What to Look for In Poe

Poe uses many recurring motifs in his writings. As you read his works, always look for motifs that repeat or recur throughout his stories and poems.

Motif: a recurring theme, idea, concept, subject or topic

The Eye Motif

•one of the most common motifs

•considered a window to the soul

•sometimes referred to as an “orb”

The Heart Motif

• important as both the physical pump of the body and as the center of all feeling and experience

•Poe places far greater emphasis on the Heart, representing emotion and experience, than on the head, representing intellect, rational thought, and scientific reasoning.

Premature Burial & Suffocation Motif

•These two concepts are sometimes linked, as a kind of “Life-in-Death” theme

The Un-named Narrator Motif

• Each narrator is different, distinct from any other from one story to the next.

• Some of Poe’s narrators are sane, some are clearly not and others are somewhere in between.

• The reader is not meant to see the narrator as Poe himself, but rather as a separate character or “persona”.

• The reader rarely if ever identifies with the narrator.

The Vortex Motif

•Poe will use the image and action of the vortex in his stories.

•Whether a character is traveling down a circular stairway, deep into the catacombs, or being swallowed up by an angry swirling sea the vortex motif is evident.

Vortex: A mass of whirling fluid or air, esp. a whirlpool or whirlwind. Figuratively it is something regarded as a whirling mass : the vortex of existence.

•Related to the Vortex;

•Psychologically, dreams are a porthole to the inner workings of the mind, a kind of “creative insanity”.

The Dreams/Dreaming Motif