Edgar Allan Poe Essay, Research Paper
Crystal Barrey
For some class
on some date
with some professor
The Influence of Family and Friends on Poe
Over the course of Poe?s forty year stay on Earth, he was exposed early to several
key people who would have a profound impact on his writings. Though this idea in and of
itself is not uncommon in literature, for Poe it went far beyond being merely influenced.
Beginning at age 3 when he lost his parents, Poe was subjected to a difficult life that
would later play heavily in his works. Between his foster father (John Allan), his first love
(Sarah Elmis Royster) and his young first wife (Virginia Cleem), Poe?s contacts largely
dictated his works. How was it that such an obviously brilliant individual like Poe allowed
himself to be mentally manipulated by these people? To answer this question, it is
necessary to take a step back and first get a little background.
Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19, 1809 to two struggling actors, David
and Elizabeth Poe. When his father died at the age of 36, Edgar was left alone with his
pregnant mother. He traveled with his mother and sister from theater to theater, often
sleeping backstage. When his mother died of tuberculosis on December 11, 1811 at the
young age of 24, Edgar and his sister, Rosalie, were orphaned. Edgar was only two years
old. His sister was sent to live with a Mrs. Mackenzie when she was one, Edgar went to
live with John and Frances Allen. Edgar’s older brother William, was already living with
their grandfather, David Poe, Sr., because at the time of his birth, David and Elizabeth
could not afford to care for him. Edgar moved to Richmond, Virginia with the Allan?s,
where he had many luxuries that he had never had before. He had his own bedroom in the
apartment above John Allen’s store, Ellis & Allen, and even servants to help him wash
before bed and put away his clothes.
Growing up, Edgar never got along with his foster father, often arguing with him,
and rarely showing any affection. John Allen once even described his son as “miserable,
sulky, and ill-tempered”. There was also the matter of Edgar’s alcoholism, which brought
shame upon his foster family and friends. Even his beloved first fiancee Sarah Elmira
Royster, eventually refused to see him, because of his drinking habits. One night after a
particularly bitter argument with Mr. Allen, he decided to leave his home and go to
Boston.
Boston was only the short term answer and soon Poe was disillusioned with the
city. After an unpleasant month in Boston, Edgar was once again on the road. After
having a few poems published and withdrawing from a military academy he eventually
wound up in Baltimore, Maryland, penniless. He soon found that his relatives there were
as poor as he was. Even so, they welcomed him into their homes and hearts. He stayed for
a while in the home of his aunt, Maria Clemm. Also living with Mrs. Clemm were her two
children, Henry, 13, and Virginia; Poe’s cousin and future wife. In addition, his paralyzed
grandmother and his dying brother William, 24 also resided there. He tried unsuccessfully
to get a job at several newspapers, before seeing a contest for the best short story in the
local paper. Being rather poor, Poe proceeded writing short stories in attempt to win the
$100 winners? prize. Even though he did not win the $100 for his efforts, Poe did have
some of the stories published in the years to come, but he never had anything to show for
it , because the newspaper did not give him credit for writing the stories.
Poe was offered a job back in Richmond, and he had to leave Baltimore(and worse,
Virginia, with whom he had fallen in love) to take the job. He rapidly fell into depression
while in Richmond over the absence of his beloved Virginia and was driven once again to
drinking.
. Poe’s drinking had gotten out of hand and he was fired. He went back to
Baltimore on the spot and asked for Virginia’s hand in marriage. They got married a year
later. Soon after he was wed, he was re-offered the job in Richmond, but only if he
promised to never drink again. He promised to never let another sip of liquor pass his lips,
and went to Richmond, this time taking Virginia and his aunt Maria. This would prove to
be the high point of Poe?s life. Not due to any success or recognition, but more
importantly he was happy if only for a brief time.
In the years to come there would be both better and worse times in Edgar’s life.
After moving from the city his life totally fell apart, he had to shut down his newspaper
because of bad reviews, his wife was growing increasingly ill, and he was sick as well. He
eventually broke his vow and went back to drinking, which only caused problems. Several
times he was found wandering drunk in the streets of New York where he had recently
relocated with his wife and mother-in-law after taking an editing job at the Broadway
Journal. Virginia did not take to life in the city, however, and asked Edgar to move to the
country. Eager to please his beloved wife, who was stricken with tuberculosis, he agreed.
