Personal symbolism in the study of selected tales of Edgar A. Poe

The purpose of this paper is to study selected tales of Edgar Allan Poe in the light of the expressive theory of criticism. Linking of the studies of Poe's biography and his imaginative works has become more frequent and more meaningful due to the development of the sciences of psychology and psychiatry. In the expressive theory of criticism, the artist becomes the major element generating both the artistic product and the criterion by which it is to be judged. The primary source and subject matter of a work of art, therefore, are the attributes and actions of the artist's own mind; furthermore, symbols are the nearest possible representations of the feeling in the exact shape in which it exists in the mind. In this context, one may define symbolism as a form of indirect, metaphorical speech intended to carry or suggest a hidden reality. But for the purposes of my study, I have distinguished three classes of symbols: (1) the extrinsic or arbitrary symbols; (2) intrinsic or descriptive symbols; and (3) insight or interpretive symbols