Why Is Edgar Allan Poe Considered An Iconic Figure

Edgar Allan Poe, a man who spent much of his life in an endless crisis is known in the today as one of the best authors and poets of all time. Both of his parents abandoned him, his father ran away and his mother died at the age of three. For most of his life, Edgar Allan Poe lived in Virginia, which eventually led to later inspire many of his works. One may wonder what exactly sets Poe’s works apart from others, and why he is considered an iconic figure in the world of writing. The suspense and thrill that Poe captures so beautifully in his works helps leave his audience pondering and theorizing about the works that he has crafted with such care. He is known to be able to keep his readers immersed at all times. This leads to Poe being established
This subgenre, known as Dark Romanticism, is often also merged with the Gothic genre, and rose around the early nineteenth century. Edgar Allan Poe’s works reflect this genre strongly, and many historians say he is a master of this craft. Gothicism specifically came about when advances were being made in society, specifically during the Industrial Revolution, which took place from when changes in technology, education, societal culture, medicine and economy were taking place (Gothic Literature 1).While many British Gothics delve into family secrets and castles, many American Gothics focused more on making a psychological impact on the audiences, with the intention of leaving the audience in shock, or thinking over what they have just witnessed. Readers can observe that works in these genres can be associated with traditional Romanticism on how they are “cloaked in uncertainty, and stocked with mysterious passageways,” along with “passion over reason, and irrational fears.” (Gothic Literature 1). In difference to these traditional qualities, what truly set works of Dark Romanticism and Gothicism apart from works of Romanticism was the involvement of supernatural and paranormal activity. In point of fact, some historians state that as romantics began to merge into darker subject matter in their literature, their writing became capable of being depicted as “the writing of unconscious nightmares”
Through these abundant works, readers can see multiple examples of both Romanticism and Gothicism in Poe’s writing. Poe, however, had a disdain for American romantic writers, and yet, his writing had many of the same qualities that he disliked so much in others’ works. As Darlene Harbour Unrue states in “Edgar Allan Poe: The Romantic as a Classicist”, “Poe’s apparent preference for fantasy over realism and his placing of beauty over truth in a hierarchy of aesthetic seem to set him down firmly among the romantics.” (Unrue 113). An example of this romantic side of Poe’s works can be seen in the way that many of the works have a certain type of protagonist that appears undoubtedly often. These protagonists seem to act mindlessly, and don’t think through their actions and the consequences that may arise over these said actions, leading them into strange, macabre situations. This quality can be traced back to Romanticism and how many romantic novels have a common ground of having situations where people are acting with their hearts rather than their brains. A specific example of this can be seen in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, where a man seeks revenge on someone who had wronged him. The main character invites his enemy over with the promise of wine, comparable to Amontillado, a very fine wine, and then murders his guest and buries him alive. This story is reflective of the