Cory Caster
Mr. Cook
English 11
October 18, 2012
The Mysterious Tale of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was America's first great literary critic and theoretician. He is most known for his tales of terror. His most famous pieces are "The Tell-Tale Heart", which was written in 1843, "The Raven", which was written the January, 1845, and "The Fall of the House of Usher", and this was written in 1839. His characters are seen as weird and strange just like Poe himself by the public. He is also seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows at night ("Poe Museum"). To understand Poe's literature better one can go through an analysis of his life.
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809. His parents were David Poe and Elizabeth Poe. They were traveling actors. They had three children, William Henry Leonard Poe, Edgar Allan Poe, and Rosalie Poe. Three years after Poe was born his parents passed away. His brother and sister went to live with other families; Poe went to live with his foster parents John Allan and Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia. His brother would go on to become a poet as well before his unexpected early death August 1, 1831. Poe's sister would become a teacher at Richmond Girls' School teaching Penmanship. His foster father was a very rich tobacco merchant. When Poe was only 13 years old he tried to publish what he thought was going to be his first book with all the poetry he had put together but his headmaster didn't like this so he advised him against this ("Poe Museum").
In 1826 Poe left Richmond and enrolled into the University of Virginia. His foster father John Allan sent him to college with very little money so Poe had to gamble so he could get the things he needed. But it didn't work out so well at the end of just only his first term in the university he had to burn his own furniture to keep warm because he was so poor. He was so embarrassed that he left the university and went back to Richmond to go see his fiancée Elmira Royster but it turns out that she got engaged to another man while he was gone. Poe went back to live with his foster father. Personal conflicts occurred between the two of them because of this Poe ended up leaving. He continued on his quest to become a great poet (Poe Museum).
At the age of 18 he finally published his first book called Tamerlane. Then he enlisted into the army which was his second goal. But sadly two years after he did this the only mother he had ever known Frances Allan passed away from tuberculosis. After Frances Allan passed away John Allan had sympathy for Poe because she was the only mother Poe had ever known. Allan helped Poe get into West Point Military Academy by recommending him and gave him a little bit of money. While he was going there he found out that his foster father was getting remarried. Poe was very upset with this therefore he threatened that he was going to get himself expelled and he did, but at least he published another book after that ("Poe Museum").
Poe then went to Baltimore to live with his Aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia Clemm, Poe liked her. While he was there he found out that on March 27, 1834 His foster father John Allan had passed away ("John Allan"). Soon after that he won a contest that allowed him to publish many more books and gave him an editorial position at the Southern Literary Messenger in the town of Richmond. Within a year he made this the most popular magazine in the south. He was known as a fearless critic who attacked author's work and even insulted authors such as Rufus Griswold. He started to get very low pay from the Messenger magazine company. He gave up on them and he moved to New York City ("Poe Museum"). When Poe was 27 he decided to marry his cousin Virginia Clemm when she was still only 13 years old just shy of 14.
With the "Panic of 1837" he had a hard time finding work so he wrote his first and only novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" After a year there he moved to Philadelphia in 1838 and wrote many different magazines for places such as Burton's, Graham's magazines, and sold articles to Alexander's Weekly Messenger and many other journal companies . He published his first book of a short story series, "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque," he only got paid for 25 copies of this he became known for getting writers higher pay and the cause for the international law for copyrighting. In 1842 Poe's wife Virginia Clemm Poe caught tuberculosis the disease that had claimed a few of his family member's lives ("Poe Museum").
In 1945 he published his most famous piece of work, "The Raven"; this made him a household name, after that he really started demanding for more money for his work ("Poe's Life"). For a little while he had accomplished one of his dreams of owning his own magazine when he got enough money to buy out the magazine company Broadway Journal. Then soon later in1846 rumors went around town that he was having an affair with a married woman. Poe then left the town because of this and moved to a cottage away from everyone. In the winter of 1847 tuberculosis won over his wife Virginia Clemm Poe and she sadly passed away. Poe was in shambles he could not write at all for many, many months and it wasn't long before the end was near for him ("Poe Museum").
He started to go to place to place giving lectures and speeches and started finding people for his newest magazine The Stylus. While he was in Lowell, Massachusetts this lady he had became friends with and liked named Nancy Richmond inspired him to write some of his greatest poetry such as, "For Annie", but sadly she was married. ("Poe Museum")
Poe decided he wanted to go on a trip to Philadelphia, so he left his fiancée and went on this trip. On his way there he decided to stop in Baltimore where he vanished for five days; they discovered him on the floor in a bar in a public house that they were using as a poling spot for the election of that year. This editor Joseph Snodgrass took him to Washington College Hospital where he basically died alone because none of his family was there, not even his fiancée was there, but they had no clue what happened to him until they read about him in the newspapers. Edgar Allan Poe, the master of horror, died on October 7th, 1849 at the age of 40 ("Poe Museum"). No one has ever found out how he died but there have been many assumptions on how he died but no one has true proof how he died, the cause of his death still remains a mystery today.
A little while after he died his arch nemesis and rival Rufus Griswold tried to get some retribution and make a biography making Poe out to be a drunk, womanizing, madman with no ethics or any friends; this plan backfired on him terribly. He made the sales of Poe's Books go up higher than they ever were in his life. Rufus Griswold is one of the biggest reasons why we remember Edgar Allan Poe to this day as the legend of Horror stories and poems, but Rufus Griswold is only really remembered as the very 1st Biographer of Edgar Allan Poe ("Poe Museum"). Another way to understand Poe is to go into the context in his literary writings.
