The Extraordinary Wife Of Bath Essays - Narrative Poems,

The Extraordinary Wife Of Bath Many characters in The Canterbury Tales are only described in the smallest detail. Only a handful are given a physical description and even fewer are actually given names to go by. A character that has a most descriptive detail and also one, whom has a name, is Alice, the Wife of Bath. This majestic lady is very proud of what she has accomplished in life. Also, to defend her ways she uses logic and reason, Chauncer also, never judges her like he does to many other characters, but lets her speak for herself. Although one would imagine the Lady of Bath to be ashamed of her way of life, she simply is not. With her four dead ex-husbands, she has received plenty of money and valuables. While married, Chauncer gives the impression that Alice also had many affairs. These affairs have almost definitely added to her personal wealth. Married now to her fifth husband, who is much younger, because of love and not just dependent on how much money he has. Throughout Alice's storytelling, the characters tend to attack her. She simply comes back using simple logic and reasoning. Her basic method of thinking is that if god did not want one to have sex, he would not of given the human race the ability to do so. The ladies behaviour is also very up-front and she enjoys talking a great deal. Yet with having this sort of an attitude, it gives the reader a real look at one of the most described and interesting characters that Chauncer writes about. Most other characters from The Canterbury Tales are judged by Chauncers personal standards and the standards from that particular time period. Alice, the Wife of Bath however, is not judged like this. Chauncer lets the reader decide how to judge her and create her image. He also uses very little irony and sarcasm when he, and other characters talk about Alice. Chauncer simply lets the reader decide how to judge her from telling of her behaviour that was most unusual for that time period. The reader can easily create an accurate judgment of her, mainly because of her up-front attitude towards many aspects of life. As seen, the great Alice, Wife of Bath, is proud of her lifestyle and will go to great lengths to defend it. She is also the only character that the reader can judge for himself or herself with little input from Chauncer. Perhaps being the most described character from the novel gives one the impression that she could also be one of the most important. Her introduction in the prologue, which is one of the longest, also indicated this. All of these characteristics combined; let one visualize a grand picture of this lady. English Essays

