Animal Imagery And Realistic Predicament In Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)is known as one of the writers who greatly influenced American Literature in the 19 th century.He wrote many types of short stories,including detective stories,Gothic horror stories and science fictions,in which the skillful use of a large number of animal images is worth pondering.These animal images either have their noumenons of animals,or as an expressive form of humans and things.In addition to inheriting the traditional animal images,Poe also created many original ones and endowed them with unique meanings.Based on the background of his works,this thesis analyzes Poe’s ideas contained in these animal images with Freud’s personality theory and other sociological theories and discusses how Poe observes and reflects social predicaments through them.Some of these animal images reflect the common darkness hidden in the bottom of human hearts,some indicate the sharp social contradictions,some expose the blindness and deformity of industrial social development,and some express the curiosity and worry about science and technology.As an important part of Poe’s “Unity of Effect Theory,”animal imagery not only imposes significant influence on later literature,but also has crucial enlightenment to human beings.The animal images more vividly convey his unique feelings about human existence,and his deep concern about human’s realistic predicament,mental state and future development.The study of Poe’s animal imagery in his short stories would be helpful for a deeper understanding of the unique connotations and functions of his works,a further exploration of the mysterious animal literary world,as well as a better grasp of Poe’s excavation of hidden human nature,his concern for the increasingly intensified social contradictions,and his reflection on people’s social and mental state at that time.