I am a freak of the biography and prefer, at times, to read about the people behind the stories rather than just the stories themselves. I just finished a few biographies of Poe and I found that he was the first original "Emo" as my son would say. So, my literature blog would not be complete without him.
The life of Edgar Allen Poe was, like so many of his stories and poems, short and eerily haunted. He infused his writing with the darkness he saw around his own life.
Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston in1809. His parents were poor actors and thus he was born into poverty. He spent the first three years of his life in a "succession of shabby dressing rooms (CSPEPA 816)." The first major personal tragedy that befell him was the death of his parents.
He was adopted by John and Frances Allen along with his brother William Henry and his sister Rosalie.
Poe attended the best schools in Virginia. He showed flashes of his brilliant mind early on in his studies, but as a student he was "already something of a brooder (CSPEPA 816)." He spent much of his time alone and on some occasions would be seen walking with his "poetically inclined older brother (CSPEPA 816)." Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia, but due to strained relations between him and his foster father, he received minimal financial help. The difficulties of his financial situation at college led him to drink and gamble. At the end of one year he found himself $2000 in debt, and was forced to drop out of the University (Erlich 2001). He returned to Richland to find that disappointment waited for him there as well. He had fallen in love with a girl there, and had been writing her letters from college. The girl’s parents, not approving of Poe, intercepted the letters. The girl, assuming that he had forgotten her, became engaged to another man. Heartbroken and miserable, he wrote a long poem, Tamerlane, which became his first published work.
The friction between his foster father and himself escalated until Poe was forced to leave the house permanently. He returned to Boston, intending to find work in "New England’s budding literary center (CSPEPA 817)." As with so much of his life prior, disappointment seemed to be a staple of Poe’s life. Six weeks later, unable to find employment anywhere, he enlisted in the U.S. Army under the name of Edgar A Perry.
In the summer of 1827, he got his first book published. Although it was little more than a pamphlet containing approximately 40 pages, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was the beginning of what would later become a stellar career (CSPEPA 817). After publication of his book, Poe felt that the army was not for him and asked for a discharge. It was granted on the condition that he reconcile with his foster father. When John Allen refused, Poe suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized. Then on February 28, 1829, his foster mother died, and John Allen, complying with his wife’s last request, agreed to see his foster son again. The discharge from the army was arranged and Poe and Allen made a truce. The truce did not last long, however, and in May, Poe went to live with his widowed cousin and her daughter, Virginia.
In the summer of 1830, Poe decided to try the military again. He reverted back to his old habits of drinking and gambling that had plagued him at the University of Virginia. Despite the pleas from his foster son, John Allen refused to pay Poe’s bills. Early in 1831, Edgar Allen Poe was court-martialed and discharged. Subsequent misfortunes followed: Poe’s brother William Henry died, John Allen wrote his foster son out of his will, and a scandal involving Poe’s drinking ended a love affair with a Baltimore woman named Mary Starr.
Finally, in early 1836, it appeared that his luck had changed. He married his cousin’s daughter, Virginia Clemm, on May 16. His stories were being published with regularity and his name was well known throughout the literary world. He was given a job as editor for The Gentleman’s Magazine. He was free of financial debt, and had stopped drinking and gambling. But like so many of Poe’s stories, misfortune was waiting just around the corner.
In January 1842, Virginia was stricken with a tubercular attack. Poe was once again filled with despair and began to drink heavily. His job performance suffered and relations with coworkers became troubled. In May he was fired from the magazine. He suffered another breakdown and was sick and delirious for several months. He eventually recovered enough to begin writing again. In early 1843, several of his works were published, including The Tell-Tale Heart. Virginia also seemed to recover, and once again things appeared to be going well. When Virginia fell ill again, Poe returned to his drinking habit. Despite moving out of the city because of concern for her health, Virginia never recovered. "On that blustery night of January 30, 1847, the long-drawn-out tragedy of Virginia Poe came to an end (CSPEPA 816)." Poe broke down completely this time and he too never fully recovered.
There is yet more to the story of the life of Edgar Allen Poe, but for my purposes of keeping this blog somewhat brief here, none that are relevant. Suffice it to say, that the remainder of his life was not entirely a pleasant one. There were attempts of suicide, rampant drinking and opium use, and finally, on a Sunday morning in October 1849, Edgar Allen Poe died. It is reported that his last words were, “Lord help my poor soul.” Then he died alone (CSPEPA 816). Ironically, Poe wrote a short poem that I found, titled Alone that I will publish in a separate Blog Post.
The one profound difference that made Edgar Allen Poe stand out from other authors of his time was the element of gloom that he infused into his writings. In The Fall of the House of Usher, this infusion takes place at the very onset of the story. The first line of the story reads, "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher (Cain 794)." In this first sentence Poe sets the tone for the whole story. The story itself has all the elements of a modern horror story: A haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness, and a doubled personality. For all of its easily identifiable horror elements, part of the real terror of this story is not in what is said or described, but in what is not. It is the vagueness of details that creates a sensation of fear. For example, it is never mentioned when or where this story takes place. Instead of using standard narrative of place and time, Poe uses things like poor weather and a barren landscape to act as a locater. We (the readers) know that it is autumn. Any more than that we can only surmise.
