Edgar Allan Poe

By the time he was two years old, Edgar Poe had already been abandoned by his natural father, separated from his siblings, and experienced death through the eyes of his mother, who suffered and died a horrific death from tuberculosis. A prosperous tobacco merchant from Richmond, VA, named John Allan, took him in and baptized him as Edgar Allan Poe. Immediately following his adoption, the Allans moved from Virginia to Europe and sent Edgar to an exclusive boarding school in England where he studied for five years. Poor financial decisions on John Allan's part resulted in the family's return to Richmond, Virginia.

Poe entered the University of Virginia, but remained only one year because he ran up large gambling debts that John Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented Poe's return to the university, broke off his engagement with his fiancйe, and provided no other means of financial support to Poe. His lack of financial support and education lead him to join the Army as a non-commissioned officer.

While serving in the military during a time of war, Poe published at his own expense, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. After the war ended, Poe lost interest in the military and wanted to terminate his enlistment commitment. In order to accomplish this, he had to reconcile with John Allan to secure his release with an honorable discharge and acquire an appointment to West Point. His fellow cadets from West Point contributed to publishing a second and third edition to Tamerlane. After only six months as a West Point cadet, he contrived to be dismissed for disobedience of orders.

After this last failed attempt at pursuing a military career, Poe moved to Baltimore, Maryland to reside with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm and his cousin, Virginia, who later became his wife. Several failed attempts at maintaining a job forced Poe to move back to Richmond where he secured a job as an editor and director for several magazines. His literary contributions in these capacities gave him great notoriety over the next 10 years and catapulted him "as one of the leading men of letters in America" (Short Story Criticism, p. 375).

His turbulent beginnings and unfortunate life were reflected in his short stories and poems. Many of Poe's writing were based on his experiences, such as The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tale Tell Heart. Poe's life had tremendously affected his writing in many different ways and is manifested through his use of first-person narration.

One of the most famous works in English literature is The Raven that Poe wrote especially for lamenting the death of his beloved wife. The entire poem expresses Poe's experiences of sadness, grief, and romance. In his typical first-person narration, the narrator appears to solace himself through liquor by drinking inside of the room..."Respite, respite the nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh, quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"(Poe, The Raven). In this stanza, the narrator is conflicted with the grieving process of his loss and the preference for numbing his pain with alcohol ('quaff the nepenthe'). During Poe's life he had trouble with alcoholism and this stanza is an obvious connection to his disease.

Poe's trouble with alcoholism was amplified through the course of watching Virginia suffer and die from hemorrhages associated with tuberculosis in the same manner as his mother, and many of his works reflect the sorrow he felt when they passed away and left him alone. The raven in his poem is a symbol of death and his memories of the "...sinister men dressed in black..." (American Writers, p. 409) that whisked away his mother upon her passing.

During the alcoholic portion of his life, Poe wrote The Black Cat, a story in which the narrator was suffering from a disease of alcoholism that made him grow extremely violent. In this particular work, the narrator poked out one of the eyes of a black cat he owned and killed his wife during a period of insanity. The symbolism of killing his wife in this work is a reflection of Poe's inner conscience of the desire to relieve his wife of her suffering and pain.

Although Poe was never actually violent, he had feelings of hatred and intense anger for John Allan, his adoptive father, who prevented him from returning to the university, interrupted his engagement, refused to provide financial support, and disowned him. In fact, many of the characters in his gothic tales that fall victim are a subconscious portrayal of Mr. Allan. Also, the author grew a dislike to his first surname, because his stepfather used to pronounce Poe like "poor." Edgar's more refined forms of torture and punishment described in stories, such as Montresor being walled in inside a cellar in The Cask of Amontillado, or the old man murdered and hidden under the floor of his own house from The Tell Tale Heart are in fact the expression of his hatred against his stepfather.

In The Tale Tell Heart, Poe's hatred for John Allan is evident. He examines the good and evil sides of mankind, but allows for evil to dominate and kill the old man. The good side is manifested through his conscience and the guilty feelings he experiences. When Poe got kicked out of the university due to his large gambling debt and John Allan refused to help him, the dark side of Poe emerged. He hated his adoptive