Transcript Edgar Allen Poe: The Gothic Master!

Edgar Allan Poe:
The Gothic Master!
Mr. Feraco
American Literature
29 November 2007
No Great Artist
Goes Unpunished
 Poe’s family history was troubled
 David Poe drank heavily, and
abandoned Elizabeth Arnold
(Edgar’s mother) shortly after his
son’s birth in 1809
 Elizabeth died in Richmond, VA
while Edgar was only three years old
 The now-orphaned Edgar was
cared for by John and Frances
Allan
 Poe uses their last name as his
middle name
Father Issues
 Frances was kind to Edgar, but John
never accepted him as a son
 John was extremely critical of Poe’s
desire to become a writer
 Edgar entered the University of
Virginia at the age of seventeen
 He studied well, but wanted more money
than John was willing to give him
Deep in Debt and
Running Away
 Edgar turned to gambling as an
alternate source of income, but the
habit left him with large debts
 John pulled Edgar out of school once he
found out (rather than help his ward pay
his lenders)
 Edgar responded by running away, and
ended up in Boston on his own – now an
“orphan” by choice
Lost in Boston
 Poe’s writing dreams took a hit
after the publication of his first
poetry collection, “Tamerlane,” in
1827
 The work sold poorly
 Edgar joined the military after
failing to find other work
 He did well enough for himself in the
military (promoted to sergeant major)
 However, Poe didn’t enjoy his new
lifestyle, and decided to ask John
Allan for help
A Dying Wish
 Frances begged John to help Edgar on her
deathbed, and her husband relented
 With John’s assistance, Edgar entered the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point in late 1829
 It would be the last time Allan ever helped his
foster son
 Edgar probably went to the Academy in order to
please John
 However, John remarried in 1830 with a woman
young enough to bear children (thus ensuring Poe
would not be his heir), and Edgar left the Academy
Glimmers of Success
within the Darkness
 Poe was able to publish “El Aaraaf,”
his second collection of poems, while
waiting to enter West Point
 This collection was more successful than
“Tamerlane,” and earned Poe his first real
praise as a poet
 The book’s success helped provide a
foundation for Poe to continue his work
A Very Strange
Marriage
 Poe moved to Baltimore, where his
aunt, Maria Poe Clemm, took him in
 He married Maria’s daughter, Virginia,
in 1835 – despite the fact that Virginia
was thirteen years old!
 Not only was Virginia much younger than
Poe – exactly half his age – but her health
was poor, and she required a great deal of
care
Writing to Survive
 Poe worked as an editor at various magazines
in order to support Virginia and Maria
 He continued writing whenever he could,
finishing a novel and a number of short
stories and poems – including “The Fall of the
House of Usher”
Darkness on a Page
 Poe’s prose is often tense, simultaneously
breathless, strangled, and claustrophobic despite the presence of ornate descriptions
and elaborate sentence constructions
 Most of his narrators are terrified or
distraught
 Many of his characters suffer from illnesses
of the body and mind, or carry terrible,
haunting secrets – and characters often go
insane or die!
 Poe’s eerie settings, tragic stories, and
obsession with loss, death, guilt, and grief
often shocked and frightened his readers
Peering into the
mind’s dark corners
 However, Poe’s psychological thrillers
weren’t meant to be exploitative
 Instead, the author wanted to move beyond
the sunny world of the optimists and the
ordered world of the rationalists in order to
explore a greater truth
 He aimed to do this by pulling back the
“curtain” that separates the ordinary from
the supernatural, revealing the “truth” in the
darkness that lies within the human mind
Drowning in a
bottle
 Poe’s writing flourished
even as the writer
suffered
 The author produced a
large number of original
pieces despite a
crippling drinking
problem
 Although a few sips of
alcohol left him
staggering, Poe drank
constantly in order to
escape a disturbing,
tormented world
Never Enough
 Despite the fact that he
wrote fairly often, Poe’s
work never left him with
enough money to
support Virginia or
Maria comfortably
 Even “The Raven,”
arguably the author’s
most famous work, didn’t
provide him with the
money he needed
The beginning of
the End
 Poe’s life fell apart when Virginia, his now25-year-old wife, died of tuberculosis in
1847
 He grew more and more unstable, eventually
developing a brain lesion that signaled his
impending death
 Desperate, Poe continued to seek romance,
looking for someone to finally “adopt” him
 It’s sad to realize that Poe spent his entire life
searching so hard for stability – financial,
familial, emotional – only to never find it
The ugly End
 Poe disappeared in Virginia in 1849
while on his way to meet with a woman
he hoped to marry
 He was found in a tavern a week later,
soaking wet and delirious
 Poe died four days later, regaining
consciousness just long enough to
pray, “Lord help my poor soul.”
The Legacy of a
tortured soul
 Poe’s influence on other writers has been
tremendous, and continues to this day
 See Stephen King for a contemporary example
 Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to create
Sherlock Holmes after reading Poe’s works
 Fyodor Dostoevsky, a famous Russian
writer, was driven to examine the criminal
mind – producing such landmarks as “Crime
and Punishment”
 Poe is the forefather of the detective story,
with short stories such as “The Purloined
Letter” providing others with a narrative
framework for their own stories
In conclusion
 Poe, our most famous explorer of
death, produced a body of work that
will extend his legacy for centuries
after his unfortunate death
 He has experienced far more success
in death than in life…and, in a strange
way, that almost seems appropriate.