Edgar Allan Poe Influences

Young, naive, and eager to prove his brilliance, Edgar Allan poe was brought out into the world on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts (Meltzer 14). To the modern world, he is known as a brilliant writer, poet and critic, however in his time, he was bombarded with difficulties. Similarly to some authors, Poe’s writing was greatly influenced by his poor socioeconomic standing. His style of writing can be characterized as quite dark as it is the product of an impoverished and hardship riddled life. Alcoholism, death, and illness were no stranger to Poe, either. These themes, being such an integral part of his life, shaped much of Poe’s poetry into a manifestation of what is known as dark romanticism (Buranelli 22). Additionally, Poe grew

up in the blossoming era of Romanticism, and he was often inspired by various authors and poets of his time. In order to escape poverty, Poe often “ specialized in horror and terror because he discovered they were popular” (Buranelli 26). However, he is most greatly influenced by his life experiences.
Poe was only a young boy when his family was torn apart.

He was born as the second child of three to Eliza and David Poe. Initially, his father held a law degree which he abandoned in order to pursue a career in acting like his wife (Meltzer 14 ). Due to the chaotic and frustrating careers of his parents, Poe was often neglected and uncared for. As an infant, his alcoholic father abandoned him and his family when he was unable to provide for them (Meltzer 17). With growing pressures as a single mother, Eliza Poe fell ill and was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (Meltzer 17). Suddenly Poe’s life started to change, at age two in 1811, news spread about his father’s death and a few months after, his mother’s death followed (Meltzer 20). He was separated from his siblings soon after; each child was taken to be cared for by a different family. His older brother, Henry, was left to be cared for by his grandparents. His sister, Rosalie, was adopted by friends of his parents. Meanwhile, he was taken under John and Frances Allan’s care. Although he was never officially adopted, the Allan’s named him “Edgar Allan Poe”( Meltzer 20). During the time in which he lived with his new wealthy, upper class family full of merchants and professionals, he was exposed to literature, music, and affection (Meltzer 22). At around five years old, he began private tutoring lessons; by age nine, he was attending an advanced boarding school (Meltzer 23). Regardless, his parent’s tragedies deeply affected

his concept of death and illness as portrayed in his following years and the concept’s effects on his writing.
Throughout Poe’s life, he valued being a leader, and he always desired to command and excel in everything he did. He was an outstanding student during school. He exceeded his potential in sports like swimming, running and boxing (Meltzer 25). Additionally, at an early age he began writing poetry. During his adolescent years, he often exhibited arrogant behavior, selfishness and a sense of superiority over others. He envied those above him and scorned at those beneath him (Meltzer 26). By the age of sixteen, Frances Allan’s health started declining after she contracted Tuberculosis; Poe then turned to a classmate’s mother, Jane Stanard, in an effort to find warmth and affection (Meltzer 27). However, she too was often mellow and weary from depression; as a result she soon died in 1824 (Clarke 5). After her death, he displayed erratic behavior and irritable moods over her loss. With her loss, Poe lost his “womanly grace,” whom he adored immensely (Meltzer 27). She has been said to have inspired his renowned poem “Helen” due to the nickname he gave her (Meltzer 27). This poem explores the idea of a woman’s beauty in terms of body and soul. At the time Poe got closer to Jane Stanard, she was the first to encourage his poetry (Meltzer 27). By encouraging Poe to write, Stanard served as his inspiration. He created Helen or Stanard as possessing both inner and outer beauty that captivates a young man.
Shortly after in 1826, Poe attended his first year of college at the University of Virginia where he studied ancient and modern languages (Meltzer 34).

During his semester there, he learned French, Italian, and Spanish, and excelled in sports. During that time, John Allan had not given Poe enough money for his college tuition, thus he had to resort to gambling in order to pay for the expenses. One day, he received shattering news from his home that his childhood love, Elmira Royster, had married someone else, and that the letters he wrote to her were burned before they had a chance of reaching her due to her father’s disapproval (Meltzer 36). As a result, he began to gamble even more than before, falling deep into a state of depression and alcoholism. After returning home, John Allan refused to provide him with financial support for college due to his gambling problem (Meltzer 37). In the midst of his suffering, Poe turned to poetry to express his immense sadness. He expressed his struggles with alcohol through his famous story, “The Black Cat.” In the story, the main character harms and wounds his cat while he is intoxicated; he is overcome by what is referred to in the story as the demon. The character relates to Poe, especially during his final days to come, because he too was overridden by the demon which turned his life into shambles and delusion. Both men have surrendered to the power of alcohol, and much of their actions are dictated by

