Studying On The Connotation And Causation Death Themes In Edgar Allan Poe's Works

Edgar Allan Poe (1809~1849) is a famous American poet, novelist and literature critic whose greatest achievement lies in his short stories. Allan Poe is regarded as the progenitor of both the symbolic literature in the schools of western contemporary novel and detective or psychological analysis novels in the history of literature all over the world. He is also the founder of American short-story novelist who focuses on the theme of death. His novels are full of horror, mystery and romance. For nearly one and half a century, the critics from different countries have taken great interest in his works. Though there are variety of comments on his works, the theme of death is widely focused on accordingly, in order to know the great novelist well, it is essential for us to pay more attention to the content, the cause and the profound significance of his works.â… .The 4 connotations of the theme of deathAllan Poe states his principles in The Reover of Hawthome`s Twice. Told Tales. 1840,"a wise novelist should considerately creat a unique effect prior to his writing, instead of matching his thought with his literary plot mechanically. Thus he can make up the whole story later basing on the main plot. What he has done will fully embody the effect of his works."(Mcmichael 1996) According to the famous principle of effort, the works focusing on the theme of death can be sketchlily classified into 4 cathgories:1.The theme of horrible death. Horrible stories that occurs a considerable number of time, even appears in poetry and comes from the deeper heart of the people, which approves the fact that the horrible method that Allen Poe uses is not the formal one but the most important, it comes from the deeper heart. The Crow is the most topical works which is about horrible reading. The whole poem is as if a terrible scene. The poem tells the horrible topic through the following three factors"the scene background","the music"and"the light"."The Crow"is chosen by the author to describe a terrible scene. It's every"never return"answers perfectly to actor's each question and"never return"echoes actor's sorrow mood. The theme of terrible death not only appears in his poetry but also in his short stories. In the story called Black Cat, the actor who lost consciousness finally killed his cat and his kind-hearted wife. The whole story appears the horrible topic by the clue, the effect and the discussion to man's kindness. 2. The theme of ridiculous death. Following the rules of consistencies of effect, the theme of Allen Poe's short stories primarily chose something strange never happens. In his short story, Allen Poe writes it well and he doesn't focus on discussing if it is true, but concentrates on revealing people's deeper feeling. Therefore, his short stories make people fell the scene of the art as well. In the book Strange Valley and The truth in Welld's Illness, Allen Poe uses the main method in psychological analysis ------ hypnotism and he approves its magical function."The fact"Allen Poe describes is just something inexistent and"the fact"is the author's demand to write seriously as if stating one's own experience. 3. The theme of revenging death. Love knot is the conscious trend which is consisted of by unconscious concepts, emotion, memory in psychology, It affect one's thinking way and the emotion way, including revenging mood which is something stressed in one's deeper heart. Allen Poe experienced unpleasant time in his whole life, therefore he revealed his unpleasant mood in his revenging stories, the most typical ones are Frog and A Barrel of White Wine. The latter is the most representative and the most successful one to represent the theme of revenge. The revenge plans the trick, sets place and time, applies the method of symbol. 4. The theme of romance and beyond death. In his opinion, death equals to happiness. Allen Poe praises death and ideal love. He said"Happiness in their death ----- death means happy life to them."The topic about death is also mentioned in Date after dawn. However people never fed unpleasant or horrible about death, on the contrary, they feel romantic. Allen Poe uses death to reveal the desire of beyond life and it is one of the most influential concepts in the theme of death.â…¡The motives of forming the theme of death.Allen Poe's theory of consistency and effect which is the gist to classify his works. It's also the principle he pursues for his whole life. In order to fully embody the theory, he sets the basic tone of his writing, accordingly, takes topics and materials into account. In addition, his another famous theory is the emphasis of beauty, excitement and implication. 2. The influence from Gothic novels. Allen Poe not only inherits but also excels the original writing style of Gothic novels. His perfect designing and profound connotation in writing make his works more reliable. 3. The unique career. Allen Poe lost his parents when he was quite young. He didn't get along with his adopted father his beloved wife passed away too early. He was also looked down upon in career. As an unlucky youngster from the south, he experienced too many troubles, he hated reality and looked forward to the future, as a result, he attempted to get rid of the trouble from the realistic world by describing death.â…¢. The significances of the theme of death.Allen Poe gives considerable influence over the aestheticism in Britain, the symbolism in France, even LuXun, the great writer in our country.Allen Poe's works characterizing"from fun to ridicule, from scare to horrification, from wit to irony, from speciality to mystery,"generate a contrastable writing style and makes remarkable achievement, it's still popular till now.