Charles Ponzi Essays

Charles Ponzi Essays Charles Ponzi Essay Charles Ponzi Essay Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Charles Ponzi Charles Ponzi was born in Parma, a city in Italy from a family that had its recognition as being prosperous. He was born as Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi on the third day of March in 1882, to his parents known as Roberto and Maria Ponzi (Dunn, 16). He was infamous for his fraudulent and swindler lifestyles. To date his schemes were regarded as among the worst in the United States resulting in the term â€Å"Ponzi Scheme† for what is considered as Ponzi scheme (Zuckoff, 21). His schemes were synonymous with promises of doubling the funds and the purchase of postal coupons with claims of substantial returns on investments. Ponzi arrived in the United States on November 15 1903, in Boston, in the state of Massachusetts. This was on the vessel S.S Vancouver. He carried with him the hopes of achieving the American dream. He had gambled all of his savings during his voyage into the United States. During his stay in the East Coast of the United States, he performed odd jobs to enable him survive. In Boston, he managed to work as a dishwasher, and he was later promoted to a waiter. However, he was later laid off for claims of theft and shortchanging the restaurant customers. In the year 1907, he opted to move north into Montreal where he sought employment. He was lucky and managed to get employment at a new bank in the city that had just started operations known as Banco Zarossi. The bank’s owner Luigi Zarossi, aimed at tapping into the large Italian consumer market living in the city of Montreal (Zuckoff, 39). The bank at the time issued a 6% return of bank deposits, which was significantly higher than the going market rate at the time. This was one of the main attractions of consumers to the bank resulting in rapid growth of the bank. Ponzi was later appointed as the bank manager of Banco Zarossi (Dunn, 28). However, it became evident to Ponzi that the entity was not as profitable as it implied because Zarossi used funds form newly opened bank accounts to pay for the enormous interest rates. The bank eventually collapsed, was closed, and Zarossi ran away to Mexico with all the funds saved by the populace in Montreal. Ponzi had come into the United States to find employment. Ponzi was later arrested in Montreal for forging a check of $423 that he aimed to use to travel back to the United States. He was later released in the year 1911 and was involved in a crime for smuggling illegal Italian immigrants through the border. He was arrested and sent into the Atlanta Prison where he spent another two years in prison. This prison played a momentous responsibility in influencing him into the world of crime and specifically that of fraud and theft. He befriended an infamous mobster by the name Ignazio Lupo alias â€Å"the Wolf†. In addition, he also befriended a Wall Street businessperson by the name Charles W. Morse who was also in the same prison (Dunn, 33). Ponzi, after release, went back to Boston and married Rose Gnecco in the year 1918. He was unable to find appropriate employment and opted to work in the home product store that was owned by the father to his wife. During this period, he came up with an idea to make money through advertising and started his individual advertising company, which failed. In the same period, a Spanish firm wrote to him with interests in the catalog. The letter was accompanied by an International Reply Coupon that he thought had a weakness that would enable him to make money. An international reply coupon was used by people for payment of postage of a reply after receipt from a correspondent. Such were usually charged at the price tag of the postage from the country where the post originated. The IRC’s could be used to make exchanges for stamps in the country of receipt; hence, there was potential from making a profit by the recipient of the IRC. Thus, the newfound idea by Ponzi could be simply termed as arbitrage, in that an asset was purchased from one country and sold in another country for a massive profit. Ponzi claimed that such exchanges would result in excesses of more than 400%. He began his scheme by sending money to his relatives in Italy to make purchases of the vouchers, and then forward them to the United States. However, this resulted in an alarm by the authorities after he tried to redeem numerous coupons. His scheme materialized, and he began to employ agents and reward them with good commissions for the dollars that they brought in terms of the investments. This spread the word about the rapid growth of the firm that he had started and named Securities Exchange Company. His deposits of the funds collected happened in the Hanover Trust Bank of Boston (Dunn, 73). He hoped to attain a large stake in the bank and bought shares with some of his friends who had helped him in the growth of the scheme. From his previous skills and experience as a bank manager in Montreal, he applied identical tactics used by Zarossi and paid the clients with new deposits of funds with promises of vast returns (Dunn, 36). His scheme, however, brought about suspicion given the short rise to wealth by Ponzi, coupled by the rapid growth of his entity given the short period between inception and substantial returns achieved. His day of reckoning began with the claims from McMaster of the presence of fraud, theft and irregularities from the incriminating evidence found in the financial records held by the Securities Exchange Company. The Post in Boston later published that Ponzi had been earlier involved in crimes such as the forgery and fraudulent activities of the Banco Zarossi, where he worked as the Bank manager. This claims played a vital position in the crash of the Hanover Trust Bank given that Ponzi had borrowed massive amounts from the entity, which he could not repay with his swindled money. In addition, despite the numerous investments that were received by the bank in from of checks, his account was in the negative given his large overdrafts to furnish the interest payments (Zuckoff, 44). The fall of the Hanover Trust Bank was also followed by an additional collapse of another five banks. The investors in his scheme lost amounts estimated to be about $20 million, in the year 1920, which could be translated to about $225 million as at the year 2011. After his arrest, he was almost awarded bail, a decision, which was later withdrawn after more incriminating evidence, came into light that showed he had committed significant financial misdeeds. In addition, he was denied bail because he was considered as a flight risk given the large amounts of investments in his name, which could easily enable him to escape from the United States. The investors of this scheme received less than $30c for a dollar of investment (Dunn, 41) He was arrested and charged with two federal indictments and eighty-six mail fraud counts. With potency for a lifetime in prison, Ponzi pleaded guilty to the charges based on pressure from his wife, in the year 1920. He received a prison term of five years that was to be served in a federal penitentiary, due to his involvement in instigating one of the largest defrauding schemes in the world. He was later released after a period of forty-two months but was immediately rearrested by the Massachusetts State on charges of Larceny. He had been promised by the Federal courts that his guilty plea would waiver any other criminal charges against him in his concoction of the fraudulent scheme. Ponzi sued the state with claims that it did not have any jurisdiction to charge him, given that he was a state prisoner. In the year 1922, in one of the larceny charges hearings, he was self-represented since he had inadequate funds to find proper legal representation. He was able to actualize his smooth talking skills and was found not guilty by the jury. In the second charges, he was charged on five counts of larceny resulting g in a jury deadlock. However, during the third trial he was found guilty by the courts and sentenced to nine additional years in jail. Federal agents worked to have him deported given that he had not obtained American citizenship since his arrival in the United States in 1903. In addition, he was released on bail and fled to Florida and initiated another fraudulent scheme known as the Charpon Land Syndicate with the first words as initials for his name. He sold land to people majority of which was swampy in the county of Columbia. He was indicted by the Grand Jury of the state of Florida, specifically in the Duval County in the year February 1926. He posted bond of $1,500 and was released. He tried to flee but was arrested in New Orleans and served seven years in the state of Massachusetts. After his release in the year 19 34, he was met with an order for his deportation back to Italy given the harm he had caused to the American people (Dunn, 57) Ponzi always stands as one of the greatest concocters of fraudulent schemes in the United States resulting in the infamous term â€Å"Ponzi Scheme† to refer to any fraudulent schemes with promises of high returns. Ponzi was able to disclose the presence of loopholes within the postal industry, which enabled the postal services around the world to find new forms of postage to prevent the presence of fraud. In addition, he also enabled the American populace to proceed with caution in relation to investments that promise suspiciously higher returns than the average market returns on any investment. In essence, his schemes were a valuable lesson for the American society in relation to management of individual funds and the necessity for evaluation of investments and investment entities. Work Cited Dunn, Donald. Ponzi: The Incredible True Story of the King of Financial Cons (Library of Larceny) (Paperback). New York: Broadway, 2004. Print. Zuckoff, Mitchell. Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.