Virginia’s long struggle finally ended on January 29, 1847 at the age of 24, the very
age as Edgar’s mother when she died. After her death Poe was inconsolable, once again
thrown into the depths of depression and despair.
If there were any positives about Virginia?s death, it would be that Poe was once
again inspired to write. His post-Virginia material made up in pure genius what it lost in
good mood. These works can be distinguished as dark and morbid, traits not unlike his
earlier work. They did however change subject matter even as they retained mood.
In the ?Oval Portrait? for example, Poe writes of a man obsessed with creating the
ideal portrait of his new wife. The piece is finally created at the cost of the young models
life. The parallels to Poe?s own life are fairly obvious. He, like the painter, sacrificed
everything for his art only to realize later that the price was too high.
The first poem that he wrote after her death was Ulalume, a poem recalling a
lover’s visit to his loved one’s grave. Poe writes:
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere-
As the leaves that were withering and sere-
And I cried- “It was surely October
On this very night of last year
That I journeyed- I journeyed down here-
That I brought a dread burden down here-
On this night of all nights in the year,
Ah, what demon has tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber-
This misty mid region of Weir- :
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”
The tone of this poem perfectly reflects how forlorn Poe was at this point in his
life. His mastery of setting the mood is unequaled in all literature. Another aspect that puts
Poe above the rest is his technique that compliments his style. A writing style that was
entirely unique. His uniqueness can again be attributed to the people who passed through
his life. All of Poe’s other writings reflect his life, be it sad or happy. As aforementioned,
Poe had problems with his foster dad. As a result, Poe often portrayed men as bad people
in his short stories. In the ?Cask of Amontillado?, the protagonist is an apparently insane
man who walls up his foe is his underground vaults. ?Hop-Frog? has a sinister king burned
alive by his abused midget. ?The Tell-Tale Heart? is another deranged man who slaughters
an old man in his sleep and the list goes on. The very best example of this would have to
be ?The Black Cat?. The classic tale of man who comes home in a drunken daze. He is
angered by his cat and in attempt to kill the animal with an ax, the main character buries
the axes head into his wife, killing her. For the remainder of the story he is tormented by
his failure to kill the cat. That, coupled with the loss of his wife, devour his mind until he is
a rambling mess. It is fairly clear where the inspirations come from in that story, as well as
many of his others. The situations change, but the end result is always the man being
portrayed in a poorly in his short stories (This isn?t necessarily true in Poe?s poetry, which
tends to feature more topics on loss and grief). This portrayals can be largely attributed to
the daily struggle Poe had with John Allan. For Poe to create some mythical land where
his relationships with males are tolerable, would have been untrue to himself as a writer.
He is effective writing about topics he is familiar with. Poe is the poster child of Ernest
Hemmingway?s philosophy: ?Only write about what you know, and then don?t write too
damn much.?
Another theme that frequents Poe?s literature, is the presence of a female. She is
generally portrayed sympathetically and for the most part is dead, or dies in the course of
the story. I?ve already mentioned the ?Black Cat?, which features a young wife brutally
murdered by her husband. ?Murders in the Rue Morge? and ?The Mystery of Marie
Roget? were two detective style stories that featured women being killed. Yet, there can
be no better example of Poe?s women issues as well as his own mental instability than in a
short story published in 1839. In ?Fall of the House of Usher?, Roderick Usher has
inadvertantly buried his sister, Madeline, believing her dead. It eventually comes to light
that Madeline was buried prematurely when she arrives in time to die in her brother?s
arms. Again, this is an example of a women being mistreated, albeit accidentally, by a man.
Though ?Usher? is far more complex and compelling than merely that. Read as Poe
describes the Usher house in the opening paragraph:
. I looked upon the scene before me –upon the mere house, and the simple
landscape features of the domain –upon the bleak walls –upon the vacant eye-like
windows –upon a few rank sedges –and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees –…I
scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed to be
that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi
overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the
eaves….Perhaps the eye of a scrutinising observer might have discovered a barely
perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way
down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.
After rereading the paragraph, the striking part becomes that Poe isn?t merely
describing a house, but a mind. It is clear to see that the bleak walls represent human skin
even as the vacant eye-like windows symbolize human eyes. The white, decaying tree
trunks are teeth and the ?minute fungi? is clearing hair. That leaves only the ?perceptible
fissure? that splits the house in half unexplained. This is finally explained as the narrator
flees the house in horror. The entire house literally cracks in half, while the families mind
metaphorically cracks. This fissure in the human mind mirrors Poe himself who long
struggled with his own sanity.
