September 17

Edgar Allan Poe; His relationship with drug use

Edgar Allan Poe was born 1809 and died in 1849 in United States, he is a poet and a a short story writer; some of his works are ‘ The raven’, ‘ The back cat’ and many more. Poe was the origin of the mystery and horror scene, he wrote mysteries including detective stories and dark matter (ghosts, spirits and etc.) He had a very full but short life, which involves West Point the arm and his career in the writing business as a (Editor, writer and poet).

Edgar allan poe was a very controversial writer in his time period, he wrote a variety of poems on topics such as love, death, disparity and so forth. In this writings many of these themes can be related to him personally, many say that in his proms the narrater is suffering form an addictive to either drugs or alcohol; most knowns as opium.  On the other hand, their is a common misunderstanding where readers mix up Poe talking personally or about a fictional character. An example, where most people truly do believe he was referencing himself as the one effected by this theme; he wrote a letter to a woman called Annie Richmond claiming he had used opium has a method of suicide in November 16, 1848. This also tells us that he did to use it regularly as he wasn’t able to take in enough to overdose on the amount, as he fell unconscious early, proving that he was not a continuous user of the drug.  People mostly believe he was a frequent user of drugs through his wild imaginations of a user,  but nobody truly accused him for these action. Although, he was repetitively caught in the act of drinking some say this was even the reasoning behind his death, which is a huge mystery in itself.

  • Woodberry, George Edward, “[Notes – Poe and Opium],” The Life of Edgar Allan Poe; Literary and Personal, (1909), Vol II, pp. 428-430.
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September 14

Wuthering Heights Passage (Eng Lit)

Some of the key Gothic Elements in Wuthering Heights are:

  1. Supernatural or inexplicable events – We see this in the text with the main scare in the passage; this sobbing woman called Catherine Linton whose first appearance is grabbing the protagonist’s arm.
  2. High emotion and Women in distress – This is seen after Catherine Linton grabs the protagonists arm. The protagonist, Mr. Lockwood, says “The intense horror of nightmare came over me,”  to describe her side of the situation. Catherine is said to be sobbing in a melancholy voice and wailing “there was a doleful cry moaning on.”
  3. Wind, especially howling and Footsteps approaching – With these ones you see them in “gusty wind,” and “hasty footsteps approached.”
  4. Sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds – There are a few of these in the passage, most from Catherine. “Doleful cry moaning,” “lamentable prayer.” And not from her “hasty footsteps approached,” “fir-bough repeat its teasing sound.”
  5. Madness – This is mostly shown from Catherine with “I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it,” “melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in – let me in!'” and her “lamentable prayer.”

Those were only just five Gothic Elements and we were able to find much more.

The extract we got was from a gothic novel called “Wuthering Heights”, this extract had many elements that intensified the situation for the reader, using descriptive writing which inflicts an intense atmosphere for the viewer. We believe that the gothic novella, which we are annotating has the primary effect of terror. This effect is continuous throughout the extract using the elements explained above, such as sounds, imagery, and emotion.