A Poe analysis of the Grimm Brothers

Edgar Allen Poe wrote a paper on the philosophy of writing good short fiction. It was published in a book called ‘New short story theories’ by Charles E May. He stated:

‘What I here propound is true: -therefore it cannot die:-or if by any means it be now trodden down so that it die, it will ‘rise again to the life everlasting’ nevertheless, it is as a poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead.

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Perhaps he knew that his work would be most appreciated after his death, as with most artiste work. Or perhaps he is trying to calm the nerves of new writers whose stories are deemed ‘un-printable’ by the critics, stating that while today they may not be appreciated, in a hundred years time, they shall be analysed and admired to thousands. When the Grimm brothers wrote their stories, they wrote them to begin with, as an extension to their medieval studies. They never planned to be a writer according to the research; they simply discovered a talent for it as life progressed. While their work was published in their lifetimes, they could never have known that there stories would progress around the globe, and into the mind of any every child’s head as a form of entertainment. Almost every person in the world has heard at least one of the works of the Grimm brothers, and like Poe said, this kind of reconition can only happen after you are dead.

‘In the construction of plot, for example, in fictitious literature, we should aim at so arranging the incidents that shall not be able to determine, of any one of them, whether it depends from any one other or upholds it’

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This is a preview of the whole essay

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This is perhaps the most crucial piece of advise to any writer wishing to write a story. The key is to keep a reader until the very end. The only reason to do this is to give them a question, which needs answering, usually based within the plot. If you set us a question as the beginning, then the reader will be forced to continue reading until it has been answered. So the best place to put the answer it at the end. Stories should also take a narrative structure. So each event is read in term of the time frame it is presented, so one scene leads naturally into the following scene and so on. The Grimm brothers used this technique wisely. For instance, in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, the story starts of with a girl being watched by a wolf, on here way to Grandmothers house. We wonder what does the wolf plan to do to her. For the answer to this question, we have to continue reading. As the story progresses, the wolf show us it’s true intensions. We learn more about the wolf’s plan as the story develops and eventually we arrive at the conclusion where all the questions finally become answered. So arranging a story, one incident at a time helps the reader stay focused, and addicted to the story.

‘The thesis of the novel may thus be regarded as based curiosity. Every point is so arranged as to perplex the reader, and whet his desire for elucidation…’

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This was written under the sub-heading of mystery, but is an important lesson for all genres. By getting the reader curious about the outcome of a character or how they will solve a task is to get the reader interested, but on top of that, you should place devises which allows the reader to think up there own escape plan. The reader will then continue reading to find out if there answer was right. The Grimm brothers used this principal in ‘a hare and a hedgehog’ amongst others. They started the question of a race between a hare and a `hedgehog as being a stupid race because at first glance, a hedgehog is thirty time slower than a hare. So the question was, what was the point of the story? But then as the plot progresses, the hedgehog makes some advances over the hare and we begin to doubt our initial expectations. Therefore, as more facts came to light, our desire to learn more become greater and so we continued to read to discover the truth about who is faster, the hedgehog or the hare.

So the principles laid out in Poe’s article have helped many other authors over the years, and even those without the aid of his teachings, they discovered these necessary theories on their own to create masterpieces with these principles amongst them. They are a necessary formula for writing publishable work and will continue to guide authors for many years to come.