Poe didn't' have any influences but another way to understand him better is by looking at his greatest piece literature, a very famous poem called , "The Raven". In this poem a man tries to calm himself from feeling depressed from his "lost Lenore". The narrator reads books of an old lore to keep mind off of her, temporarily. The narrator falls asleep but all of a sudden he awakes from a "tapping on his on his chamber door", so he looks out but there's nothing in sight. He thought for a second that his Lenore had came back so he whispered out in the darkness her name and a loud echo came back saying, "Lenore!". Then he just goes back into his room. Then he hears a tapping at his window lattice, so he goes over there and opens his shutter and then a raven flew in (which is a bad omen).
The raven then stands on the statue of the goddess Pallas (Greek mythology godess). The man asked the raven what its name was and it outstandingly responded back with, "Nevermore". The man thinks the raven must have been taught this by some sort of master. He welcomes the raven and pulls up a chair near the raven and is afraid the raven will leave him. With every question he asks the raven the raven responds with, "nevermore". He just smiled and wondered what the raven meant by this. The man sees his Lenore's chair and it brings back painful memories seeing this. Then he just tries asking more questions such as, "Is there balm in Gilead?", "Can Lenore be found in paradise? ", and "Take thy form from off my door!", every time the bird just responds with, "Nevermore" (Hallqvist).
In a fury of rage the man demands that the raven goes back into the night and leaves him alone and yet again the raven responds with, "nevermore". The man thinks his soul will, "Nevermore", leave the Raven's shadow. This poem makes it sound like he was depressed which he was, anyone would be depressed if they lost so many loved ones like Poe. (Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition." 1850, poedecoder, n.d. Web. Oct.17. 2012.)
Another awesome piece of literature to understand him better was Poe's, "Tell-Tale Heart." In this short story an unknown narrator is talking about protecting his sanity, but he confesses he murdered an old man and his only motive is that he fears the man's pale blue eyes. The narrator says he's not crazy because he went to this old man's apartment every night and watches him as he sleeps and when dawn came and the old man would awake the narrator would act as he usually does. After a week of doing this he decides it's time to put his plan into effect. When he came to the old man late at night on the eighth night the old man awoke and was terrified as he cried out the narrator could hear the sound of the thumping of the old man's heart beat so the narrator became fearful the neighbors would hear this thumping so he murdered the old man and severed his body and hide the parts under the floor boards of that bed room.
He cleans every stitch of blood off the floor, then he finishes at four in the morning. Then the police come knocking on the door because the neighbors said they heard someone scream. The narrator acted as casual as possible. He walks the men into the house and sits them down in the bedroom (at this time they don't suspect anything). He was fine until he heard the thumping of the heart beat and the narrator freaked and went crazy from their pleasant mocking conversation. He confessed to the crime and tears up the boards and reveals the body to the police ("SparkNote"). This story kind of shows a possibility he was a little crazy himself because to generate this he had to of experienced hearing something himself.
This final terrifying story should help one to understand Poe a bit more. In the book, "The Fall of the House of Usher", there is another unknown narrator. The narrator comes to this house of Usher on a dull, dark, and soundless day. This house was owned by his childhood friend Roderick Usher. The narrator looks around the house and feels as if the house obtained some sort of evil aura from him just looking at the rotting trees and the swampy ponds. The only thing wrong with the house was this little crack in the ceiling at the front of the house. The narrator came because Roderick wrote to him telling he was feeling mentally and physically sick so the narrator comes to his aid. Only one generation of the Usher family had survived. The narrator finds everything creepy inside as well, as he's making his way to his friend's room. Roderick was paler and less energetic than usual. Roderick tells the narrator that he is suffering from nerves, fears, and his senses are much heightened and the narrator sees that Roderick is afraid of his very own house. Roderick's sister Madeline had gotten this sickness called catalepsy.
The narrator spends many days trying to cheer Roderick up, but no matter what he did he could not cheer Roderick up at all. Roderick tells the narrator that he thinks the house is very unhealthy just like the narrator said earlier. Sadly Roderick's sister died and he temporarily put in the tomb beneath the house because Roderick thinks people will dig her up and experiment on her so the narrator helps Roderick bring Madeline down into the tomb. While doing this he sees she has rosy cheeks and that Roderick and Madeline are twins. A few nights later Roderick gets the narrator and shows him this bright gas of some sort outside but the narrator verifies that the gas wasn't uncommon.
The narrator reads a book "mad Trist" it does not say what it was about but he read it to pass the night away. While he read this these noises started to go with what he was reading. At first they were small then the noises turned loud and distracting. The narrator sees Roderick slumped in his chair and get close to him and Roderick tells him that these sounds have been going on for days and Roderick also thinks he buried his sister alive and that she's trying to get out. So then the wind opens this door and there stood Roderick's sister with a bloody white robe on. She then attacks him and he dies from fear. The narrator rushes out of the house of Usher and the house crumbled as soon as he escaped ("SparkNote"). This story shows again how depressed Poe was especially like putting in about Roderick's sister dying might explain some feelings for his own loved ones that had died.
Edgar Allan Poe work is still very well known to this day. He has inspired many authors and writers past and present such as Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle. He will always be remembered for his tales of terror and suspense. His legend will live on forever and always inspire peoples work because he was a literary genius and one of the best critics that has ever lived.
(R.I.P Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849)
Works Cited
Hallqvist, Christoffer. "Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven.'" The Poe Decoder, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
"John Allan." Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012
"Poe Museum on Poe's Life." Poe Museum, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012
"SparkNote on Poe's Short Stories," SparknNotes, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
