Born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1809 Edgar Allan Poe grew up troubled by orphanhood, depression and struggles with drugs and alcohol. This later contributed to his writing style and technique in his use of imagery, foreshadowing and symbolism through numerous short stories. The use of these techniques in these short stories created an unnatural, honest and eerie writing style using foreshadowing, symbolism and imagery to make readers feel intrigued.
To begin, Poe’s use of foreshadowing is unnatural and thus entices the reader to read the narrative or poem. To start, at the very beginning of the narrative “The Black Cat” he tells the reader very important information. He warns, “For the most wild yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief” (Poe 1). After reading the novel the reader clearly …show more content…
In “The Cask of Amontillado” he writes about the coat of arms for the house Montresor. He describes it as “A huge human foot d’or, in a field azure, the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.” (Poe 99). This image is underscored with the inscription of the family motto, "nemo me impune lacessit," which means no one provokes me with impunity. This depiction is obviously a biblical allusion to Genesis 3:15: “he will crush your head and you will strike his heel,” where the "he" refers to Christ, and the "you" refers to the serpent, which is a symbol for Satan. Along with this allusion it says that the Montresors will punish anyone who messes with them. Additionally, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” the eye of the old man symbolizes what agitates the man who kills him. It goes to show that anything can make anyone do crazy things. Truly, use of symbolism in Poe’s work has deep meaning along with a literal representation making the reader enjoy reading them even