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What is Poe's unity effect?

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    An example: if you want to make me cry - you must use every mechanism you can to ensure i do.

    Poe emphasized the unity of effect that one should strive for in any work of art. For example, words and phrases that occur and re-occur in Poe's various critical writings include the following: "to affect," "the totality of impression," "the unity of effect," "the novelty of the effect alone," and "the single effect," and these are only selected examples of his repetition of the value of this principle; Poe's writings contain many more examples of this emphasis. By these statements, Poe meant that the artist should decide what effect he wants to create in the reader's emotional response and then proceed to use all of his creative powers to achieve that particular effect:

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    Unity Of Effect

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/NfA8W

    "Unity of effect" is essentially the emotion that the composition is to convey. It is usually used in terms of literature and the term was coined by Edgar Allen Poe. "The philosophy of Baroque music is that music represents the emotions (affections) of real life and, in so doing, excites the listener’s emotions. Music must express emotions and it must move the listener. It is generally agreed that Italian Baroque music expressed the emotions (passions or affections) best...." (excerpted from the link below). This excerpt shows that emotion was very important in Baroque music. The compositions were intended to convey a particular emotion. That emotion would be referred to as the compostitons Unity of Effect.

  • 1 decade ago

    I had the same question just now and found this through a google search... hope it helps! =)

    More than any other principle, Poe emphasized the unity of effect that one should strive for in any work of art. For example, words and phrases that occur and re-occur in Poe's various critical writings include the following: "to affect," "the totality of impression," "the unity of effect," "the novelty of the effect alone," and "the single effect," and these are only selected examples of his repetition of the value of this principle; Poe's writings contain many more examples of this emphasis. By these statements, Poe meant that the artist should decide what effect he wants to create in the reader's emotional response and then proceed to use all of his creative powers to achieve that particular effect: "Of the in-numerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart or the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?" ("The Philosophy of Composition"). Fear, for example, was often the effect Poe chose for many of his short stories and every word and every image was carefully chosen to create an effect of fear within the mind of the reader. (In regard to this, see the critical discussions of "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Pit and the Pendulum.") After choosing the effect that one desires, the artist should then decide on the best manner to achieve that effect, whether by incidents or plot, by narration, or by a peculiar tone, or by a "peculiarity both of incident and tone . . . looking . . . for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid . . . in the construction of the effect" ("Philosophy of Composition").

    Source(s): www.cliffsnotes.com
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