Biographical Criticism

 

Lian Prost-Hughart

Struyk-Bonn

English 104

10 November 2014

Biographical Criticism

Poe’s death is shrouded in mystery; the truth has never been discovered. We discover much, however, about Poe’s turn of mind from his writing. Adopted into a wealthy family at the age of three after the death of his parents, Edgar Allan Poe was groomed to take over the Allan family’s thriving tobacco business. However, his interest lay in writing poetry. By the time he was a young man, he already had written and compiled enough poems to publish a book, but was forbidden to do so by his father. Later events in his life left him isolated and vulnerable and he died a mere two years after the death of his young wife. In his famous short story The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe ties his bizarre narrative together with the theme that one’s obsessions over small things can render one senseless to reality, and that home is not a place of security.

 

In his story, the narrator addresses the reader trying to convince them that he is not a madman. He then begins his account by relating how he first came to the conclusion that he  must kill the old man.

I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! 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. (Poe, 1)

The narrator comes to a very extreme decision: to never have to see the old man’s eye again, he should kill the old man. He describes his thought process, and it becomes very clear to the reader that he has taken an extreme progression from disliking a feature of the old man to suddenly choosing to end the old man’s life. That one desire ends up eating away at the narrator and taking up all his thoughts and plans. He spends seven nights watching the old man, “(b)ut I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (Poe, 1). This obsession eventually leads to not only mental instability but also him admitting to his guilt to the police. Though Edgar Allan Poe was not arrested for murder in his lifetime, he did have an a determination that did cause him many problems in his life. Poe was obsessed with the idea of becoming famous for his writing, and he also wanted to experience adventures. To fulfill his adventurous spirit he joined the army. After the leaving the army, he was married to his young cousin. However he still wanted to become a recognized writer. He tried time after time to start his own magazine, but even when he got enough investors, his efforts never lasted long. Due to this, he and his wife spent their life together barely able to enought to make it by ("Poe's Life”).

 

Due to his difficult childhood, it is possible that Poe was disillusioned with the idea of “home”; making his point when he has his narrator kill and then bury the old man’s heart in the man’s home. He brings across a very interesting point: not everything is as it seems. On the surface, when the policemen came to investigate his house, he seemed very calm. Acting as if nothing had occurred, the narrator believes that he could fool the policemen. Eventually, though, he could not contain his guilt and in a moment of lunacy, he confesses to the murder. “I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search-- search well. I led them , at length to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed… while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim”(Poe, 3). Poe was an adopted child, and from his relationship with his foster father, it can be surmised that he was raised in a strict manner. In fact, after his father’s death, there was no provision for Poe. Instead, an inheritance was left for an illegitimate son that no one knew anything about. On the surface, Poe’s adopted family was classy, and respectable, but underneath it all was much more betrayal and strife than others’ thought ("Poe's Life”).

 

We indeed learn much from the themes in Poe’s writing. We are able to get a glance at the inner person that Poe protected. However, not all his writing has origins in his life. As much as we learn about Poe’s experiences, we learn just as much about his imagination , and the terrifying thing we call human nature. In The Tell-Tale Heart, we look at the effect of guilt on a person, as we see that obsessions, no matter how small, can completely rob you of your sanity, and that when it comes to “home,” you must look beneath the surface.

 

Sources Cited

"Mini BIO - Edgar Allan Poe." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe." The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

"Poe's Life." Edgar Allan Poe Museum : Poe's Life, Legacy, and Works : Richmond, Virginia. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.