Comparison between Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Van Gogh

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Edgar Allan Poe's life he had faced many problems which led him to express his problems through his writings and work. Vincent Van Gogh is also similar to Edgar, as they both had many personal problems in their life, but Gogh was a painter and Poe was a writer. Both Edgar and Vincent had mental health problems and was advised to get help with it but neither of them did. Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Van Gogh both used their work as a way to deal with all the issues in their life, such as their depression, loneliness and mental problems. Edgar Allan Poe had a rough life through his childhood because he never really knew his parents. He had a lot of problems about feeling like he was worthless. His dad left the family before he could even really know him, and his mother died of tuberculosis at the age three. After the death of his mother, he was split from his brother where he moved to Richmond, Virginia with a foster home. Around thistime Edgar was 13 he was already a talented writer, but his foster father wanted him to take over the family business and discouraged the idea of being a writer. While, he was growing up he was poor and financially unstable and Poe wanted to go to college to pursue his dreams. In 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia were Edgar was a spectacular student in his class. Despite his excellent performance in the classroom he was unable to graduate as he couldn't afforded the cost of college anymore and had to drop out. Because of all the debt

Poe was in he decided he would start to gamble to try to get the money to pay back UVA, but he eventually got into more debt as result. After realizing how much trouble he had gotten into with gambling, he had to go back home only to find out that his fiance was leaving him. While he was gone she had gotten engaged to another man which left him heartbroken and he decided to move to Boston because he had nothing else where he lived. After dropping out and moving he published his first writing while enrolling in the army. A few years later while still being enrolled in the army Edgar discovered that his ex was dying of tuberculosis. He traveled back to Virginia to mourn his ex's death but to also attend West Point. Poe was a great student but was kicked out for not doing his duties right. After being kicked out Edgar Allan Poe began writing a lot more and started to become a popular artist. He didn't care about the fame though, as his writings were more of asking for help than for just writing. Before anyone could help him he died on October 7th, 1849 to congestion of the brain.

Vincent van Gogh, just like Edgar Allan Poe, suffered through many things in his life which caused him to become mentally and emotionally unstable. Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. His family was poor and was unable to provide for him by the time he was 15, so he had to drop out of school and work for his Uncle's art dealership to contribute to his family's financial struggles. Gogh eventually switched jobs a few years later and moved to London. During his time in London Gogh fell in love with English culture and during his free time he would visit the local art galleries; in particular he was fascinated with Charles Dickerson and George Eliot and wanted to become like them. Vincent also thought he had found the love of his life, the landlady's daughter. He thought they would go on to get married, but when he proposed she rejected him and left him with a broken heart. After that he gave up most things in life and devoted his life to God. Gogh decided to preach, but during his tenure as a preacher, he was fired at two churches due to talking bad about the Latin language. The time had finally come to him to realize he wanted to be an artist, so he moved to the Brussels to pursue his dream. Just after a couple paintings, he had become one of the best painters in the business. No matter how famous he had gotten, it couldn't stop his physical illness, and because of that he started drinking turpentine and eating paint. Gogh's brother found out about his condition but Gogh wouldn't let him help. Sometime later, Gogh went out to paint but also brought a pistol with him, where he shot himself in the chest. Surprisingly he didn't die that day, but two days later when he died in the hospital.

Edgar Allan Poe showed how much help he needed in his writings, as in the Tell-tale Heart he talked about creeping on an old man and killing him in the house. In the writing he killed him because the old man was playing games with his mind which shows how Poe's head was really working. Vincent van Gogh doesn't show his pain through his paintings, they are more of the setting he is in. One of his famous paintings is The Yellow House Gogh is painting a painting of his new house and the stores and friends around him. Another one of Gogh's famous paintings is where he painted a picture of his bedroom to show his sister, the name of the painting is The Bedroom.

Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Allen Poe were in different times but resembled a lot of each other. Both artists had childhood that impacted them further in their lives. They battled mental illness as both of them were messed up due to childhood memories. Gogh and Poe both had poor families and had passions for becoming artists that their families didn't care about. They both fell in love at an early age and ended up gotten heartbroken, which left them depressed and angry and only made their mental illness worse. Because of all the trials in their life, they were pushed offed the edge. Gogh couldn't take the pain and started to torture his body, and Poe wrote about murdering people.

Vincent van Gogh ended up being one of the greatest painters in history and the same for Edgar Allan Poe with writing and poems. It's a shame their lives were shortened due to mental illness. They both faced childhood problems and heartbreak that caused them to do things that a normal person wouldn't do. They are still great artists, and will always be remembered as two of the best artists of their time.

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Comparison Between Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Van Gogh. (2019, Jun 26). Retrieved March 29, 2024 , from
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