Denial Essay

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“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe explores the conflicts between the speaker and God, nature and even himself. The speaker mourns the death of his wife and struggles with acceptance. Although the speaker blames the death of his wife on many forces, the dominant conflict in Poe’s “Annabel Lee” is that of person vs. self.
Set in a “kingdom by the sea,” the speaker in “Annabel Lee” describes the life and love he and his wife shared long ago. In that kingdom by the sea, he says he was a child and she was a child. He begins to explain the wind blew out of a cloud, chilling his Annabel Lee. But the conflict between person vs. nature does not last for long. He continues to explain that her highborn kinsman came and “shut her up” in a tomb. Who or what the highborn kinsmen are could be disputed. But even assuming the kinsmen are of a higher power, possibly sent by God, the conflict between person vs. God is also short-lived. The speaker never mentions dealing with the death of his wife with the help of friends for family. In fact, the speaker mentions other characters but never mentions another person other than himself and his wife in the piece. The struggle between person vs. society is evident only because the speaker deliberately avoids mentioning   it entirely. Continuing with his line of blame, the speaker moves to the angels, explaining that they were “not half so happy in heaven” as the speaker and his wife were, that they sent a wind to come and chill Annabel Lee, this time, however, killing her. He stammers on about how he can’t help but think about her when he sleeps by the sea and the moonbeams shine upon him. Whatever on earth is wrong with this man, it is not angels or higher kinsmen. He cannot seem to cope with the death of his wife. It is a sad case, but not the work of God or nature.
The speaker cannot seem quite what he is supposed to blame for the death of his bride. He obviously loved her or he would not have blabbed about it for so long. But what...

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