Poe, the renowned horror writer of the 1800s, holds the title of being the first in the United States to delve into both horror and detective writing. With his influential work, he paved the way for subsequent American horror writers, including Stephen King. Despite their shared genre, there exist both similarities and differences in the literary endeavors of these two exceptional authors.
The most apparent distinction between the two texts lies in their language usage. This divergence can be attributed to the different time periods in which they were written, as each author employed the prevailing language of their respective era. Stephen King utilizes contemporary language, including slang and explicit terms, which would have been unfamiliar to individuals living in the 1800s. For instance, King refers to a character as a “bitch.” In contrast, Edgar Allan Poe employs simpler language to describe his characters and incorporates lengthy sentences with minimal dialogue. Notably, one of Poe’s sentences constitutes an entire paragraph, such as the second paragraph in the text, which consists of three sentences without any dialogue.
Moreover, King tends to utilize shorter sentences and often incorporates multiple sets of dialogue within each paragraph. He tells the story through the characters’ speeches. Conversely, Poe primarily conveys the narrative through explanatory passages rather than dialogue. Despite their differences, both authors share certain similarities. They both utilize elements of uncontrollable nature to overcome their characters. In Poe’s story, a simple whirlpool serves as this element, while King employs a flu bug in his narrative. These natural elements escalate in magnitude and ultimately lead to the destruction of individuals within the stories. By employing nature and death, both authors create suspenseful atmospheres. This choice is driven by the rarity of nature itself causing harm to humans, as it is typically humans who are responsible for damaging nature. Consequently, readers tend to find nature more intriguing than a mentally unstable human character.In this world, there are plenty of eccentric individuals, yet nature rarely produces such extraordinary events. Both writers were renowned horror authors in their respective eras. Despite living in different time periods, they crafted captivating tales that resonated with readers of all kinds.
