Edgar Allan Poe was most known for his short stories and poems written in romantic and gothic styles. In many of Poe's works, setting is used to paint a dark and gloomy picture in our minds. He was one of the earliest American writers of the short story and is said to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is also credited with contributing to the start of the science fiction genre. He tried to earn a living off of just his writing, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career, not to mention the troubled beginning he had.

Poe’s life influenced his writing in a big way.  He often wrote about death and the effects of decomposition and premature burial.  Another recurring theme in Poe’s writing is the "death of a beautiful woman", like in the poem Annabel Lee.  Biographers and critics suggest that this comes from the repeated loss of women throughout his life. Many of his relatives died of tuberculosis, including the love of his life, his wife Virginia Clemm.  It is said that after she died, he was never able to function properly and became increasingly unstable, until his own mysterious death two years later.  

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I think that this was done deliberately by Poe so that the reader can make a connection between darkness and death. For example, in the Pit and the Pendulum, the setting is originally pitch black. As the story unfolds, we see how the setting begins to play an important role in how the narrator discovers the many ways he may die. Although he must rely on his senses alone to feel his surroundings, he knows that somewhere in this dark, gloomy room, that death awaits him.

Romanticism became a widely used writing style for many writers after Poe. ...

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