A Peek at Poe

Edgar Allen Poe was born Edgar Allen, the son of itinerate actors. The Allen family took him in when he was orphaned by age 5, due to the death of his own parents. He was never formally adopted by his southern, aristocratic new family, but developed a deep bond with Mrs. Allen. At a time when money meant everything, Mr. Allen refused to name Edgar as heir to his fortune.

Poe was very bright and attended the University of Virginia for one semester, before accumulating gambling debts to go home in disgrace. He also attended West Point, only to get himself purposefully dismissed. He was somewhat a social misfit.

There are two dominant views of Poe's work: that it grew from his own tortured soul, and that his work was motivated by a thoroughly analytical mind. Both theories could be true.

Consider The Cask of Amontillado, for instance, where Poe is intensely methodical. Montresor premeditated the luring and eventually walling up Fortunato, to his ultimate demise. Montresor had been intimate friends with Fortunato, and with friends like that, one certainly doesn't need enemies. Therefore, perversion is also a key element in Poe's work. Not the perversion one normally thinks of, but rather the perversion we find watching horror stories on the nightly newscast: the everyday tragedies which befall people, that viewers absorb grotesquely, to make our own lives seem better, somehow.

By the same token, analyze, if you will, the strong presence of irony throughout the story. Fortunato asked Montresor if he’s a mason, rather doubtingly. Ironically, and unbeknownst to the ‘unfortunate’ character, Montresor pulls out a trowel, as if to gloat in what he had planned all along! Also, Montresor offers numerous times to turn back with poor Fortunato's health being at risk, but Fortunato refuses to give up and carries on to his fate. Imagine a devilish smile creep over Montresor's lips after each incident. Insanely perverse, don't you think?

We must also look to Poe's other works to see a complete picture of the writer himself. Let's take, for example, The Murders at Rue Morgue, an American Literary first: our everyday detective stories can be attributed to Poe's literary innovation. We have the bumbling police who overlook clues, and the analytical minds of Dupin, as well as that of our only slightly less observant main character, who is in awe of Dupin's keen attention to detail. The murders, of course, are hideously brutal and animalistic.

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