The Dark Ages

Breann Allen

Haponek

Eng 301

6 May 2013

The Dark Ages of Literature

Literature has many faces and wears them all quite well. One of it's many faces is the Gothic one. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the American Gothic movement in literature took place as a reaction from the Transcendentalist movement, which those writers believed emphatically that everyone had the power to achieve greatness in life. The Gothic writer's, however, took a drastically different route. Gothic writers believed that life wasn't such a postive thing, more of a tragic one. They wrote about the pitfalls of humanity and the things that nighmares consist of. Edgar Allan Poe was a master of this. Poe has inspired writers all over the world for over 150 years to write their own tales of the macabre. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" showcases Gothic literature at it's finest.

The Raven was published in 1845 by Edgar Allan Poe, a few years before his death. The Raven is often regarded as one of Poe's best works. Gothic literature tries to evoke a sense of fear and/or suspistion in it's readers "Upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quiant and curious forgotton lore-"(Holt McDougal 436), this tells the reader that the poem is taking place in the darkness of night, which is linked to a multitude of unsettling things.