To explore the relationship between motivation, job satisfaction & its Thesis Proposal

To explore the relationship between motivation, job satisfaction & its impact on employees performance - A study of 4.5 star hotel in Australia - Melbourne - Thesis Proposal Example Egan, Yang, and Bartlett (2004) carried out a study on how job satisfaction and organizational learning culture affected turnover intention and motivation to transfer learning where they carried out an examination of the relationship between job satisfaction, organizational outcome variables, and organization learning culture using IT employees sample in the USA. They then realized that Motivation to transfer learning and IT employee job satisfaction were associated together with organizational culture. They also found out that job satisfaction and organizational learning culture negatively influenced the turnover intention. The people who most of their times are cheerful and positive do tend to have a higher job satisfaction, and they express it rather than those who are gloomy and down most of their time. This is according to the research carried out by R. Ilies and T. Judge (2003, p. 754). They continued saying that the match between outcomes of the individual value in the jobs and how they perceive the availability of outcomes of such kind, more especially for the facets of jobs that are highly valued, primarily determine the job satisfaction (Hirsch, 2004, p. 114). Boswell, Boudreau, and Tichy (2005, p. 885) give the concept of honeymoon and hangover effect in job satisfaction. They view honeymoon effect as the propensity of enjoying high satisfaction level on new jobs, which they have taken as a response to dissatisfaction of the old jobs. They also explain the hangover effect as the tendency of the satisfaction level to drop with time, from the time when a position is new to the time more experience is gained. On comparing job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, Moynihan and Sanjay (2007) examined the effects of job characteristics, organizational variables, and individual attributes on some aspects on work motivation,

