PAMPANGA STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

Magalang, Pampanga

LITERARY CRITICISM
(THESIS STATEMENT)

POEM: ANNABEL LEE by EDGAR

ALLAN POE

Submitted by:
Rachelle E. Maglanque(MaEd. English)
Submitted to:
Prof. Karina D. Pena
Rachelle E. Maglanque

Maed- English

Assignment:

1. What are the salient feature of each approach?

a. Formalism-This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human

knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements
necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of
particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure,
tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist
critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to
shape its effects upon readers.

b. Reader-Response-This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature”

exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the
physical text and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to describe what happens in
the reader’s mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing,
is a creative process. According to reader-response critics, literary texts do not
“contain” a meaning; meanings derive only from the act of individual readings.
Hence, two different readers may derive completely different interpretations of
the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads a work years later may find
the work shockingly different. Reader-response criticism, then, emphasizes how
“religious, cultural, and social values affect readings; it also overlaps with gender
criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with different
assumptions.” Though this approach rejects the notion that a single “correct”
reading exists for a literary work, it does not consider all readings permissible:
“Each text creates limits to its possible interpretations.”

c. Biographical-This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that
literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can
help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a
practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a
biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s
life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on
explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the
author’s life....Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not
drown it out with irrelevant material.”
d. Marxism-The poem may be assessed on its political correctness — on its
support for workers against capitalist exploitation — but most Marxists praise
work that analyses or describes the injustices which Marxist societies aim to
overcome.

e. Feminism-It can be understood as using feminist principles and ideological

discourses to critique the language of literature, its structure and being. This
school of thought seeks to describe and analyze the ways in which literature
portrays the narrative of male domination in regard to female bodies by exploring
the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within
literature.
2. Essay

Literary piece: Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

Criticism: Formalism

True love never dies. A true love story never ends.

The poem "Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe depicts the deep anguish of
a man who has lost the love of his life. Using poetic elements such as imagery
and sensory perception, Poe illustrates a fairytale-like romance that is tragically
cut short, perceivably by envious angels in heaven. The language and tone of the
poem vividly shows the narrator's resentment towards the cruel forces that took
his love away and simultaneously exemplifies a love so strong that it transcends
all things.

The voice of the poem is that of a man who is struggling with feelings of
bitterness and pain because of the death of his love, Annabel Lee. The story
seems to be told years after the death of the young maiden, "It was many and
many a year ago , yet the tone of voice allows us to see how fresh the pain still
is to the man. Because there are many references to the sea (the kingdom was
by the sea and she was buried by the sea), the speaker appears to be someone
who has a connection to and a love for the ocean and nature (despite the fact
that it is a steady reminder or maybe even the actual cause of her death). The
reference to "the demons down under the sea , seem to suggest this (perhaps
Annabel Lee had drowned).

The speaker, however, is convinced that something much more disturbing

and complex has taken place: a conspiracy by the covetous and jealous angels
in Heaven has taken away his love. (He fills the need to place blame
somewhere.) He is angry, yet determined, even though Annabel Lee is physically
gone, to be with his love, in spirit, forever "And neither the angels in heaven
above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the
soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee . Although it has been many years ago since
her death, everything reminds the speaker of his love, "For the moon never
beams, without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars
never rise.

Edgar Allen Poe's use of imagery through out the poem "Annabel Lee  is
highly perceivable. His strong use of images can guide you right through this
poem.

This particular poem starts off with a man looking back on his life as a
child, falling in love with the girl of his dreams. Right here the rhythm of the poem
is set at a very even pace. Poe writes about "a kingdom by the sea,  meaning
how happy the speaker is and how perfect his life is with the girl. The speaker in
this poem is a man who is madly in love. One can easily picture a beautiful castle
by the ocean as two children are falling in love, but if you look deeper you can
see that "a kingdom by the sea  really means the state of love that the boy was
in (lines 23 and 24). He also says that Annabel Lee lived with no other thought
"than to love and be loved by me.  This means that he was saying that she lived
for him and he lived for her. By this I mean that the two of them were placed on
this earth solely for the benefit of each other. With out sharing love between the
two, neither of them could exist.

Conclusion:

In the beginning of the poem, the speaker is talking about Annabel Lee in such a
way that the poem is taken to be just an little love poem. However, towards the
end, the poem shifts tones to obsession. I came to the conclusion that he was
obsessed about Annabel Lee because of how he says he sleeps by the side of
her dead body. Normally people do not want to sleep next to a dead body even if
it is the body of a person they love. I have included a segment of the poem were
the tone shifts to obsession:

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride

In her tomb by the side of the sea.

The use of repeating Annabel Lee's name gives off an obsessive vibe in which
the speaker can only focus on her beauty and how his soul cannot be torn from
hers. Edgar became so depressed when his love died.

Reference:

http://literatureguides.weebly.com/analysis-of-annabel-lee-by-edgar-allan-
poe.html. Retrieved: Sep. 10, 2015

http://poestories.com/poetry.php. Retrieved: Sep. 10, 2015