Poe was obsessed with death and insanity which were evident throughout his works. He was heavily influenced by deaths in his own life including his wife and other family members. This took a toll on his mental health and he used writing as an outlet to express his emotions, often including death and madness as themes or driving forces of the plots and characters. Two of his most famous works, "The Raven" and "The Black Cat" prominently featured these themes.

1. Poe’s Obsession: Death & Insanity By: Eric Tereo

2. Edgar Allan Poe’s mind was one of great mystery and taboo. Nevertheless, he was an inspiration and an icon of interest for many throughout the realm of literature.

3. Death was no stranger to Poe. From an early age it haunted him with the deaths of very close family members. It continued to stalk him, taking the life of his wife, Virginia Clemm.

4. This had a large negative impact on Poe. He vented many of his emotions through his literature.

5. Edgar Allan Poe’s work included short stories, poetry, fiction, plays, and essays; with insanity evident in all.

6. In “The Fall of The House of Usher”, Poe used insanity as a plot mover.

7. Poe believe that a death of a young woman was one of the most poetic things to write about.

8. Poe uses death as well as insanity as characteristics of different plots, settings, and character traits.

9. The style and content of Poe’s literature has sparked an interest of psychological analysis of his writings and the writings of other authors.

10. “The Raven” is a perfect example of Poe involving death as well as insanity in one beautiful, but disturbing piece of literature. Poe implemented insanity by having the character driven mad from the raven’s responses to him, and death was him longing over his lost Lenore.

11. “The Black Cat”, in addition to “The Raven”, was another example of one of Poe’s characters being driven to the point of insanity with an obsession to one of the his creatures.

12. Edgar Allan Poe The father of American Gothic Literature.