In addition to the enormous impact John Allan and Virginia had on Poe?s career,
there is also another variable that has gone unmentioned. That would be William Henry,
Poe?s older brother. Like both Virginia and his mother Elizabeth Poe, William died at age
24 of tuberculosis. Though it is impossible to determine exactly how close the two ever
were, I can speculate that his death had at least some effect on Edgar.
In 1841, nine years after William?s death, Edgar wrote “A Descent into the
Maelstrom.” In this tale, an aged Norwegian tells of his experience three years past, when
his fishing boat became trapped in the Maelstrom, an enormous whirlpool “speeding
dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the
winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as not even the mighty cataract of
Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven.” Though frightened by the chaos of the
Maelstrom, the fisherman also wants to understand it, and is saddened that he will not live
to tell anyone else the secrets he might discover. Through a systematic analysis of the
events within the Maelstrom, the sailor gradually realizes that the world of the Maelstrom
is not entirely anarchic; he recognizes certain physical “laws” that hold for the various
objects whipping around the whirlpool, and understands how he might escape. Lashing
himself to a cylindrical water-cask, he throws himself and the cask into the water; though
his boat, carrying his brother, “plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of
foam below,” the cask remained secure until the whirlpool calmed. The Norwegian was
safe, though “my hair, which had been raven black the day before, was as white as you see
it now. They say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed.”
Though his escape is indeed very interesting the true focus of the tale is the relationship
between the fisherman and his brother. His older brother at that, who perishes while he
lives. The fact that the fisherman?s entire ?countenance had changed? would lead me to
believe that William?s death drastically changed Edgar?s outlook on life. Perhaps not to
the catastrophic level that Virginia?s did, but nonetheless had some impact.
It should also be noted that though clearly all of these tragedies had significant
impacts on Poe himself, it should also be mentioned that Poe wasn?t the most stable
person to begin with. It seems unfair to Death itself to blame everything Poe did on tragic
events in his life. Variables like drinking must taken into account when considering his
subject matter. No documents of his pre-drinking era exist, so it is quite impossible to
determine how developed his imagination was before his alcoholic delusions. As
mentioned earlier, he was often found rambling to himself on the streets of Baltimore in
inebriated states. Alcohol is mentioned repeatedly in his works (Black Cat, Cask of
Amontillado…) so the possibility of that also influencing him seems a realistic option.
Another aspect less talked about, but just as significant would have to be his addiction to
opium. Though very taboo to his understudies and contemporaries, this hallucinogenic
drug could easily have swayed his decision making and therefore his story writing
material. Thing like alcohol and drug abuse can quite easily effect an individual?s
performance, but again Poe is no normal individual. At age seventeen Poe wrote the
Spirits of the Dead. Not a normal topic for any teen, regardless the theme is very different
than most latter Poe works. The final stanza reads:
The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!
Though this is one of Poe?s earliest pieces, it can be assumed that this poem
doesn?t carry the same melancholy tone that is typical of Poe. It doesn?t have to be
assumed, because this poem deals more with the curiosity and mystery of adolescence than
anything more serious.
One should not think that Poe?s life was a completely horrific existence. Though
he certainly was forced to deal with his share of controversy and death, he was also
influenced in a positive way by the people he came in touch with. This isn?t particularly
obvious in his prose, but in his poetry it is more blatant.
Take for instance his poem, The Dream. Poe is speaking to the reader, of his
mythical playland where everything is very surreal and very pleasant. There are no
foreboding tones of death and decay. Clearly he has just as much potential to be cheerful
and dreamy as he does morbid and pessimistic. Yet Poe chooses the more unpleasant tone
as his centerpiece, not because it sells better or to please anyone in particular, but because
that is how he stays true to himself as a writer. Not only in The Dream, but even in some
of his short stories does Poe keep an upbeat and fun tone. In both ?Dr. Tarr and Professor
Fether? as well as ?Gold Bug? Poe is so optimistic of humanity to the point of being really
funny. A reader certainty wouldn?t expect this of a gloomy, dismal author like Poe which
is exactly what makes him so special. He is more famous for his terrifying accounts of
death and revenge, but at the same time he has potential to change gears and write a piece
that is so vastly different and just as appealing. There is no better summary of his life and