it.
After a quarrel with his father, he enlisted for the military and started referring to himself as “Edgar A. Poe”. Poe exceeded his potential in the military, however he was honorably discharged that same year due to Frances Allan’s death after “a painful and lingering illness” (Meltzer 44). Thereupon, Poe’s writing based on a sense of loss, devastation, and the death of beautiful women began. He began to correlate beautiful women with death and illness thus shaping his poetry (Meltzer 27). That theme was heavily portrayed in “Annabel Lee.” The poem discussed a man whose young love dies tragically of disease as every woman Poe has loved faced the similar fates as well.
Shortly following Poe’s army service, he was admitted to the United States Military Academy; however, since John Allan refused to provide Poe with “sufficient funds to maintain himself a cadet nor give the consent necessary to resign from the Academy,” Poe was dismissed by neglecting his duties (“Edgar Allan Poe”). Homeless and penniless, Poe went to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm, her eight year old daughter, Virgina, and Henry in Baltimore, Maryland. Throughout this time, his poverty continued, and his pleas for money did as well. Due to their lack of financial support, Poe’s brother, Henry, passed away due to Tuberculosis (Meltzer 52). This tragic event therefore added to Poe’s morbid perception of death and illness. Eventually, after various failures, he succeeded in publishing some of his work. During his time living with Virginia and tutoring her, he found himself falling in love with her due to her resemblance to his mother (Meltzer 54). Therefore, after his employment as an editorial assistant and main reviewer, he obtained a license to marry her (Meltzer 54). Meanwhile, with continuous drinking and quarrels with employers, he found himself in an endless cycle of struggling to support his financial needs and projects. Subsequently, in 1842, Virgina burst a blood vessel and failed to recover fully, and Poe found himself compounded by illness and depression once again (Meltzer 87). Finally, after continuous agony, lack of medication, and no affordability for a hospital, Virginia died in 1847 (Meltzer 123). Poe was devastated and found his own illness accelerating. At that point, he was in a fragile state of mind and in poor physical condition. The traumatic death impacted his disposition substantially, and it fueled him to compose more poetry. Thus, Poe created a story called “ Masque of the Red Death,” which told the tale of a terrible disease called the “Red Death” that struck a country. The disease caused others to be shut out, and the symptoms included excruciating pain, faintness and dribbling blood. The disease was much like tuberculosis which was Poe’s mother’s, brother’s, and wife’s killer. In the story, Prince Prospero and others are hiding in his palace in an effort to hide from the plague; however, it is to no avail as death cannot always be evaded which is a concept very familiar to Poe. The plague is personified as an unfamiliar, masked man whom which the Prospero is angered by. The palace’s rooms each symbolizes a specific stage of life: The first room signifies birth, and the last room represents death. As Prospero travels through the rooms towards the mysterious man in the last room, he makes his way through life, and ultimately, to his own death. Poe is able to outline the stages of life and embody death within his story successfully because he has experienced many people close and dear to him make the same journey through life as Prospero does, and they all faced a similar fate. Death and disease seem to always have the upperhand in much of his life and his work.
Due to all the misery and painful reality of death and illness, Poe became delusional. He was swallowed by the demon, also known as the alcohol like in his story of “The Black Cat.” Both men succumbed to the power of alcohol. After a few days of wandering around hopeless and lost, he was found dead on October 7, 1849 (Clarke 9). It was speculated that his death was due to “alcohol poisoning, brain fever, nervous prostration, cerebral epilepsy, apoplexy, rabies” (Meltzer 130).
Ultimately, Poe lived a life full of misfortunate events and hardships. He grew up ambitious to succeed with his poems, yet they were viewed as odd and alarming. However, today his stories and poems mark him as one of the most profound editor’s, poets and critics. Comparably to some writers, Poe’s writing was significantly influenced by his poor socioeconomic status. Alcoholism, death and illness affected his poetry as well. These themes and his morbid, and dark style of writing developed Poe’s writing into what it is known as dark romanticism. Essentially, Poe understood the top selling genre of writing however his life tragedies helped aid deeper sensations and served as a basis for his content.