The movie The Raven is a movie about a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Throughout the movie there are a lot of similarities and difference between The Raven and Edgar Allan Poe’s life. So, in this paper I am going to point out some of them and the reason why Hollywood decided to make The Raven like that.
Differences
First, in the final scene of the movie we see that EAP is dying in a bench in Baltimore where an old man found him and then notified for help, while in real life he was found in a street of Baltimore delirious, in great distress, and in need of immediate assistance. Another difference is that EAP’s love is named Emily; in EAP’s life she could have been a representation of his fiancée, after Virginia’s death, Elmira Royster Shelton. But, wait, why isn’t Emily a representation of EAP’s love and wife Virginia? Because, the time of the movie is in the 1849 and EAP’s wife Virginia died on January 30, 1847. Also, EAP in the movie tells detective Fields about the story of his wife, Virginia, which had suffered from her first symptoms of consumption while singing and playing the piano. A final difference that I want to mention is that, in the beginning of the movie Poe had already published The Raven and he still wasn’t famous, but on Poe’s real life after he published The Raven he gained more fame and “made Poe a household name”.
Similarities
As shown on the movie, EAP was in fact an acute alcoholic, a writer and a poet. He was also a critic, published a lot of poems and short stories.
He died on October 7, 1849 as mention in both the biography and the movie. Though in the movie it’s not mention that he died on October 7, 1849 but rather that Emily was going to die that day. – This is seen when they went to the church to look for Emily and then Poe finds in the graveyard a cross with Emily’s name; birth, and dead date on it. – But, we can say that the murderer, Ivan Reynolds, was predicting that that day EAP was going to die. His editor, Henry Maddux, mentions to Fields that EAP had lost every single woman he has ever loved. In real life he lost every single woman his ever loved because of consumption; he lost his mother, the only mother he has ever know, Frances Allan; and his wife Virginia. On a final point that I wanted to mention is that Poe actually went to the army United States Military Academy at West Point.
Hollywood
As for why Hollywood made some changes to the movie, and why they made it like that; we can say that it was to make the movie appealing and interesting to the audience. This movie if it didn’t have the suspense and thriller it was just going to be “the life of Edgar Allan Poe”. So, to make the audience want to watch it and have good sales they made it like that.
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