I have chosen to research and write my Extended Essay on Edgar Allan Poe and his portrayal of perversion, which is present in every human's heart. I read many of his short stories and realized that his mysterious style of writing greatly appealed to me. I have watched movies that were created from his textual creations, read his poems, and his stories. Though often referred to as a psychopath I believe that Edgar Allan Poe is a genius in his own right, and has written more reliable products analyzing the human psyche than was possible for anybody in his time, perhaps even our own. I do not believe that he wrote his stories for our personal entertainment, but rather depicted humanity very deliberately in its whole erroneousness. The truth found in his writings is just too awe-inspiring when it comes to the rendering of those darker motives that drive us on.
For the purpose of this Essay I shall analyze four of Poe's short stories; "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," The Masque of The Red Death," and "The Tell-tale Heart." .
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Although numerous critics have different views on Poe's writing style, I believe that Harold Bloom hits the mark rather appropriately when he says that "Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives." This exposition comes from his thoroughly descriptive diction as the setting is exposed to the reader. In many of Poe's works, setting is used to render a dark and gloomy picture in the reader's mind. It is these images that help to set the stage for those twisted conflicts, which Poe so effectively portrays.
Poe also writes introspectively, which lets the reader glimpse into the mind of the narrator or the main character of the story, exposing to us his fears, his hate, and his perversion. Many of the characters in Poe's stories seem to be insane. The narrator often seems to have some type of psychological problems.
