Writing Style And The Reader – A Critique On Poe Essay, Research Paper

Poe was a literary master with the emotions of his readers. He could make a reader feel anything he wanted to with just a few sentences. Through the stories The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart , he takes the reader through the emotions of his characters using writing methods that draw the reader in. His use of sentence structure and writing style allows the reader to become intimate with the character. Poe knew how the get a reader deep into the story; he could make them believe as thought they went through the deeds with the character. It is how Poe accomplishes this feat that is very interesting topic.

Poe makes his characters more human than human. This allows many readers to become interested simply because they can identify with how the characters feel. Poe uses very basic human emotions like fear, hatred, anxiety and guilt to draw in audience s interests. The main character in The Tell-Tale Heart had an unnatural hatred for a physical characteristic on a friend. He thinks it was his eye! yes, it was [that]! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it , his blood ran cold whenever it fell upon him (106). This is something many people can identify with as many have experienced a hatred for a physical characteristic on someone they know. Just as the character did not understand the hatred but just saw this body part, far out of the control of the old man, as something to be vanquished. The simple emotions of fear and hatred put forth to the reader come through clearly Poe s writing technique.

In the Black Cat, Poe s mechanism for the reader becoming intimate with the protagonist is the use of an alcohol driven rage. Many readers now and in Poe s life time would have understood and could visualize the effects of alcohol on the character. The rage and hysteria accompanied by the alcohol allow the reader to venture deep into the subconscious of the character to understand more clearly the reasons that he does certain things. The character plunges into excess and soon [drowns] in wine all memory o the deed (175). Poe uses the alcohol in ways many people do