Edgar Allan Poe: Ignored in Life, Beloved in Death - Essay Example

Nathan #7076 Edgar Allan Poe Assign. Essay April 2007 Ignored in Life, Beloved in Death Largely ignored during his lifetime, the worksof Edgar Allan Poe continue on as masterpieces of the short story genre more than a hundred years since their publication. Poe was a pioneer of modern psychological fiction, detective stories, and science fiction. As a result, his "stories appear astonishingly modern to the contemporary reader" (Poe xi). Misunderstood by fellow American writers during his own time, he would later influence the "founding of the dark tradition in American literature pursued by Hawthorne, Bierce, and Faulkner" (Poe xi). In order to understand the writings of Poe, it is crucial to understand the man tat was. Commonly described as "lonely, neurotic, egotistical, and often drunk and pathological," Poe's life was one marked by depression, self-loathing, and self-destructive behavior (Poe xi). Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809, the second of three children born to David Poe, an American Revolution Patriot-turned-actor, and Elizabeth Poe, a "young childless widow, also an actress" (Biography 2). However, during the summer of 1809, the couple had arrived in New York. Although the truth is uncertain, "David Poe either died or deserted his wife" (Biography 2). Most seem to agree that the latter is the most likely. Obviously, Edgar was only an infant, and it would be safe to assume that he never knew his father By 1810, Poe's mother was in "failing health" though she continued "to appear in various roles in Norfolk, VA; Charleston, SC; and Richmond, VA" (Biography 2). By the winter of 1811, her illness took a turn for the worst and she "died on December 8th in circumstances of great misery and poverty at the house of a Scottish milliner in Richmond" (Biography 3). Despite some "pious opposition," resulting from questions about the legitimacy of her third child (a girl named Roselie), Poe's mother was "buried in the churchyard of St. John's Episcopal Church" (Biography 3). An orphan by the age of two, Edgar was taken in by the Allan family, John Allan and his wife, Frances Keeling Valentine Allan. In the early years of his life, at least, it would seem that Edgar was quite spoiled by Mrs. Allan and her unmarried sister, Nancy Valentine. Both women resided in the same household and "were particularly fond of their 'pet'" (Biography 4). The doting of these women seems to have been "offset by occasional by probably well-timed severity" inflicted upon Edgar by Mr. Allan (Biography 4). By 1815, the family sailed for England with 6-year-old Edgar in tow. He would be moved repeatedly with Mr. Allan's business engagements until the Fall of 1817, when he was entered at the Manor House School at Stoke Newington. The young Poe's memories of his five years' stay in Scotland and England were exceedingly vivid and continued to furnish him recollections for the remainder of his life. A curious and vivid reminiscence of these early school days in England remains in his story of William Wilson. It is significant of his relations with his foster-parents that the bills for his English schooling were paid for by Mr. Allan. There can be little doubt that, at this time, Mr. Allan regarded Edgar as his son. By 1824, Poe's life began turning from one of comfort to one of difficulty. Mr. Allan, after several failed business ventures, was in "precarious financial straits" (Biography 5). Mrs. Allan's health was failing. To make matters worse, Mrs. Allan had somehow become aware that her husband "indulged in extra-marital relations" (Biography 5). In 1826, while at the University of Virginia, Poe begins to drink and accumulates an enormous debt from gambling and frivolous indulgence. Mr. Allan appears to have given him some money, but "considerably less than the amount necessary to pay his way" (Biography 6). When confronted with his wards debts in 1827, John Allan would refuse to pay them and would cease to pay for Poe's education.. Later in life, Poe would sever all ties with Allan. Condemned to the life of a destitute wandering vagabond, his writing became not just an emotional outlet but a "desperate means of financial survival" (Poe xi). His writings offer a psychological portrait of his tortured mind, bringing "to the fore the nightmarish images of death, corruption of the flesh, and insanity that relentlessly haunted his subconscious mind" (Poe xi). The images of gruesome brutality, death, and depravity have earned Poe a reputation among some as little more than morbid and sadistic writer. This reputation is somewhat unwarranted, as "time and time again neurotic protagonists are impelled by the strange 'spirit of Perverseness'-an anticipation of the Freudian 'death wish'-to commit outrageous murder and to confess their guilt" (Poe xi). His protagonists are aware that their admissions of guilt will mean their deaths, and "nowhere is this self-destructive demoniac impulse more analytically described-in terms of befitting modern psychology-than in the 'Imp of the Perverse'" (Poe xi). By painting a portrait of his own inner turmoil, Poe provides readers with an invaluable insight not only into the criminal mind but also into the darkest recesses of their own subconscious. As though traversing a psychological tightrope, Poe tempts the line that exists between reason and madness. A number of Poe's writings, primarily those that revolve around the theme of premature burial, are obvious expressions of his obsessive terror of death. Poe is known to have referred to being buried alive as "'the most terrific' of predicaments" (Poe xi). The horror of claustrophobia, abysmal darkness, and complete helplessness befall Poe's victims, and he describes the experience with vivid accuracy in tales such as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Premature Burial, and The Cask of Amontillado. Poe's autobiographical tale, William Wilson, brilliantly develops the perpetual conflict between the warring polar opposites of his psyche-the "self-destructive subconscious against the responsible, respectable conscious" (Poe xii). Long before the words "bipolar disorder" and "split personality" became a common part of the psychological vocabulary, Poe was able to effectively foreshadow these concepts in fiction. Poe's imagination is seemingly boundless, and few of today's readers seem aware that he is a pioneer of the detective story genre and the father of the science fiction story genre. C. Auguste Dupin, a character of Poe's sleuth series, embodies "the idealized version of Poe that life had never been allowed him to be" (Poe xii). Uncontested in deductive and inductive ability, this character is an "infallible thinking machine able to disentangle the most complex mysteries," as those that unfold in the detective trilogy of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter. Works Cited Allen, Hervey. "Biography of Edgar Allan Poe." Posted on Poe Index, from original article from August 1927. 1 April 2007. http://www.pambytes.com/poe/bio.html. Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. Castle Books. New York: 2002. Read More