Transcript Edgar Allan Poe a quick review - Plainview

A Quick Review
Lifetime Highlights
Both David and
Elizabeth Poe,
Edgar’s parents
were actors.
The Poe family was abandoned by
David Poe (Edgar’s father) when Edgar
was very young.
Soon after, when Edgar was
only three, his mother died
of tuberculosis (TB), called
“Consumption” in those days.
Young Edgar was then
taken in by John and
Frances Allan of
Richmond, Virginia.
John Allan was a
wealthy, tobacco
merchant.
Young Edgar was raised as a Southern
Gentleman. He was raised to be convivial
(cordial), polite and genial and he was all of those
things. When his foster mother, Frances Allan,
was sick with TB, Edgar became estranged from
his foster father because John Allan would have
numerous affairs with other women in his own
home. Edgar found this behavior appalling, even
though it was not frowned upon in that time.
John Allan sent Poe to the
University of Virginia, but only
gave him enough money to
get there. He did not give him
money for anything else he
needed and so Poe tried to
make money gambling. He
quickly ended up in debt and
John Allan would not cover
those debts.
Afraid he would be sent to
debtor’s prison, Poe ran to
Baltimore, joined the army
under an assumed name.
In 1831, he moved into the Baltimore
home of his Aunt Maria Clemm and
her eight year old daughter, Virginia.
He became a well known critic, brutal
in his evaluation of the works he read.
Even though he was a success as a
critic, he did not make a lot of money.
In time, he realized he was in love
with Virginia. They were married
soon after. He was 26; she was
almost 13.
The Poe family was very happy, but
money was always an issue.
Poe was a genius, far ahead of his
time.
He had a hard time selling
“The Tell-tale Heart”.
It frightened people
and it dealt with
very modern
thinking. People
did not understand
how the mind
worked.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is
forced by his own guilt to confess to
the murder.
This is very similar to
the idea of
modern Psychotherapy,
where we need to
purge ourselves of the
guilt we feel for doing
something we know is
wrong.
Poe’s
poem,“The
Raven”,
became an
instant
success!
It brought him
fame, but it didn’t
bring him any
great amount of
money!
HE EARNED $14.00 FOR THE SALE OF
“THE RAVEN”.
Poe created
C. August Dupin
and the detective
story, long before
Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle created
Sherlock Holmes!
“Murders In The Rue Morgue” is the
first detective story EVER written!
All others emulate this prototype!!!
Poe creates Dupin with the
characteristics he believes a good
detective should have:
Retentive
memory
Powers of
observation
Vivid
imagination
The whole point of the story was
the method used to solve the
murder, not the murder itself.
That is why he put the epigraph in the
beginning!
What songs the Syrens sang
Or what name Achilles assumed
When he hid himself with women,
Although puzzling questions, are not beyond all
conjecture.
It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious
are always fanciful, and the truly
imaginative never otherwise than analytic.
~Edgar Allan Poe
In 1847, Virginia succumbs
to Consumption after a
five year battle. This time
was a terrible time in
Poe’s life. He watched her
get sick, cough up blood,
recover somewhat, and
get sick all over again. He
continually thought that
each time she would die.
He also didn’t make enough money to
keep her well fed, buy her medicine,
and keep her warm.
After Virginia’s death, Poe searched
frantically for a female influence in his life.
So many of the people in his life that were
important to him died, many from TB.
In 1849, Poe was on his way to tell
Muddy (Maria Clemm; his mother-inlaw) that he was going to be married
again. He disappeared and resurfaced
on a Baltimore street, disheveled and
unconscious. He wasn’t even wearing
his own clothes!
Poe died a few days later. The original
theory was that he had been drinking,
or suffering from brain fever, or used
as a repeat voter…..
A new theory surfaced that
attributed his death to a case of
advanced rabies…
We really do not know how Poe died!
His friends noticed that he looked
very sickly right before he died.
He is buried between Virginia and
Maria Clemm in Baltimore.
Monument in front of cemetery
Poe’s grave in
the back of
the cemetery
Edgar Allan Poe was 40 years old.
Edgar Allan Poe contributed so much
to the literary world . It is a shame he
did not live to see the impact he had!