The Tormented Genius of Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Literary Analysis

It has been verbalize that one cannot be truly great till they lay down experienced hardship. This, perhaps, is the reason that Edgar Allan Poe is thought to be one of the greatest story tellers in all of history. His manner was not sprinkled with tragedy, but completely drowned in it. From the base of Poes life till the very end, he was, according to The obsessed Man by Phillip Lindsay, born to live in nightmares and that Poes life might as well have been one of Poes own creations (Lindsay 2). Death, hardship, and betrayal followed him wherever he travelled, causing him to become a depressed alcoholic along the way. It is widely believed by literary critics that had he not been this tortured shaft seeking a coffin for a bridal-couch he would not have written the extraordinary and sometimes great tales that he did write (Lindsay 2). Poes traumatic experiences with closing, disease, and the people around him helped to shape two of his most noted stories The Masque of the Red D eath and The reduce of the star sign of UsherIn Poes story The Masque of the Red Death, the characters cannot escape closing, no matter how hard they try, in the same way that Poe and the people he loved could not escape. In the story, the prince Prosperos kingdom is overwhelmed with the red death, much like Poes life was ravaged by tuberculosis. The prince attempts to lease out the disease by hiding away in his castle, avoiding it for some(prenominal) months, only to still be claimed by it at the end, brought in by an unwelcomed guest. Likewise, When Poes wife Virginia was in the worst of her sickness, they moved, hiding away in warmer weather with the vain hope that she would somehow survive. The red death is a disease much like tuberculosis in its sy... .... lit Resource Center. Studies in minuscule Fiction 30.2, 1993. Web. Hutchisson, James M. Poe. Jackson University of Mississippi, 2005. Print. Kalasky, Ed. Drew. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. Vol. 22 . Literature Criticism Online. Web. Lawrence, D.H. The Fall of the House of Usher. Short Story Criticism. Vol. 22. 289-93. Literature Criticism Online. Web. Lindsay, Philip. The Haunted Man a Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe. New York Philosophical Library, 1954. Print. May, Charles E. Edgar Allan Po A Study of the Short Fiction. Vol. 28. New York Twayne, 1991. Print. Twaynes Studies in Short Fiction Ser. Patterson, R. Once upon a Midnight down in the mouth The Life and Addictions of Edgar Allan Poe. CMAJ.JAMC. 15 Oct. 1992. Web. Poe, Edgar Allan, and Philip Van Doren Stern. The Portable Edgar Allan Poe. New York Penguin, 1973. Print.