How Do Gothic Elements Affect Poe's Work

Edgar Allan Poe; one of the most famous gothic writer known to America. His work consists of dark mysteries which mostly revolve around death. Many say that the reason of Poe's gothic writing style would be because of his past. It is well known that Poe’s work would reflect himself in one way or another. As a matter of fact, according to a short story written in 1839 titled, “An overview of the ‘Tell Tale Heart,’” John Chua mentions that “Critics who have studied Poe sometimes suggest that his characters resemble him both physically and temperamentally”. This helped his work to be transparent and gave the readers a chance to know what was actually happening inside of Poe’s dark mind. The readers get to see how the events in his life bleeds
In this story, Poe wrote about a young man who kills his employee because his glass eye irritated him. In the beginning of the story, the narrator, who later turns into the murder, did not have any reasons to murder his employee since he never did anything harmful to the narrator. Nonetheless, The narrator had a strong urge to kill his employee and he justifies it by claiming that the victims glass eye compelled him. When readers read this story, they realize that Poe focus heavily on the conflict that the narrator has within himself when contemplating murdering the
In the book, “The Tell-Tale Art Poe in Modern Popular Culture,” Christine A. Jackson points out “In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ the narrator tries to control time, slowing it down - taking forever to put his head into the old man's room … As he prepares to murder the old man, the time speeds up, and once the narrator kills the old man … time resumes its control” (Jackson 115). It goes to show that not only does Poe has a psychology sturgess with himself, but also has that obsession of controlling time and as a result, controlling death