Marketing Research 200 Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing 200 - Research Paper Example Discuss the following statement: â€Å"Quantitative research is more important than qualitative research because it results in statistical information and conclusive findings.† Use references to support your opinions. (Recommended approx. 1000 –1200 words) 100 marks Total Marks (200 marks) 1. In what ways can marketing research influence the development and implementation of marketing strategy? Does that mean that organizations that conduct market research will perform better than organisations that does not? Please provide adequate references and examples for each of the points in your discussion. Marketing plays a vital role in the development of an organisation. It is a necessary part of every business and no business can sustain in the market without proper marketing strategies and techniques. When we look deep into the oceans of marketing, we observe many things that are pre-requisites and are required necessarily to perform proper marketing. Market Research is one of them. What is Marketing Research? Marketing research is basically a simple function, which interlinks consumers, public and customers to the marketer through the flow of information. It helps to get the idea of what a layman thinks about the product and in which manner a marketer should market the products. Marketing research specifies the information required to solve an issue, manages and implements the data collection process, analyses results, and communicates the findings and their implications. (Journal of Marketing Research 2011) It is basically about understanding consumer behaviour, like how a particular person quenches his thirst while he is at work. It helps you to get an idea of the consumers’ mentality. It also helps in ascertaining the current position of the company in the eyes of a consumer. A company can never improve its products unless it is aware of its current product standings. Therefore, market research creates an opportunity by conducting in-depth research and helps organizations to progress on regular basis. Moreover, a thorough marketing research can also help in getting answers of the following questions, by remaining unbiased. Who will buy your product? Will the consumers of your product recommend your product to others? What do customers expect from you? Are you meeting their standards? Are you competitors better or do you have the best standing amongst the customers? There are many similar questions that need to be answered in order to improve the performances of businesses among competitors (Alberta 2003). In addition, market research is the best way to get first hand information of customers. By conducting these researches, not only you are getting relevant information but also showing your customers that how much you care about them. It is also an admitted fact that these marketing researches helps strengthen customer relationships (American Marketing Research 2011). In addition, no one can deny the fact that a fine line separates the success or failure in business and marketing research is correlated to the success or failure of an organization. Influence of marketing research in the Development and Implementation of Marketing Strategy: Considering the conventional definition and concept of marketing research, (what is the conventional definition of MR? mention it) (Mentioned Under the heading of What is Marketing Research, with reference to the JMR) one can easily deduce that marketing research certainly influence the development and implementation of a marketing

Stagnant Democracy Essay Example for Free

Stagnant Democracy Essay Democracy, whether in its early or current state, needs constant improvement even if it is a government system that is highly respectful of its constituents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Henry David Thoreau lived at a time when democracy was finally being recognized as oppressive in itself because the governing system was becoming stagnant.   The laws that citizens had to abide to were being criticized because of the injustice its system was already imposing on other races like Mexicans and Negroes.   Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson have simply seen that the legal system has become inefficient if not a means for oppression because of its taxes and treatment of others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Society needs persons like Thoreau and Emerson because they are people who are able to see and declare the evils of society.   Only when declarations such as those made by them are given attention can any government or system improve.   It is upon reflection of their ideas when true great men can enact changes that would be able to improve an always imperfect society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Both Thoreau and Emerson, even if they can be deemed as rebellious, do represent the traditional Western or American values because what they espoused in their writings were still democratic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thoreau, although he hints on individualism and disadvantages of the political system in his suggestions for civil disobedience, is merely applying his very rational beliefs and principles.   He is merely promoting a different concept that will be actually for the good of his community.   His suggestion for a non-violent revolution is democratic in itself because it is peaceful. Thoreau believes that every man has the power to enact change in his society even if he is not part of a majority. He says that a vote may be an act of one to show his agreement or dissent on certain issues but this is not enough to really change what is wrong in society.   He sees the exercise of voting as not enough.   To be true to one’s self would be to express fully what one is against to†¦ such as the way he has been stubborn (and consequently punished) in his non-payment of certain taxes.   He believes in the government because it can organize communities peacefully but insists that a political body can only be truly successful if it respects the individual.   In this way, he is actually espousing the very basic principle of democracy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He may seem rebellious when he attacks the government for imposing the taxes for Christianity but the basic formulations of his principles are very Christian. He believes that he is able to give back his spiritual obligations in other ways which are more useful to society.   His writings are testimony of his own contribution to the community he belongs to.   He insists that taxes are merely oppressive when people blindly pay it while they can share their skills and talents in other forms that will serve the community just as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Emerson is also representative of the liberal American or Western values because he is able to find the freedom of speech to attack the problems of the society.   The theme of self-reliance is not selfish but civic because it upholds the dignity of an individual which in turn can contribute better to society.   He believes that the society during his time is already in need of a wake up call because of its reliance on conformity and consistency. He saw that men were becoming cowards to express what is fair and just because of the need to adapt to the opinions of other who are simply obeying the laws blindly.   He sees that most people are already trapped into making very wrong decisions because of the fear that people will attack their views and actions because of what they had done in the past. According to Emerson, people who are not able to rely on their instincts with regard to what is right and wrong because they are always concerned on how society will react to them become prisoners of their cowardice.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Emerson may seem like a heretic when he attacks the hypocritical expression of faith many Church leaders were making but his views are basically Christ-centered.   His idea that the Church has become overbearing because of its strict adherence to religious laws is true.   Morality, for Emerson, is to look inside one’s self and find the truth and what is ultimately good for the individual and the others who surround him.   He believes that God provided each and every one of us with the instinct to know what is correct or wrong and that too much reliance on Church teachings can lead one to further mistakes simply for the sake of conformity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thomas and Emerson are highly for democracy and God but the way they have expressed themselves can seem rebellious to those who insist in following unjust laws.   As Martin Luther King Jr. has expressed in his own writings, laws that disregard the higher morals it supposedly adheres to are ineffective and disobedience to these is simply necessary. In fact, King is correct in establishing that disobedience is actually democratic and spiritual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Democracy may have established laws that protect the security of many but it is still imperfect.   Individuals like Thoreau and Emerson are truly important to help this political system improve and correct itself.

