The Theme of Afterlife in Edgar Allan Poe's Works

Abstract

The present paper deals with the attitude of Edgar Poe, a famous American writer and poet, to death and afterlife – the themes of heaven and hell in his works. It shows the role of Poe’s life experience and his personal tragedies in the formation of his understanding of the mentioned concepts; special attention is dedicated to the peculiarities of romantic and gothic genres, especially the “dark romanticism,” combining the features of the both, e.g. creation of a mysterious atmosphere, themes of death and afterlife, mourning over the lost love. The paper presents Edgar Poe’s personality, his genius and tragic fate, provides the biographical information, which gives the reader some idea about Poe’s upbringing and education, his attitude to religion and his faith. While discussing its subject the paper relies on Poe’s works – examples are brought from them in order to illustrate the viewpoints offered in the paper. Based on the examples, conclusions are made, i.e., a number of factors like personal suffering, upbringing, temper, peculiarities of the romantic and gothic literary genres, religious faith, are identified, which makes it possible to create a truthful portrait of the artists.