I need help for an essay. I must construct a thesis about the use of gothic conventions in Poe's Annabel Lee, but I haven't a clue on what to write (thesises are my weak point). The help is very much needed!!! Thanx alot.

-Alex

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2002

Answers

Poe often has a story framework to his poems. This ballad tells a Gothic type story with the dark atmso[here, the chilling wind, the angels and demons, the obsessive defiance of the man which is a different animal entirely than conventional love, so much so that Annabel herself disappears into his need. The setting is vaguely far off, medieval(?)"Kingdom", tower, tomb. Melancholy, tinge of horror but above all the romantic heroism of love and defiance "greater than" the rest of world and the afterlife as well. Start the thesis with the Poe version of the Byronic hero? Despite the title the poem is all about the narrator and this is not the first time the reader is distracted by a Poe title and expectation.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2002