Sling Blade Essay -- essays research papers

Sling Blade Film directed by and screen play by Billy Bob Thornton. Theme Sling Blade’s main theme is the redemption of Karl’s lost childhood. Karl Childer’s overly religious parents believed he was a punishment from God. They severely abused him, treated him like an animal, and forced him to live in a shed in solitude. Everyone in town picked on him and called him names. He was seen as a â€Å"retard† or slower than others. He had little to call his own. His only possessions were a Bible and several books on Christmas and carpentry. Karl was taught the Bible as a child, but it wasn’t really the Bible. The stories they told him were not in the Bible. His parents had made up their own stories and had led him astray on the rights and wrongs of life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Karl was 12 years old interrupted what he believed to be the raping of his mother. He took charge and killed the man with a â€Å"sling blade†. He than found out his mother had wanted it so he killed her too. When he killed his mother and her lover he thought he was doing the right thing. Karl believed that if you have to sacrifice to do the right thing than you should do it. Karl was locked away in a â€Å"nut house† for the next 25 years for rehabilitation and correction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After Karl’s release he quickly made a new friend, Frank. The young boy accepted Karl with out question because he seemed to be more childlike than man. The two become soul mates. Karl related to Frank through his childlike manner as well as his parental setup. Frank’s mother was a widow dating an alcoholic, abusive man, Doyle. Karl saw himself in Frank and decided to watch over him. The parallelism between the two characters was shown throughout the movie. The love they shared will save them. The â€Å"boys† faced their troubles on a simple level. They avoided the complications of adult views and judgments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Karl had read the Bible and believed he knew the difference between right and wrong, but was faced with the problem of protecting Frank from a painful future with Doyle. Karl knew that Doyle would manage to poison Frank’s life, or worse, just as Karl’s parents did to him. He tried to reconcile his own simple moral code with everything he had been taught about right and wrong, and must decide whether to stand by and watch, or step in to protect the child. He... ... of an abusive parent or significant other is it right to take their life to prevent danger of losing your life? I don’t understand why Linda stuck around. Doyle doesn’t provide anything for her family. All he does is endanger Frank mentally and physically. It shouldn’t have taken a â€Å"retard† to get rid of Doyle. She should have gotten rid of him in a calmer fashion. That way Karl would be a free man enjoying life on the outside with Frank. The scene that affected me the most emotionally was where Karl and the little boy tell each other â€Å"I love you† and than hugged their goodbyes. I was also touched by the way Karl protected Frank and Linda. He made sure they were safe before he killed Doyle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I thought Sling Blade was written and filmed well. It did get slow in parts, but overall it kept my attention. I picked up on minute details that on a regular basis I wouldn’t have. This paper made me see the underlying aspects such as the music, lighting, and script. It made me pay attention to what the characters were saying and how they were relating. I now look at film in a new light. I don’t just watch the surface. I dig deeper and watch for everything.

