Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the most influential short story authors of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural. His usage of literary techniques compels his reader to finish his tales at one sitting. It is believed that Poe's usage of first-person narrative in his short stories enhances an underlying emphasis on the mysteries of the self, of others, of nature, ad of the universe through the narrator's observations. Much of Poe's works were used to undercut the easy optimism and certainty characteristic popular to his time because of his usage of the darker aspect of life and living. His works carry within them multiple senses of depths. Not merely representing the physical, his tales also have metaphorical depths of mystery, of uncertainty, of the Unknown.
             In most of Poe's writings his sense of style and influential views are present through the uniqueness of his works. Regarded as the architect of the modern horror tales, Poe was also the principle forerunner of the "art for art's sake" movement in nineteenth-century European literature ("Poe Intro.", 2749). He is also credited with parenting two other popular genres: science fiction and the detective story (Keller, 1898). He demonstrates a brilliant command of language and technique as well as an inspired and original imagination ("Poe Intro.", 2749). Throughout his writing career Poe included personal experiences in his writing from his "war" with alcoholism to the death of young wife. The traumas and bizarreness of his life also give his writings an extra flare of suspense and the element to spark emotion in the reader. However, such traumas as losing his family to tuberculosis seemed to enthrall him into the arms of death. Thus, when observing details in his poetry and stories, the essence of tuberculosis symptoms are revealed. His pessimist outlook of life lies within the symbols of darkness an...