The topic of this research paper is to attempt to explain the writing styles and writing techniques used by of one of the most famous American short-story writer, author, and poet, Edgar Allan Poe. This paper will also discuss why when Poe writes most of his short stories or poems, he chooses to write them in the first person point of view of the narrator or main character of the story. It will discuss that Poe chooses to write like this because it allows the reader to better understand what is going on in the narrator’s mind, an effect that is otherwise unattainable if he writes it in any other point of view or in the first person point-of-view of any other character in the story. If he writes it in the third person point of view, his stories would make much less sense to the reader, consequently making the reader lose a lot of the horror he, or she, experienced. It will also attempt to explain the way Poe writes in first person point of view of an unnamed narrator to make the reader imagine himself, or herself, in the situation of the narrator.
Imagine Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" written from the perspective of that frightening and mysterious raven, or "The Tell-Tale Heart" told by the police officers. Surely this point of view would exponentially dull these stories. Typically, Poe chose first person point of view, using several internal monologues through his narrators to give the reader an understanding of what the narrator is thinking. For example, in "The Cask of Amontillado," Poe realized that the viewpoint must be from Montresor, considering that if he had chosen to tell his story through the victim, Fortunato, it would no doubt have lost its effective, memorable qualities. Without Montresor as the narrator, this dark tale would possess no true clarity, would forfeit its chilling suspense, and would fail to offer the reader a valid understanding of Montresor's conniving and slightly disturbing mind. Montresor is clearly