Edgar Allan Poe Essay

Edgar Allan Poe was evil genius for his time and a great literary forerunner of today. He created the mind set for current writers such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Robin Cook by creating the horror story. Poe invites the reader to enter the mind of the narrator by using our senses as a way to provoke terror, suspense, and awe. His writing was influenced by many tragic losses in his life, and this would explain why Poe was a writer of such morbid short stories and poems. Poe’s experiences in life definitely influenced the remarkable literary work he produced. In his early life he had to deal with the death of both his parents, a difficult experience, but Poe accepted it as time went on. Later on in his life Poe’s stepfather disowned him. Young Edgar’s life was changed due to abandonment, alcoholism, and depression. In 1832 Poe moved in with his aunt and his 11 year old cousin in Baltimore. Poe then married his younger cousin in 1836. However, Poe did not know that he would suffer yet another terrible loss, the loss of his love, his wife. Poe’s ability to write literature was the window for him to express his feelings. All of Poe’s tragic losses affected the way he wrote. Poe used his life experiences to make his writing a lot more interesting. Poe’s writing is remarkably interesting. The poem â€Å"The Raven† showed how Poe erected a crazed state of mind, as the poem shows how the loss or a loved one drove a person crazy. This poem was possibly created for his wife that he had lost. While reading the poem it seems as if the stresses of the life of Poe, and his thoughts and feelings were all put into this poem. Throughout Poe’s life, many factors have contributed and influenced his writing style. He lived a difficult life, because he was raised in a dysfunctional household. But the final product of Poe’s mind is printed in his short stories and poems. Poe’s stories all have similar motifs and composition that would suggest suppressed emotions from life experiences are being discharged through his writings. The most prominent feature of Poe’s writing is his obsession with death. Poe’s writing does more than entertain the reader. It can be an insight into the dark and somber world of Edgar Allan Poe. One does not understand the meaning of Poe if one reads at the superficial level. One has to read into Poe, and understand the hardships of his life and how he maintained them that way. He knew that death was an inevitable part of life, it is the price of life, but he tried to fight it as if it was an unnatural part of life. He was an extremely intriguing man from all viewpoints, and he was and is, the dark side of all of us. It is difficult not to link Poe’s fictional stories with his real life. Evidence shows that Poe had a heart condition during his later years in life. Could â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† be his own fear of the disease? Who knows? Could Poe have been expressing his fears that his alcoholic rages may cause him to hurt the one’s he loved most in his tale â€Å"The Black Cat†? Finally, was â€Å"the Pit and the Pendulum† an allegory of his life? Did he find himself caught â€Å"between the pendulum of financial adversity and the pit of degradation of death†? Poe made the reader feel as if the reader were there, in the story, struggling with the same terrors of the characters. All his famous mystery thriller works give the reader a sense of nervousness, a sense of fear, and a sense of evil, by making our five senses awaken by reading every word. Critics say that Poe did not merely imitate the Gothic tales, but he also â€Å"enriched them by preserving a central action while adding philosophical speculations and lore that deepened the impressions of the tales†. As a result of the traumas he endured, Poe was â€Å"unafraid of taking his readers for a walk on the dark side, where lines between life and death were sometimes blurred†. His ability to tap into humankind’s deepest fears and his consistency in portraying such intriguing and captivating themes is what has kept the work of Poe timeless. In short, Edgar Allan Poe has created many great stories for us. He liked to illustrate the dissolution of an individual’s mind and body, as he had suffered it himself for quite a long time. He thought death is unavoidable, because he experienced keenly deaths all around him and its threat on his own life. He was obsessed by the loss of love of ideal women, for he had the same experience in life. Now, we can understand why Poe had a tendency of choosing such themes. Poe is an author of the inner world and his writings are his psychological autobiography to some extent. In this respect, Poe pioneered a new field in literature. He is the first one who focused on man’s mental and spiritual activities, and his writings have deep influence on many of later writers.    WORKS CITED Poe, Edgar Allan. Introductory Notes and Editor’s preface by Phillip van Doren Stern. In Selected Tales and Poems. The Viking Portal Library, Penguin Books, 1993. Moore, R. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart: Discussion.† 2002.Online. Internet. 11 November 2002. Available WWW: http://www.allpoe.com Murphy, Sally. â€Å"Poe’s Poetry.† 2002.Online. Internet. 12 November 2002. Available WWW: http://www.allpoe.com Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe His Life and Legacy. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992. Peters, James. â€Å"Edgar Allan Poe.† April 1, 2002.http://www.island-of-freedom.com/POE.HTM Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: A Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991. Death of Edgar Allan Poe. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998