Edgar Allan Poe's Death Analysis

Fear of the Grave: A Historicist Analysis of Premature Burial in Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was the voice of a culture when it came to literature. His works were widely read and loved by many of the people in his time. Poe used themes that people were afraid of, he preyed on people’s most socially rooted fears and made people see them presented in front of them. In Critical Theory Today, Lois Tyson says, “our subjectivity, or selfhood is shaped by and shapes the culture into we were born” (284). In the same way, you can say that Edgar Allan Poe’s writing was shaped by the world he was born into. He was born into a world that was the blossoming of science. He was born into a world in the midst of a great change from the ideals of religion and art governing society morphing into a society governed by scientific fact and reason. And, mostly, he was born into a world that feared death. One of the most present fears in society at the time was a fear of premature
His work, though it contains universal themes and fears, seems very particular to the world and culture that it was written in. This is because his work, like every writer’s, was so greatly influenced by the world around him. If Poe had been born at any other time, his work would have not been the same. It would not reflect the same fears in society, because it would be a different society. Very few people today fear being accidently buried alive, because it is not very likely anymore. In the world of Poe, however, it was a present and real fear in the world. If he were alive and writing today, he would have been writing about something else. The same is true if he were alive and writing in the sixteenth century. The world Poe lived in influenced Poe and Poe influenced the world he lived in. He did then, and he will continue to influence the world that we live in