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Unit 2: A Dream within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s foster mother passed away and left a deep impact on him. He again experienced another Notes
death of a loved one.
While Poe was at the academy, his foster father John did not give him sufficient funds to
maintain himself as a cadet. He did not even give the consent necessary to resign from the
Academy, disgruntled by Allan’s behaviour, Poe deliberately began to ignore his duties and as
a result dismissed from the academy. After becoming estranged from John, Poe began his life of
adversities. He switched jobs often and had a lot of debt. Meanwhile John remarried and had a
son of his own, finally disowning Poe. He was separated from him family and John no longer
cared for him. This experience left a mark on Poe’s life and he felt lonely, abandoned, and angry
because of his foster parent’s behaviour. After that he went to New York City and then to
Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt, Mrs Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia Clemm.
Over the next couple of years, Poe’s first short stories published in the Philadelphia Saturday
Courier and his MS. Found in a Bottle won a cash prize for the best story in the Baltimore Saturday
Visitor. Still, Poe was still not making enough money to live independently, nor did John left
any fortune for him after his death in 1834. The subsequent year, however, his financial problems
were solved when he accepted an editorship at The Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond.
He went along with his aunt and his twelve-year-old cousin, Virginia. The Southern Literary
Messenger was the first of several journals Poe would direct over the following ten years and
due to which he acquired fame as a leading man of letters in America. Poe came to be known not
only as an excellent author of poetry and fiction, but also as a literary critic whose level of
imagination and insight had previously been unapproached in the American literature.
In 1836, Poe married Virginia Clemm, who was merely thirteen years old at the time and he was
twenty-six. Six years later Virginia became fell severely ill and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
She succumbed to the deadly disease after fighting it for about five years in 1847. Unable to cope
up with the loss, Poe began drinking heavily and became involved in a number of romantic
affairs. The estrangement of his biological father, the death of his biological mother, behaviour
of his foster parents, death of his foster mother and estrangement of his foster father all
contributed to his deep depression and became a source of inspiration. The loss of his wife had
a huge impact on and acted as a theme in his one of the most popular works, The Raven as the
speaker addresses his despondency “for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named
Lenore.” Another famous story The Masque of the Red Death is also thought to be a reference to the
Black Death as well as the pandemic of tuberculosis.
Poe’s writings gained attention in the late 1830s and early 1840s; however, the profits from his
work were insufficient. He sustained himself by editing the Broadway Journal in New York
City and Graham’s Magazine and Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in Philadelphia.
While preparing for his second marriage Poe, for reasons unknown, came back to Baltimore in
late September of 1849. He was found in a state of semi-consciousness on October 3, and breathed
his last four days later without recuperating from the delirium to describe what had happened
during the last days of his life.

The prose and poetry of Poe have influenced world literature and philosophy. His Gothic
literature acts as a reaction to the intellectual trends seen in transcendentalism. He criticised this
theory as being uselessly obscure and absurdly mystical. Poe criticised the transcendental
movement for those he thought to be just sophists. He also considered allegory and didacticism
as problematic. He encouraged literary work having a particular focus and brevity that let a
work to be read in a sitting.

2.2 Writing Style

Poe’s most noticeable contribution to the world literature stems from the analytical technique
he followed both as an author and as a critic of the works of his contemporaries. His intent was

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