The Autobiographical Elements In The Works Of

Edgar Allan Poe Essay, Research Paper

The Autobiographical Elements in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe

“There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the

proportions” (Biography on Poe 8). Edgar Alan Poe endured a very difficult life

and this is evident in his literary style. He was once titled the “master of

the macabre.” 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.

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,

Rosalie. 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 set-back to 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 in his adulthood. He felt as though anyone he

became close to would die.

Poe wrote about isolation in many of his most popular works. “A Dream

Within a Dream” 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,” in which the narrator went insane talking to a bird about losing his

lost Lenore and realizing he was all alone. A third poem in which Poe revealed

to the reader his feelings of loneliness was, The Cask of Amontillado. 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,” strongly suggested

that he felt alone in the world, and was longing for companionship.

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. Another of these times

was his dismissal from the army which was actually on purpose; he missed all of

his drills and was asked to leave immediately. These periods of fear and

irrationality were the cause of his misfortune and poor social status. He was

looked down upon by his peers for these episodes.

” A constant theme of Edgar Allan Poe was madness” (”Short Stories,” 1995,

p. 1). 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” (Hervey 1). 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. 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, 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.

Formed very early in 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 and close 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,” Poe had a secret hidden message. The message

spelled out the name “Elizabeth Rebecca” using the first letters of each line

moving down, verticall

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