Edgar Allen Poe was abandoned by his father when he was ten, and his mother died when he was eleven. This was most likely the beginning of the decline of his mental thought processes. The poverty, rejection, and abandonment Poe experienced had important psychological effects on his personality. Poe was delirious, confused, and devoid of natural emotion. In today's psychological circles, Poe is likely to be considered to have manic-depressive bipolar disorder. He was a disturbed individual and the disturbances are reflected in the darkness of his writings. “Poe is known primarily for his mastery of the Gothic genre. Poe's short stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia" are both classic examples of the genre. (Canada) Poe's Gothic writings were frightening fantasies that required the reader to participate in the terror. Poe also uses the unreliable narrator in "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia". The narrator describes his feelings when he first saw the house as "a sense of unbearable sadness pervaded my spirit." (p. 689) He goes on to describe the house as if it were a person when he equates the empty windows with “empty eyes.” Poe created an image in the imagination that can run wild. If he explained the terrors of the house, then they could be reasoned with or explained away. Insinuating allows you to experience the same kind of terror you feel when you hear a noise in a house at night and are afraid. The imagination begins to wonder about all kinds of things that are wrong and even begins to believe that something bad is about to happen. However, the sound turns out to be that of a limb brushing the window as the wind pushes it back and forth and then the person feels foolish for being afraid... middle of paper... tion of death, feverish fantasies, the cosmos as a source of horror and inspiration, without worrying about supernatural beings such as ghosts, werewolves, vampires and so on. He went on to say, “Three-fifths of his genius and two-fifths plain and simple caramel.” It was difficult to separate truth from fiction when deciphering Poe's writings. Works Cited: Baym, Nina, ed. "The Fall of House Usher." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. vol. I. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008. 689-701. Press.Canada, Mark, ed. "Edgar Allan Poe." Canada America1997. http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/poe.htm (June 15, 2011). Edgar Allan Poe, Review of A Fable for Critics by J. R. Lowell, from Southern Literary Messenger, March 1849, pp. 189-191Mini, Sarah. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 3, 1996.