Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe represent the first great literary generation produced in the United States. He writes a darkly metaphysical vision mixed with elements of realism, parody, and burlesque. Many of his stories are science fiction, horror, and fantasy.

Poe was orphaned at an early age. Poe's was married to his cousin who was only 13 years. People have interpreted it, like if he tries to find the stable family life he lacked.

Poe thinks that strangeness is beauty and he often writes exotically. His characters bury themselves in dark castles and hide the real world such as the sun, windows, walls and floors. The themes of death-in-life, especially being buried alive or returning like a vampire from the grave, appear in many of his works. They are symbolic expressions of the unconscious.

Poe's stories have been described as tales of horror. Poe has a fascination with the mind and the unsettling scientific knowledge that was secularizing the 19th-century world view and in every genre. Poe also explores the psyche. Poe combined decadence and romantic primitivism, which appealed a lot to Europeans. Poe accurately described the underside of the American dream of the self-made man and showed the price of materialism and excessive competition loneliness, alienation, and images of death-in-life.