From 65438 to 0946, the American Association of Mystery Writers founded the most authoritative mystery novel award "edgar allan poe Prize" in the name of this legendary writer in memory of him.
Although Poe died at the age of 40, it is undeniable that the story he left to the world is still an insurmountable legend. It is women who inspire novelists, especially beautiful women who are entangled with death.
Looking back on Poe's works, the women in his works are either dead or dying, or they know they are doomed to die. For Poe, women must die. This is the story. He also wants to have the ability to bring them back to life. Several women who appeared in Poe's life are undoubtedly his muses of inspiration, and their influence on Poe can be found in his stories. Death and women are the mystery of edgar allan poe's novels and the key words of his life.
Edgar Allan Poe was probably born for thrillers. It was not that he chose to write horror stories, but that he found him mysteriously and endowed him with an innate mysterious temperament. Elizabeth, Ellen Poe's biological mother, was a famous actress in early American drama. She is beautiful and talented, but she is jealous and has a rough fate. Poe's father was an actor in Elizabeth's same troupe. After marriage, he left home, leaving his wife and three children. Elizabeth died of tuberculosis when Edgar Allan Poe was 2 years old, which left a shadow in his mind.
After being orphaned, Poe was adopted by Francis and John Allen. Although Poe's name was changed to Ellen, his adoptive mother Francis regarded Poe as her own son, but his adoptive father treated him badly and always reminded Poe that he was just an adopted son. As he grew older, he felt the hostility of his adoptive father, which is why Allen was often omitted from his early signatures, because Poe knew that this home was not his real home. After the death of his only adoptive mother who loved him, he left his home in Allen, became the editor of Southern magazine, and found his own blood relatives.
Poe lived with her aunt and cousin Virginia, which opened a happy time in her life. The beautiful girl Virginia became Poe's first muse. Poe's fascination with women lies not in their bodies but in their mysterious and pure temperament.
It's like 27-year-old Ellen Poe married her cousin Virginia below 14, just because she didn't want other men to marry her, which destroyed the purity that fascinated her. In our opinion, this is definitely a kind of "forbidden love", but this kind of marriage was legal in Poe's time.
Poe's love for Virginia is not secular love, but out of a kind of protection. After getting married, he spent a lot of money to train Virginia to study music. In the evening, they will hold a small concert. Poe plays the flute, Virginia plays the piano and her mother-in-law sings. This is the warmth that Poe yearns for.
However, warmth is short-lived. Marriage made Poe escape from inner loneliness, and he had to bear the heavy responsibility of supporting his family. Although he had several jobs at that time, his family still didn't have enough to eat. Poe realized that his poems were not enough to make a living. Faced with the popularity of emerging magazines and periodicals, he began to concentrate on writing short stories.
Poe's horror novels have many bridges between madness and death. He is very good at analyzing psychology, not just telling a story that attracts readers. Besides, Poe's description of death was a true reflection of the society at that time. 1830 medical technology is underdeveloped, and misdiagnosis of patients buried alive often occurs. In addition, infectious diseases such as cholera are rampant, and the smell of death and depression depresses everyone. People often comment that Poe's story and his temperament are morbid, rather than shaping his environment.
At the same time, Virginia became a realistic version of the female characters in Poe's books. She contracted tuberculosis and her life gradually failed. At that time, Poe's life was shrouded in darkness and his spirit was tortured. During the day, he will work as a literary editor in a magazine, and when he comes home at night, he will take care of Virginia, accompanied by her constant cough and occasional silence.
What Poe is afraid of is not watching Virginia die slowly, but her transition between improvement and deterioration, which seems to be a mockery of death to Poe. Every time he prepares a funeral for Virginia, she suddenly gets better; When he thought she was finally recovered and happy, she was dragged away by the disease. This tug-of-war that lasted for three years not only failed to free Virginia, but also made Ellen Poe, who had been with her, feel broken.
