Edgar Allan Poe and Psychoanalysis

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Edgar Allan Poe led a bizarre and tormented life that undoubtedly influenced his writings, which revealed dark aspects of his nature. His writings, specifically "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" are examined in this paper as examples of his form of writing. The writer shows how many scholars make connections between Poe and psychoanalysis in these two ways: how his work reveals himself, and how his work says something about the workings of the mind of the murderer. Included are specific examples from the two aforementioned stories that illustrate these points.

From the Paper:

"Edgar Allan Poe was without a doubt a man who lead an unusual life filled with horror. The fact that his writings were often also filled with horror and indeed at the very least, a dark imagination, has lead many scholars and psychoanalysts to ruminate at the connection between Poe's real life and his fictional writings. For example, it was said that Poe had a fear of being buried alive and so this scenario reared its ugly head many times throughout his literature, and many scholars have attempted to compare Poe to his invented characters (A few). These kinds of connections are what psychoanalysts would be interested in, for psychoanalysis is defined as the theory that abnormal mental functioning and psychopathology originate in cause from unconscious psychological forces (Comer, 15). The "Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" are two short stories of Poe's which illustrate some of the common musings over the connection between Poe and psychoanalysis."

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• Research Paper # 54145 : "Psychoanalysis and Literature"

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