Death as an Indisputable Ruler in The City in the Sea by...

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his short stories in a genre of Gothic fiction or Gothic horror. Poe is considered to be an interpreter of the genre as he managed to change and to renovate it by focusing on the psychology of his characters rather than on the traditional Gothic fiction elements. The theme of death is cross-cutting throughout the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His poem The City in the Sea is no exception to that rule. A well known critic T. Frederick Keefer claimed: â€Å"Edgar Allan Poes The City in the Sea is one of the most effective products of his poetic genius and craftsmanship, but it is also the least understood of his major works.† (3, p. 436) The main theme of the poem is death. Edgar Allan Poe likes to play with this†¦show more content†¦Death is not only the main theme of the poem, but also one of the most important symbols. The City in the Sea is impregnated with it: The absence of light – â€Å"No rays from the holy heaven come down,† no movement – â€Å"all seem pendulous in air.† The author uses a variety of phrases and hints to represent Death and his mightiness. The symbol of the Biblical town Babylon – â€Å"Babylon-like walls,†sends the message of the fatality of the city and the human race. The sea and the water, in general, represent stability and calmness; Edgar Allan Poe uses these symbols to emphasize the stillness of the Deathly kingdom and for that reason he applies the paradox – â€Å"hideously serene.† While speaking about the water, the author also uses a metaphor – â€Å"Along the wilderness of glass,† here he compares the surface of the sea to glass, again with its stillness and immovability. Chris Butler states in the article for Journal for English that â€Å" With references to stone fixtures, melancholy waters, gravesides, and death, Poe portrays the image of a city without soul. Poe could be drawing comparisons between the city and a decaying human body as both are completely motionless, silent, and lacking of a soul.† (2) Poe emphasizes again and again that Death is ruler in the lost city. The whole poem should be read as some sort of ritual reciting: Poe uses alliteration and anaphora for such purpose. Alliteration can be best viewed it in the second stanza of The City