Poe as a Comical Author

A detailed Summary of Poe as a Comical Author

Edgar Allan Poe is the author of many well-known stories such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Black Cat. He has also composed many famous poems such as The Raven and Annabel Lee. These works are representative of what Poe is best known for, his horror filled stories. His use of the single effect catches the reader in a tale of terror in the first line of the story or poem, and continues to keep the reader in fear, suspense, and anticipation to the very last. However, Poe is the author of many different types of short stories and poems. Contrary to what many believe, Poe's main purpose in many of his stories is not to frighten his reader, but to humor this reader; this is proven in such works as Diddling, Loss of Breath: A Tale Neither in nor Out of 'Blackwood', and Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Tale With a Moral.

Diddling, by Edgar Allan Poe, is, quite obviously, a story about diddling. Such a trivial subject provides a humorous read for his audience. More importantly, it reveals the humorous side that is only apparent in some of Poe's works.

Diddling- or the abstract idea conveyed by the verb to diddle- is sufficiently well understood. Yet the fact, the deed, the thing diddling, is

Loss of Breath: A Tale Neither In not Out of 'Blackwood' is a story about a man, the narrator, obsessed with telling his wife how insignificant she is. It also happens to be the day after their wedding. Whenever he gets close to her, however, he loses his breath. So he decides to go out of the country, but when he gets on the train, still out of breath, he drops dead. Even though he is dead, he is still aware of what is happening to him. When he is put in a trunk, his limbs are dislocated, and his head is twisted. An apothecary starts to dissect him, but realizes he might not be dead. From this point on, the narrator satirically explains what it is like to be dead and points out the stupidity of people.

This is quite obviously the devil, who then lays down the conditions and rules of this bet. Mr. Dammit goes ahead and attempts the jump, but does not make it, and the narrator sees the "little old gentleman" running away with something in his apron. Mr. Dammit was found dead with no head. He then realizes that a metal bar must have severed Mr. Dammit's head, but the head was nowhere to be found. This story makes the moral overly obvious and insults those critics who criticized him for his lack of morals in his stories. His use of satire to silence his critics shows the power of his writing, as well as the humor he is capable of. This humor is exactly the type of story Poe he deserves to be better known for.

"My glance at length fell into a nook of the frame-work of the bridge, and upon the figure of a little old gentleman of venerable aspect. Nothing could be more reverend than his whole appearance; for he did not only had on a full suit of black, but his shirt

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Approximate Word count = 1140
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English