Death And Betrayal The Story Of Poe

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Death And Betrayal: The Story Of Poe & # 8217 ; s Life Essay, Research Paper

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Death and Betrayal: The Story Of Poe & # 8217 ; s Life

Edgar Allan Poe ( 1809-1849 ) was born to going histrions in Boston. He was hit hard with decease at a immature age as his female parent and male parent both died within two yearss when Poe was merely two old ages old. The affluent John Allan and his married woman became the legal defenders of immature Edgar. When Edgar was 14, he met the first adult female in his life, Jane Stith Stanard, the inspiration to his verse form & # 8220 ; To Helen & # 8221 ; ( 1831 ) . However, Mrs. Stanard passed off merely a twelvemonth after Poe foremost met her. In 1825 Poe became engaged with Elmira Royster. While he was off from her, he would compose her many letters ; nevertheless, Elmira & # 8217 ; s parents intercepted the letters. Edgar wondered why she ne’er replied, and when he went back to see her, he found out that she married person else. This left Poe in a really down province. Poe & # 8217 ; s relationship with the Allans was ne’er secure, and this became apparent when John Allan refused to pay Edgar & # 8217 ; s debts at the University of Virginia. Edgar was so kicked out of school. In the following twosome of old ages Poe has to contend through the decease of his Foster female parent and his brother. Then in 1833 he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm. John Allan died a twelvemonth subsequently. He so married his cousin Virginia three old ages subsequently. Virginia so died in 1842 ( Anderson 9-64 ) . Poe was introduced to decease and treachery throughout his immature life go forthing him in a really down province, and these traits are present throughout his short narratives and verse forms.

Edgar Allan Poe & # 8217 ; s life had a batch to make with his lunacy in his Hagiographas. This is present in Poe & # 8217 ; s short narrative & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; ( 1843 ) . & # 8220 ; On the dark of the twenty-four hours on which this most barbarous title was done, I was aroused from slumber by the call of fire. The drapes of my bed were in fires. The whole house was blazing.. & # 8221 ; & # 8220 ; The devastation was complete. My full worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforward to desperation & # 8221 ; ( The Black Cat 225 ) . This extract from & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; typified Poe & # 8217 ; s life. His life was a entire devastation. While Poe was an grownup, he said that the fire that destroyed the Richmond Theater and killed 72 people besides took the lives of his parents ( Anderson 11-12 ) . However, this is non true as his female parent died of TB and his male parent abandoned his household and his decease is unknown. Poe is thought to hold said this chiefly because this elucidation brings forth a & # 8220 ; dramatic visible radiation & # 8221 ; ( Anderson 12 ) on his younger old ages ( Anderson 12 ) . The fire besides symbolizes & # 8220 ; complete moral decomposition & # 8221 ; ( Gargano 91 ) . The lone thing left after the fire was the wall with the & # 8220 ; portrayal & # 8221 ; ( Gargano 91 ) of Pluto. The lone thing that survived the inferno would torment him by his & # 8220 ; ineradicable wickedness against his ain nature & # 8221 ; ( Gargano 91 ) . In Edgar Allan Poe & # 8217 ; s life everything that made him happy would be destroyed largely from decease.

As an grownup Poe is thought to hold been impotent. The hanging of the cat in & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; is used to typify the powerlessness of Poe ( Hoffman 86 ) .

The hanging of the black cat comes following. Princess Bonaparte considers the hung cat to be non in fact the victim of the impenitent storyteller, but the phallus of the impotent writer. The cat is so decidedly a wife-substitute, though, that I find it hard to believe it at the same clip a penis-substitute. I prefer to believe that hanging can stand for female powerlessness every bit good as male, and that Poe & # 8217 ; s huffy narrat

or is displacing onto the alternate for his married woman, whose passion, whose seizing bites and embracings menace him, the powerlessness which he himself can non get away ( Hoffman 86 ) .

From Poe & # 8217 ; s childhood we can find the consequence of his Foster male parent & # 8217 ; s inability to bring forth a babe on his sex life ( Canby 144 ) . & # 8220 ; If Mr. Krutch & # 8217 ; s theory of sexual powerlessness with a attendant uniqueness in his dealingss with adult females, still awaits more cognition of Poe & # 8217 ; s young person, it is sufficiently substantiated in his ulterior life and work to function as a grip for unfavorable judgment & # 8221 ; ( Canby 144 ) .

The two cats in & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; are really closely related. & # 8220 ; It was a black cat & # 8211 ; a really big one & # 8211 ; to the full every bit big as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every regard but one & # 8221 ; ( The Black Cat 226 ) . The felicity of the storyteller is being blocked by the two cats. He believes that the two cats are measuring and faulting him ( Knapp 146 ) . In Poe & # 8217 ; s life there were many things that prevented him from holding felicity. His surrogate parents did non demo him the love and fondness that a immature male child demands. Poe was suffering from the minute he became a portion of their household. Besides, Poe & # 8217 ; s first fianc? left him for person else. The Allan & # 8217 ; s and his first groom-to-be represent the two cats in the narrative.

Poe was introduced to decease and treachery throughout his immature life go forthing him in a really down province, and these traits are present throughout his short narratives and verse forms. Most of the enigma of Poe is gone ; nevertheless, some is still left ( Canby 144 ) .

We know, in fact about excessively much about Poe & # 8211 ; or instead, excessively many Poes & # 8211 ; for a clear image of the adult male and an easy comprehension of his work. There is no enigma left in him except the enigma of art, and yet it is as a adult male of enigma that he is invariably presented. Contradictory, extraordinary, perverse, he surely is, but non cryptic except in so far as the beginnings of beauty are ever cryptic. Few authors have left more abundant grounds of the workings of their heads. Few authors have had the nature of their heads, with the impact of fortunes upon them, so intricately analyzed and explained ( Canby 144 ) .

Fortunes throughout Poe & # 8217 ; s life are illustrated throughout the short narrative & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; . His powerlessness is symbolized by the hanging of the first cat. The fire that burned down the storytellers house represents the fire at the Richmond Theater. Finally, Poe was a suffering adult male that led a tough life and left him in ageless grudge as shown by the melancholy in his Hagiographas.

Anderson, Madelyn Klein. Edgar Allan Poe, A Mystery. United States of

America: Justin Books, Ltd. , 1993.

Canby, Henry Seidel. & # 8220 ; Edgar Allan Poe. & # 8221 ; In Nineteenth Century Literature

Criticism, Vol. 55. Ed. Denise Kasinec and Mary L. Onorato. Detroit: Gale Research Co. , 1997.

Gargano, James W. & # 8220 ; & # 8220 ; The Black Cat & # 8221 ; : Perverseness Reconsidered. & # 8221 ; In Twentieth

Century Interpretations of Poe & # 8217 ; s Tales. Ed. William L. Howarth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. , 1971.

Hoffman, Daniel. & # 8220 ; The Marriage Group. & # 8221 ; In Modern Critical Views, Edgar

Allan Poe. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.

Knapp, Bettina L. Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. ,

1984.

Poe, Edgar Allan. & # 8220 ; The Black Cat. & # 8221 ; In Complete Tales & A ; Poems Of Edgar Allan

Poe. New York: Vintage Books, 1975.

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