The Importance of the Ancient Greek Blood Ritual to the Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract

This thesis contends that in several of Poe’s seminal short stories the author inserted as a common theme the ancient Greek sacrifice gone wrong. Uncovering these symbolic rituals will help us to understand Poe as a writer who was consistently ambivalent about the degree to which he wanted to communicate with his audience. It will additionally allow us to position Poe, in his opposition to pure sentimentalism, as the logical historical predecessor of Herman Melville; to some extent, we will also be able to call him a proto-naturalist.