The Darkness Within: How Poe Portrayed Psychology Within Literature

The Darkness Within: How Poe Portrayed Psychology within Literature Edgar Allen Poe was a master at exploring the psychology and fragility of human nature through poetry and short stories. A heavy contributor to dark romanticist fiction and psychological realism, much of Poe's work focused on the psychological states of individuals, even though Psychology as a scientific study would not be introduced until several decades afterwards. Poe explored the fragile relationship held between the heart and the mind, and the damage emotion can inflict on one's perception of their surrounding environments. Poe also explores the inner psychological workings of the demented individual and their perception of the world around them. Poe’s illustrative utilization
Poe’s ability to create an uncanny likeness of the “anxious” or “nervous” mind, and his ability to construct universally disturbing incidents in an engaging manner suggest a fundamental understanding of human character and psychology. Poe never references any specifics on the subject of psychology or moral philosophy, suggesting that he never had formal training, but rather refers to an intuitive understanding of “the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul” (Poe 738). What is even more interesting is Poe’s ability to depict the protagonist’s instabilities without ever coming out forthright and stating that the protagonist is insane. Instead, Poe relies on insinuation through tone and subject matter to suggest that the perspective of the protagonist and what’s going on around them may not be as truthful as it appears.
In Poe’s letter, The Philosophy of Composition, he notes that his intentions when writing a story is to first display an effect (Poe 738), that is, an underlying tone within story which he intends to reflect an emotion, such as anger, joy, fear, or a complex psychological state of mind, such as sociopathy, depression, anxiety, or psychopathy, and then implement strategies needed to portray that. Poe writes that his main strategies were a combination of subject and
He wheels the cushioned seat in front of the bird, revealing his change of intention from that of a passive observer, to an active participant. Engaging the bird, a receptacle of his subconscious ideas, represents the man’s intention of no longer resisting the madness he felt growing, but engaging it. Poe reveals the man’s breaking point in the second to last stanza; after becoming more and more incensed at the bird, the man shouts “Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” (691) showing how the man’s utter lack of separation between the bird, who was mealy repeating the only word it knew, and the anguish he had been running