Edgar Allen Poe: A Great American Icon

Edgar Allan Poe's unique, fearless and morbid writing style has influenced literature throughout the world. He was once titled the "master of the macabre" (Buranelli, 57). One of the aspects in his life with which he struggled was social isolation. He used this as a topic in a number of poems and short stories. Poe's life was also filled with periods of fear and irrationality. He had a very sensitive side when it came to the female gender, any woman he was ever close to died at an early age. Another of his major battles, actually the only one he really lost, was his struggle with alcoholism. Of all these topics, Poe's favorites were the death of a beautiful woman, a feeling, which he knew all too well, and the general topic of death. Edgar Allan Poe endured a very difficult life and this is evident in his literary style.

Suffering through several periods of fear and irrationality during his life, Poe included those experiences in many of his more famous works. One of these periods involved experiences in joining the army in order to get away from his foster father after the death of his foster mother (Buranelli, 13). These periods of fear and irrationality were the cause of his misfortune and poor social status. His peers for these episodes looked him down upon.

Poe expressed this theme throughout almost all of his short stories and poems. "Many of his stories exhibited abnormal states of mind and are constructed in terms of a single mad obsession"(Buranelli, 28). His insane ways made his work stand out from the normal short story, or poem. He was able to twist his stories and poems around in a way that almost seemed real, and was definitely intriguing. An example of this could be found in the "Black Cat"(Harrison, 257). The character took the eyes out of the first cat and then killed it. After that he proceeded to "accidentally" kill his wife with an ax, and bury her in a wall. Another example of Poe's insanity demonstrated within his works was located in "The Tell Tale Heart" (Harrison, 555), where Edgar stalked a man and eventually killed him. He then dismembered the body, took out his heart, and buried the man under the house. He later confessed to the police because he believed he could hear the heartbeat of the man.

During Poe's life, he experienced extreme social isolation. These feelings of separation began when his father died or disappeared around the time of the birth of Poe's sister, Rosalie. The family then moved and he was separated from his older brother, who was left with relatives in Baltimore. During those toddler years, Poe found his mother in the last stages of tuberculosis. Upon her death, he was then separated from his younger sister. Another major low point in his life was the death of his foster mother, Mrs. Frances Allan, and his foster father disowning him, all at one time. The most significant setback for Edgar Allan Poe was the death of his cousin/wife Virginia Clemm. This single incident was the cause of almost all of his feelings of isolation in his adulthood. He felt as though anyone he became close to would die (Buranelli, 23).

Poe wrote about isolation in many of his most popular works. "A Dream Within a Dream" (Harrison, 168) was not one of his more popular poems, but it discussed the difficult process of having to say good-bye to a loved one. He also wrote, "The Raven" (Harrison, 359), in which the narrator went insane talking to a bird about losing his lost Lenore and realizing he was all alone. A third story in which Poe revealed to the reader his feelings of loneliness was, "The Cask of Amontillado"(Harrison, 467). In this story, the main character Fortunato was left to die in a tomb after being tricked by his love's father. Lastly, the poem, "Silence" (Harrison, 164), strongly suggested that he felt alone in the world, and was longing for companionship.

Edgar Allan Poe had a genetic tendency toward alcohol. His cousin viewed alcohol as the "curse of the Poes'" (Buranelli, 19). Disregarding much warning, he began to drink as a young man. His drinking became worse when he attended the University of Virginia. His reason for drinking was to escape the drudgery and disappointment of his life. Poe's works reflected what he thought about the evil of drinking. Liquor played a major role in "The Black Cat" (Harrison 257) and "The Cask of Amontillado" (Harrison 594). The narrator of "The Black Cat" was a chronic alcoholic who in a drunken stupor gouged out his cat's eyes because he thought it was avoiding him. In "The Cask of Amontillado", Fortunato was lured by his love for wine to his death. Poe attacked the use of alcohol because it was overpowering and destructive. The characters in his works reflected his inability to enjoy the drug like most people and his regard for alcohol as an instrument of destruction.

From a very early stage of his life, Edgar Allan Poe had quite an attraction to females. It began when his father left him at the age of two and never returned, thus he never had a real father role in his life. A second contribution to his attraction to females evolved from his deep love for devoted relationship with his foster mother whom he adored much more than his foster father. Poe's closest friend, Virginia Clemm, was also his cousin and his wife.

Poe's works were greatly influenced by his deep admiration for the female gender. In "The Raven", the narrator was extremely distressed over his lost Lenore. In the poem, "Elizabeth,"(Harrison 369) Poe had a secret hidden message. The message spelled out the name "Elizabeth Rebecca" using