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Edgar Allan Poe
Many consider Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poetry to have been ahead of their time. Classics such as 'The Raven,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart,' and 'The Cask of Amontillado' still haunt us today.
1,334 Questions
How does Edgar Allan Poe use similes in the oval portrait?
The story opens with the unnamed narrator recounting a summer sea voyage from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City aboard the ship Independence. The narrator learns that his old college friend Cornelius Wyatt is aboard with his wife and two sisters, though he has reserved three state-rooms. After conjecturing the extra room was for a servant or extra baggage, he learns his friend has brought on board an oblong pine box: "It was about six feet in length by two and a half in breadth." The narrator notes its peculiar shape and especially an odd odor coming from it. Even so, he presumes his friend has acquired an especially valuable copy of The Last Supper.
The box, the narrator is surprised to learn, shares the state-room with Wyatt and his wife, while the second room is shared by the two sisters. However, for several nights, the narrator witnesses his friend's surprisingly unattractive wife leaving the state-room every night around 11 o'clock and going into the third state-room before returning first thing in the morning. While she is gone, the narrator believes he hears his friend opening the box and sobbing, which he attributes to "artistic enthusiasm."
As the Independence passes Cape Hatteras it is caught in a terrible hurricane. Escape from the damaged ship was made via lifeboat, but Wyatt refuses to part with the box and issues an emotional plea but was denied by Captain Hardy. Wyatt decides he cannot part with the box and returns to the ship, ties himself to it with a rope. "In another instant both body and box were in the sea--disappearing suddenly, at once and forever."
About a month after the incident, the narrator happens to meet the captain. Hardy explains that the box had, in fact, held the corpse of Wyatt's recently deceased young wife. He had intended to return the body to her mother but bringing a corpse on board would have caused panic among the passengers. Captain Hardy had arranged, then, to register the box merely as baggage. As passage was already registered with Wyatt and his wife, so as not to arouse suspicion, a maid posed as the wife.
What military expelled Poe in 1831?
Edgar Allen Poe had a checkered military career even before he successfully got himself thrown out of West Point. Initially enlisting under a false name in order to support himself, Poe served almost 3 years of his five year enlistment before he convinced his commanding officer to discharge him in 1829. Gaining admission to West Point in 1830, Poe changed his mind again, and by disobeying orders and missing formations, was able to get himself expelled in 1831.
Who rescues the narrator in The Pit and the Pendulum?
When he is grabbed from the pit as he falls by a french soldier a the syche is about to slice him.
That would be the resolution, not the climax. The climax is when the suspense reaches the peak. The P & P sort of has two climaxes. One when he rolls of the table just before the pendulum reaches him but mainly as the walls close in and the suspense has built to whether he will be forced into the pit or not.
Which of Edgar Allan Poe tales are grotesques and which of them are arabesques?
It might not be possible to tell which tales are grotesque and which are arabesque, since it seems that even Poe himself did not see them that way, in other words as being one or the other. In his preface to the work he does not state which are which. The work is a two volume set and there were no distinctions that the grotesque tales were in one volume and the arabesque tales were in the other. Some critics have given an opinion that the grotesque tales are the gory ones while the arabesque tales are the non-gory ones even though both types may be tales of terror. The debate continues evermore.
What are repeating ideas in The Tell-Tale Heart?
Some repeating ideas in "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe include the narrator's obsession with the old man's vulture-like eye, the narrator's insistence on their sanity, and the theme of guilt and paranoia as the narrator believes they can hear the beating of the old man's heart even after they have killed him.
What was Edgar Allan Poe's wife's maiden name?
Edgar Allan Poe's wife's maiden name was Virginia Clemm. They were first cousins and married when she was only 13 years old. Virginia Clemm passed away at a very young age from tuberculosis.
What year did Edgar Allan Poe write his poem Dream Within A Dream?
I am standing 'mid the roar
Of a weather-beaten shore,
And I hold within my hand
Some particles of sand -
How few! and how they creep
Thro' my fingers to the deep!
