Critic A: I think Poe was confused as to why he never found joy in the things other people did, and that is what he recollects on in this poem. He questions what obstacles prevented him from being happy as everyone else was and at last concludes \"the demon\" to be this giant void constantly keeping him depressed and disconnected from the rest of society, and he then realizes he can never overcome it.
My Response: I agree with this person. Poe obviously struggled with depression, and, also, experienced the losses of those closest to him. He was robbed of all who had brought him happiness and joy. It is no surprise that at some point he would stop and wonder why he had to suffer so much more than others. Also, as this critic states, he had to eventually realize how the amount he had suffered separated him from the rest of society and kept him depressed.
My Response: I agree with this person. Poe obviously struggled with depression, and, also, experienced the losses of those closest to him. He was robbed of all who had brought him happiness and joy. It is no surprise that at some point he would stop and wonder why he had to suffer so much more than others. Also, as this critic states, he had to eventually realize how the amount he had suffered separated him from the rest of society and kept him depressed.
Critic B: This is a story that is about someone who simply doesn't have the same interests as other people. He is therefore alone, unable to connect with people about his passions. And while he may still care for people it is simply hard to connect to someone who doesn't have any passions that match up with his. I can completely relate to this feeling as I have known many people who are perfectly nice people but no matter how hard I try to connect to them they simply don't care about what I do and they don't care about what I do. That feeling of being on the outside looking in is something that I suspect everyone has felt at some time, whether it is the person who hides who they are because they don't know how others will react or the person who doesn't hide who they are and so spends much of his time alone, but the truth is that I for one wouldn't change the feeling I have had in the past of being an outsider. I would not want to be part of the crowd even if I knew how to be because often the crowd doesn't see the mystery.
My Response: I partially agree with this critic. I feel that he or she interpreted the most general ideas so he or she could feel the poem and really relate to it, which is right on point. However, I do feel that this person missed some of the hidden details of the poem left for interpretation, and left out the reasons Poe would write a poem like this, which was probably because of the deaths of all of those close to him and maybe even the time he spent at war.
My Response: I partially agree with this critic. I feel that he or she interpreted the most general ideas so he or she could feel the poem and really relate to it, which is right on point. However, I do feel that this person missed some of the hidden details of the poem left for interpretation, and left out the reasons Poe would write a poem like this, which was probably because of the deaths of all of those close to him and maybe even the time he spent at war.
Critic C: This poem contains the concepts of imagery, the struggles within oneself, and the hopelessness that the main character feels. The images that Edgar Allan Poe describes are of nature. His view of the world is negative, and this is why he uses thunder clouds and lightening to show how dark the earth can be. He mentions the sun rolling, but it seems to be pummeling him down into the ground. The line, “When the rest of Heaven was blue/Of a demon in my view” means that when someone is in heaven and looks at the world, the world seems nicer than when someone was actually living. (Poe) He writes this dark poem to release his emotions onto paper.
Another aspect of “Alone” is that the character struggles within him. I feel like Poe is describing his life of pain and angst. He has a lot of inner issues, and it is evident: “Then — in my childhood — in the dawn/Of a most stormy life — was drawn/From ev’ry depth of good and ill/The mystery which binds me still” (Poe). He talks about his past, and it affects him. It makes the reader wonder what could have happened to make him feel forlorn and lugubrious. He must feel terrible, and he has not been able to move on with his life ever since. He views himself as different and apart from everybody else in the first few lines of his poem.
The last aspect of the poem is that the character feels like he is incapable of being happy. Poe writes, “My sorrow — I could not awaken/My heart to joy at the same tone –/And all I lov’d — I lov’d alone”. I could relate to this cause there are times that it is hard to be happy when things go wrong in life. Poe feels disheartened and gives up hope that circumstances in his life will not improve. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece.
My Response: This critic hit it straight on. There is nothing he or she left out. Even though they may have not done any extensive back round research on P