Edgar Allan Poe
“The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.”
Abigail Bond
Edgar Allan Poe and Women
Edgar Allen Poe dealt with the deaths of many women in his life. He then goes on to write about women and often those women end up dead as well. Why does Poe seem to write about the deaths of women so often? Why, in these texts, are the women written to appear so helpless? Why does he also go on to say their deaths are “the most poetic topic in the world”? These are questions that may go unanswered by Poe himself, however, through research and reading his work there are ways we can interpret possible meanings.
Introduction Video
In this short clip from “Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive”, the women in his life and their deaths’ are discussed briefly.
His Mother
Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe
Poe’s mother was an actress, a wife, and a mother. She tragically died when Poe was at the young age of 3 due to Tuberculosis.
His Foster Mother
Frances Valentine Allan
The wife of a tobacco merchant and Poe’s foster mother. Poe and her held a strong bond. She tragically died of Tuberculosis as well.
His Wife
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe
Poe’s cousin and eventual bride. They wed when she was 13 and she became his “muse”. At age 24 she also died of Tuberculosis.
The Deaths of Women in Poe’s Stories
Below are links to some of Poe’s writing, in which the female characters tragically die.
The Oval Portrait / Annabel Lee / The Fall of the House of Usher
The Oval Portrait
The woman in this story dies because of her husbands obsession with his painting, rather than his wife’s well being. The painters wife never says a thing, and just sits quietly. She dies without complaint and now her life was bought at the price of a painting. This raises questions about why the woman sat through the process and died because she said nothing. I have to question this story and ask; are women supposed to sit quietly and do as they are told regardless of the outcome?
Annabel Lee
This is a poem about the loss of a loved one. The narrator had his beloved Annabel Lee taken from him. She dies alone, locked away from the world, locked away from him. This story and the narrator’s response to the death of his beloved Annabel lack the grief we generally see when people lose their loved ones. I view it as though the narrator is content, because if his Annabel cannot be with him, she shouldn’t be able to be with anyone.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Madeline is not the main character in this story, however she is the one who suffers the most. Pressured into a potential incestuous marriage with her brother, she was already struggling mentally. Her health then deteriorates and her brother buries her alive. She was the primary victim in this story, however she was not necessarily written that way. Poe ignoring her pain and anguish to instead highlight the narrator and the brothers emotions, leads me to believe he lacked empathy for poor Madeline.
Other Women in Poe’s Life
Jane Stith Standard
A peer’s mother, whom Poe called “the first purely ideal love of my soul.” She died when Poe was 15.
Sarah Elmira Royster
A girl Poe was interested in, but was married to someone else. Poe met her some time after this, her husband had died, but they never rekindled their romance.
Sarah Helen Power Whitman
After his first wife’s passing, he met and eventually proposed to Whitman. She agreed begrudgingly, but called off the wedding eventually.
Women consistently let Poe down throughout his life. Whether they died or left him, he ended up abandoned by every woman he ever cared for.
Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death, and Women
Poe and Grasping Death
Some say that Poe seeing his mother die so often as an actress when he was so young affected his understanding and comprehension of death. How was he supposed to cope when he had seen his mother die time and time again and then return to him? Then she actually dies and he’s unable to grasp that concept as a child. He then goes on to lose his foster mother, is forced to watch his young wife die, he loses all of the women he had bonds with, and he never got along well with men. His only support system was full of women, who then are unable to support him in the end. Did his constant dealing with loss of women he loved paired with his struggle with addiction desensitize him to the true darkness of what he was writing? Or did the abandonment cause him to resent women and look down on them?
Poe’s Potential Portrayal of Women
As previously mentioned, throughout all of Poe’s work, women are unimportant and generally killed off. Due to this fact, people generally assume that there must not be a primary female character, however, there is speculation that is actually false.
In Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, he never explicitly states that the narrator is a man. However, if the narrator is indeed a woman, it does not make Poe’s writing of women any better. It actually seems to imply that women aren’t as intelligent as men and fold easy under any type of pressure. It also implies women are crazy and paranoid.
Whether or not this is true, it is very interesting to read about and speculate about. With Poe’s relationships and his writing in the past, it’s not completely absurd for him to create a story questioning female intelligence and almost asserting a male dominance that makes women break under pressure.
Poe vs. Femininity
In Poe’s story “The Black Cat”, the husband and narrator feels as though his masculinity is threatened. In an article based on this, the author mentions how Poe seems to represent the author in a way where he feels his masculinity is threatened. From being unable to have children, to being loving towards his pets, he feels as though his feminine traits are strong and his masculinity is at risk.
The narrator is showing these behaviors “inwardly” that seem very feminine and Poe uses words to describe the narrator as such. However, the narrator becomes an abusive alcoholic, feeding into the misogynistic and overly masculine stereotype. The man then murders both his cat and then his wife in a way to get rid of any potential feminine traits he may possess. It works for him, at first, he is not in any way remorseful and the language Poe uses to describe what he is not, are generally used when describing women.
Eventually the man is caught, found guilty, and forced to accept his femininity. His masculinity is taken away from him. The final line of this article states: “The ending seems to be giving into Poe’s misogynist mindset to suggest that those bound by gender roles are ultimately left perverse and sick.”
It is ultimately left up for individual interpretation, however there are assumptions that can be made. Is Poe speaking on toxic masculinity? Or is he creating a story that makes feminine men insane because of their lack of masculinity? More than likely this story holds more potential for the latter, considering Poe’s portrayal of women in the past.
Questioning Poe
Even after asking questions and reading his works in depth, there is only speculation as to what Poe’s true intent was in many of his works. Each individual can draw their own conclusions from what they have read. Whether or not Poe held great distaste for women, or just wrote a tragic end for each woman because that’s all he knew, is up for personal interpretation. Even though there is uncertainty in true meaning, his work during the Gothic period impacted many writers and influenced their works greatly. There are even articles based on how he affected other parts of American culture like movies and even music. Poe definitely took horror to the next level in his time and has contributed greatly to both our entertainment and our education system.
Abigail Bond 