. The demonstration of the symbolism of animals in some of Poe’s stories is a great example of how clever animals really are. It just goes to show that just because humans seem supreme over any other life form, it can never be certain just what they are thinking, and therefore, their intelligence should never be underestimated. Another recurring symbol that Poe uses to develop both character and theme would have to be the essence of walls. Walls are universal symbols in a number of Poe’s short stories, and are very important to their central plot. The symbolism of walls is found mostly in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Take Heart.” Walls are very important in these two stories because they contribute to the fact that the narrators in both these stories are losing their sanity. In “The Black Cat,” the narrator kills his wife after attempting to kill the cat that is driving him mad. In attempts to get rid of the body, he seals the body up in the walls of his basement. Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator is also losing his insanity as the story progresses. He kills the old man due to his vulture eye, and he buries him within the floorboards of the house. Later on, the narrator feels relieved of the burden that the vulture eye has put on him, but his insanity soon takes over and he believes that the heart of the old man is beating beneath the floorboards. Both their arrogance and paranoia are as a result of their insanity and their insanity is what gets them caught. As it has been shown, many symbols can be found in Edgar Allan Poe’s series of short stories. Both symbols and setting help develop both character and theme in every single short story. But although each story has different symbols, their goal is the same, to strengthen ideas and concepts found within the story. Poe’s use of symbolism in his short stories is a great example of how symbols should be used. Symbols help build on characters, themes, and plots of stories. Symbols are essential, and without them, a well-written story can never be created.