And here is the similar passage in 'A Dream Within A Dream':
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
By the way, the phrase 'Grains of the golden sand' may refer to gold dust, which was discovered in California about a year before publication of the later poem.
The answer is "pendulum." The story is "The Pit and the Pendulum."
In what year did Edgar Allan Poe's wife die?
Edgar Allan Poe's wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, died of tuberculosis (Consumption) on 30 January 1847 at age 24. One day while she was playing the piano she started coughing uncontrollably and a vein in her throat burst. She survived, but five years later she most likely died from the effects of tuberculosis.
Why does the narrator wait a week before killing the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart?
The narrator waits a week before killing the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart" because he wanted to ensure that the old man's eye, which he found disturbing, would be closed due to fear and hence would not haunt him after the deed. This allowed the narrator to plan and execute the murder without any chances of being caught.
Tamerlane, also known as Timur, was a 14th-century Turko-Mongol conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia. He was known for his military campaigns that resulted in the destruction of numerous cities and the deaths of thousands of people. Despite his brutal tactics, Tamerlane is also credited with establishing cultural and intellectual centers in his empire.
What types of genres did Edgar Allan Poe write?
Edgar Allan Poe is said to be one of the greatest detective story writers. He stands uniquely among various writers who wrote this genre as its creator.
In addition to the above genre, Poe wrote humor, satire, poetry, and non-fiction, not to mention essays on various subjects and critiques of writings of others.
When did Elizabeth Arnold Poe die?
She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis. She died in 1811 from terburkulosis.
The pit and the pendulum What has the narrator dream and what does he realize at this moment?
In "The Pit and the Pendulum," the narrator dreams of being sentenced to death and tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. He realizes the severity of his situation when he wakes up in darkness and feels the pendulum swinging back and forth above him, threatening to cut him in half.
What tragedy befell Edgar Allan Poe's natural mother?
Some time after Poe's natural mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, gave birth to young Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, her husband, David, abandoned the family (likely the latter half of 1810). She died on December 8, 1811 in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 24 when Poe was almost 3 years old. Assumptions that she died of tuberculosis are unfounded as there is no history of her having that disease. In 1890, a Mrs. Byrd, daughter of the people who took Poe's sister Rosalie in after Poe's parents died, stated that Mrs. Poe was ill with pneumonia when she died. David Poe died at around the same time of unknown causes in Norfolk, Virginia.
What purpose does the repeated tapping sound at the door serve in Edgar allan poe's the raven?
It builds suspense
Why did Edgar Allan Poe join the army?
Poe had run up about $2000 in gambling debts while at the University of Virginia. His foster father, John Allan, refused to give Poe any money to pay those debts or to pay for tuition. Poe was forced to leave the University and enlist in the army under the name Edgar A. Perry in order to earn money to repay the debts.
What are the writings of Edgar Allan Poe?
Much of Poe's work was of a fanatasia nature - that is it attempted to create sur-real imagry. Mask of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat. The guy was pre-occupied with death. Fall of the House of Usher, Premature Burial, Cask of the Amerillo. He is one of the fore-runners of the short story. He is credited with originating the Dective Story (Augusta Dupin: Murder on the Rue Morgue, the Purloined letter, Gold Bug.)
Where did Edgar allan poe go to boarding school in 1815?
1816 - Poe goes to the boarding school of the Misses Dubourg (146 Sloan Street, Chelsea, London, The Poe Log, p. 29). Here, Edgar is known as "Master Allan" (Quinn, p. 69). Among the subjects taught are geography, spelling and the Catechism of the Church of England.
List at least three different theories about the death of Edgar Allan Poe?
