Edgar Allan Poe

Many times the events that take place early on in a writer's life affect the work he produces later on in life. This is such the case with Edgar Allan Poe. His difficult life is, without a doubt, reflected in his dark, macabre tales and poems. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America's first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe's reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry. Edgar Allan Poe used his literary works, to alleviate the stresses of reality. In his works he vented his frustrations and own negativity to illuminate the darker side of existence, and often used his own life experiences in his characters. Poe had a unique vision of the dark side of life-terror, suspense, mystery, madness, and phantoms were his literary specialties.

Edgar Allan Poe had a demented and unnatural life. His mother, foster mother, wife, and brother had passed away of tuberculosis and his father had abandoned their family (The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe). Poe was raised by the Allan family (The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe). While Mrs. Allan was a second mother to him, Mr. John Allan didn't want anything to do with him (The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe). Poe had been dismissed out of college because he was poor and John Allan didn't give him money to study further (The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe). Poe had been lonely all his life and didn't have a hand over his head for him to look up to. Poe had thought to seek revenge on John Allan for not being a dependable father. Poe had later on moved in with his aunt Maria Clemm and married his cousin, Virginia Clemm who was not even fourteen (The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe). The horrid story "The Cask of Amontillado" written by Poe is a complex piece of literature that combines death, revenge, insanity, and humiliation all together. "The Cask of Amontillado" consists of a