Another aspect of vagueness is that initially we and the narrator are unclear as to why he has been summoned. Another is the fact that although the narrator had been one of Roderick’s "boon companions in boyhood” (Cain 794)", he did not know the basic fact that Roderick had a twin sister. The story begins without complete explanation of the narrator’s motives for arriving at the House of Usher, and it is this ambiguity that sets the tone for a plot that is inexplicable, sudden and full of unexpected events.
There is also a sensation of claustrophobia in this story. The narrator is trapped by the lure of Roderick’s attraction, and he cannot escape until the House of Usher collapses completely. Because it appears that the characters in the story cannot move and act freely in the house, the house takes on a role itself; a character that plays the role of an evil mastermind that controls the fates of its inhabitants. Poe creates confusion between the living things and inanimate objects by doubling the physical house of Usher with the family line of Usher. He uses the word “house” metaphorically, yet he also describes a real house. The narrator gets trapped inside the mansion, and through this we learn that this confinement describes the biological fate of the Usher family.
The family has no enduring branches, so it can be assumed that genetic transmission has occurred incestuously within the domain of the house. Further evidence of the house as a metaphor is found in Poe’s use of the poem, The Haunted Palace. By the descriptions of the palace within the poem, it becomes evident to the reader that it is not a palace at all, but a woman. The somber mood is maintained throughout the whole story, never once allowing for a single moment of relief. Even at the end, when the narrator is finally escaping the house, Poe continues the mood through use of the storm. "The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the causeway (Cain 809)."
The same gloomy mood is found in the story The Tell-Tale Heart, however, it is written very different than The Fall of the House of Usher. One thing that is most notably different in this story is how Poe uses fewer adjectives and descriptions to paint an equally terrifying picture. He employs fewer details as a way to heighten the murderer’s obsession with specific things: The old man’s eye, the heartbeat, and his own claim to sanity. Each item of obsession is uniquely integral to the setting of the mood. The reason given by the murderer for killing the old man is the eye. "He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever (Cain 809)." The eye, an inanimate object, becomes a symbol of evil. When the narrator is sneaking into the old man’s bedroom, he finds that the eye has been watching him. "It was open – wide, wide open – and I grew furious as I gazed upon it (Cain 811)." Poe creates the mood at this point of the story with the visual imagery of the “wide, wide” open eye.
The heartbeat of the old man serves as a catalyst to the murder. Although the narrator was in the room to commit the murder and would have done so regardless of any outside factors, Poe uses the beating of the heart to heighten suspense. When the narrator first hears the heart, he becomes enraged, yet somehow manages to remain calm. Then the heart begins to beat louder. "It grew quicker, and louder every instant. It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! (Cain 812)." Later in the story, the narrator continues to hear the heartbeat. When the police arrive, the narrator was the epitome of confidence. Yet the more he proclaimed how calm and cool he was, the louder his own heart beats, which he mistakes for the beating of the old man’s heart.
The narrator’s claim to sanity is a theme found throughout the story. The story opens with the narrator asking why the reader would think him mad. "How, then am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story (Cain 809)." Then after he explains why he had to kill the old man, he immediately returns to defending his own sanity. By using imagery in the form of the narrator’s speech, rather than lengthy descriptions, Poe enables the reader to clearly see that the man is insane.
Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most well known names in literature. He is a known short story writer and poet. He is credited with creating new writing genres such as "the modern horror tale, science fiction story, and the detective story (Erlich 2001)." He is also a master of invoking fear through his many methods of setting the mood. In The Fall of the House of Usher he employs long, lengthy descriptions to create the chilly imagery and impose a dark and gloomy atmosphere. In The Tell-Tale Heart Poe creates frightening imagery with the use of simplistic descriptions that, when seen through the eyes of the murderer, become more terrifying with incorporated suspense.
I believe that Edgar Allen Poe is one of the greatest writers of all time. He was also a troubled soul who found disappointment everywhere he looked. He lived a life fraught with gloom and despair, and that reality carried over to his fiction. There is an old piece of advice that applies to aspiring writers – “write what you know.” I believe that Poe did just that.
Citations
Cain, William E. American Literature Volume I. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. 2004.
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. New York: Doubleday, 1966. *
Erlich, Heyward. A Poe Webliography. April 3, 2001. Dec. 2, 2005.
* A compilation of short stories and poems, with included Poe biography. There was no author mentioned in book (other than Poe) and subsequently the biographer was never named.
So I finished reading Samuel Clemens this week and I especially enjoyed' "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." I really like stories like this one that give a little moral at the end and yet don't turn out anything like what you would have expected. I won't spoil the story for anyone who chooses to read it but I will say that it goes to show what a guilty heart can do to a person. I have to say that I had never really read much of Clemens stuff other than the Huck Finn standards and I think that I became a new fan now that I've read his other work. I also really liked "The War Prayer" and the message it was conveying. Clemens is a great story teller, able to draw you into his stories and make you hang on every word, and they have such great endings. A little moral truth to give you food for thought. I'm going to have to add some of his other stuff to my
reading "wish" list.
