As a writer Edgar Allan Poe was both blessed and cursed by his genius. Poe's works are so morbid and horrifying that they strike fear in the hearts of many of his readers. A definite connection can be made between the vast content of his literary works and the immense despair Poe suffered throughout his short life. His emotional experiences including love, despair and even personal turmoil are reflected in the literary classic The Fall of the House of Usher. Traces of this are evident in the bleak images he creates of the Usher family. Much like Poe's own family, the Usher's are sickly and even dysfunctional. According to the book The Poe Logic, the very existence of the Usher's focuses on pain and suffering, which directly represents the existence of the Usher's focuses on pain and suffering, which directly represents the circumstances Poe and his own family endured (Jackson, Dwight, p. 60) Edgar Allan Poe is also a master of creating suspense and using symbolism to d!
             Edgar Allan Poe's personal life experiences play a great role in interpreting and even understanding his work. While growing up Poe began life with the odds stacked against him. Poe endured one heart beak after another. According to Vincent Buranelli in Edgar Allan Poe, at the age of one his father left him, his mother and two other siblings. Edgar was very close to his mother who died of tuberculosis when he was not quite two, then the three Poe children were sent to separate orphanages in Richmond Virginia (Buranelli, p.52). Edgar was then adopted by the Allan family. His step mother showed him love and affection, but soon she too died of tuberculosis. This left Poe with an angry stepfather and the unbearable pain of the loss of his stepmother. As time passed Poe began his college career at the University of Virginia. According to Robert Jacobs in Poe: Journalist and Critic, in college is where Edgar found himself in ...