The alcohol consumption theory: Poe was known to go on drinking binges especially when experiencing bouts of depression such as when his wife Virginia died. At one time he had been fired from his job as editor at because of his drinking. Poe had been engaged shortly before his death but the woman broke it off because Poe would not stop drinking. The theory that alcohol caused his death exists because Poe was found one morning delirious on a sidewalk in front of a saloon, yet there never was a first hand account of this. Poe's enemies automatically attributed his death to drunkenness, but no one could say that they had seen him drunk the night before. Poe's enemies were obviously motivated to choose the cause of death that would be most disparaging to Poe's reputation.
The brain disease theory: A second theory is that Poe suffered from some type of disease of the brain. There was no death certificate with an official cause of death; however, a newspaper account of his death referred to "congestion of the brain" as the cause. Before Poe died, a number of people close to him stated that they felt that Poe was suffering from some sort of brain lesion.
The Cooping theory: Cooping was a practice whereby local gangs would grab people off the street, bring them to a room (the coop) and either get them drunk or beat them until they agreed to vote in a particular way and possibly several times. Poe was found in a delirious state with bruises and wearing the clothes of a different person. He was on the sidewalk outside a saloon that was being used as a polling place that day. The bruises, the delirium and the different clothing are all consistent with the cooping practice. Poe could have been delirious because of being being gotten drunk and or beaten. The different clothes can be explained by being forced to vote once in his own clothes then again in someone else's. In other words, both the alcohol and congestion of the brain theories can be explained by the cooping theory as well.
The alcohol consumption theory: Poe was known to go on drinking binges especially when experiencing bouts of depression such as when his wife Virginia died. At one time he had been fired from his job as editor at because of his drinking. Poe had been engaged shortly before his death but the woman broke it off because Poe would not stop drinking. The theory that alcohol caused his death exists because Poe was found one morning delirious on a sidewalk in front of a saloon, yet there never was a first hand account of this. Poe's enemies automatically attributed his death to drunkenness, but no one could say that they had seen him drunk the night before. Poe's enemies were obviously motivated to choose the cause of death that would be most disparaging to Poe's reputation.
The brain disease theory: A second theory is that Poe suffered from some type of disease of the brain. There was no death certificate with an official cause of death; however, a newspaper account of his death referred to "congestion of the brain" as the cause. Before Poe died, a number of people close to him stated that they felt that Poe was suffering from some sort of brain lesion.
The Cooping theory: Cooping was a practice whereby local gangs would grab people off the street, bring them to a room (the coop) and either get them drunk or beat them until they agreed to vote in a particular way and possibly several times. Poe was found in a delirious state with bruises and wearing the clothes of a different person. He was on the sidewalk outside a saloon that was being used as a polling place that day. The bruises, the delirium and the different clothing are all consistent with the cooping practice. Poe could have been delirious because of being being gotten drunk and or beaten. The different clothes can be explained by being forced to vote once in his own clothes then again in someone else's. In other words, both the alcohol and congestion of the brain theories can be explained by the cooping theory as well.
What disease killed people close to Edgar Allan Poe?
Tuberculosis, known at the time as 'consumption,' killed Poe's brother and his wife.
Tuberculosis formerly known as consumption.
Known at the time as consumption, Poe lost many beloved family members to a disease now recognized as tuberculosis.
What is the sociocultural context in which Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Bells was written?
It is believed that Edgar Allan Poe wrote 'The Bells' in 1848. This is around the time the poet lived in Fordham near the Fordham University bell tower. Poe was known to stroll around the campus.
What did virgina die of from Edgar Allan Poe?
The actual cause of his death is a mystery.
Medical science at that time was quite primitive.
Speculation includes, alcoholism, cerebral inflammation, brain congestion, cholera, meningitis, rabies, epilepsy, syphilis, heart disease, and fever delirium
Another theory is "cooping." This is a practice where local thugs force people to vote several times so as to fraudulently get their candidates elected. Poe was found incoherent outside a saloon that had been used as a polling place in an election the day before. He was also found wearing clothes that were not his. Many times people dressed differently, cut off beards and mustaches to look different to poll workers in order to vote more than once. Some people were beaten or gotten drunk to persuade them to cooperate even if they did not want to.