Alcohol and writing are anesthetics that temporarily reduce the threat of death. Edgar Allan Poe completely integrated his mental confusion and emotional entanglements into a bizarre story. The years covered by the shadow of Virginia's death also became the peak of his creation. The personal fear of death expressed in The Mystery of Mary Roger, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat and the Telling Heart is Poe's real experience. His most famous poem "The Crow" is full of the image that Virginia's life is coming to an end, which is the cruel embodiment of her and his fate, and also the disaster of Poe's literary peak.
After The Crow was published, Poe attracted a celebrity and poetess Francis Sargent osgood, although many people criticized this gloomy poem. Osgood is a very successful writer. She can understand what Poe wants to express through the medium of poetry.
When Edgar Allan Poe recites his own poems in the literary salon, osgood will give him an admiring look. His unique talent made her deeply involved. Although osgood, the same age as Poe, has two children, her marriage is not happy.
At this time, edgar allan poe was running out of patience with Virginia, whose physical condition was good and bad. He longed for the love of other women to comfort his fragile nerves. Literary correspondence with osgood became an excuse for Poe to forget his dead wife. He would write poems in magazines and periodicals, quietly show his love to osgood, and she would respond with poems. However, social slander will be surrounded by Allen Poe and osgood of their respective families, which is a fatal blow to writers who live on social reputation. For their own future, they broke off contact with 1846.
Whether there is a physical relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and osgood remains an uncertain mystery. Perhaps, as his wife Virginia said to herself, the relationship between Poe and osgood is platonic, and their intimate relationship is limited to professional mutual appreciation.
Combined with the spiritual vortex of Poe's life, death is within his reach. He not only created the mystery of female corpse in the illusory world, but also witnessed the reality of his wife's struggle, which is an unavoidable status quo. At this time, osgood appeared like an angel, saved him and made him forget his pain for a while. Maybe their relationship is just that.
Gossip and scandal not only made Poe and osgood never meet again, but also became the last straw to crush Virginia and accelerated her death. Like Poe's biological mother, both died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. For Poe, the death of Virginia was a great blow to him and changed his world.
Poe started drinking again and became addicted to opium. Only because of the illusion caused by anesthesia, he can see his beloved Virginia again. Although Virginia was a torture to him when she was alive, he didn't know that her death was.
At that time, the media speculated that Allen Poe's days were numbered because of the loss of his loved one and the worsening physical and mental conditions. His caregiver gave him the advice that unless he found a woman with stronger willpower, he could lead him out of the shadows, otherwise he might die suddenly.
One year after Virginia's death, Poe embarked on a journey to find such a woman. He found Sarah Helen Whitman, a female writer who shares his obsession with death, resurrection and Gothic fantasy. Prior to this, Poe's women Virginia and osgood were synonymous with sunshine and beauty, while Whitman belonged to that kind of melancholy and eccentricity, which was completely opposite to the female image he had dreamed of before. Perhaps, Poe did not try to get out of the death threat of women, but deliberately got deeper and deeper.
Whitman, six years older than Poe, is a neurotic widow. She was addicted to hypnosis and tried to cure her headache with her own hands and mysterious power. Poe chose her not only because they have the same writing preference, but also because she can give him mother-like care. However, Poe could not stop drinking. Whitman's hesitation after hearing the rumors of his debauchery, coupled with Whitman's mother's obstruction of this marriage, made this relationship end in vain. Poe, whose proposal was rejected, was never recovered and his spirit was stimulated. She was delirious from time to time. 1849, she killed edgar allan poe who had been dealing with death all her life.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe's tangled life with women, there seems to be a curse that has been haunting him: love is not allowed, and it is not allowed. The woman he pursues is just like the fate of the characters in his novels. Whether it is reality or death, it always leaves her in the end. He wants eternal love from women, but it is as mysterious and unattainable as the death he seeks. Women are Poe's unique inspiration and his lifelong regret.
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