Edgar allan Poe: the voice of depression.
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, to die just 40 later in Baltimore on October 7. If you think about it, it seems that the king of terror and short stories had chosen the month according to his life.
The famous American writer died surrounded by an aura of mysteryBoth the causes of his death and the explanation of his last words remain secret. The setting of his departure is typical of the gray scale of his crime novels.
A little of you history
A young man abandoned by his father and with his dead mother
Poe was the second of three siblings who were abandoned by their father, and that they ended up being orphans when their mother died a year later. The older brother lived with his grandparents, so he was kept under their guardianship.
Adoption and domestic violence
Moreover, Poe and his younger sister were given up for adoption. Both were received by caregiving families. Edgar stayed there and took his foster family's last name, Allan, even though he was never legally adopted.
Poe was already coming from a traumatic experience, and Although his adoptive mother loved him very much, his stepfather was a violent and abusive man. This resulted in the mother, in order to care for him, overprotected him to prevent the stepfather from attacking him.
Your stay in Scotland and England
During his growth the author lived in Scotland and England, and these places marked it in a great way with their culture, folklore and architecture. Among the letters from those years it can be seen that Poe's stepmother, Frances, was depressed and that the writer accompanied her in pain.
Poe and death
Death seemed to haunt him. At age 14 he had his first crush on the mother of a schoolmate, to whom he dedicated the poem "To Helen", shortly after the young mother died.
The quiet young man
He was a quiet teenager with difficulty connecting with the outside world., with a strong character and that did not support manipulation or verbal rudeness.
A forbidden marriage and an unexpected death
Growing up he became an equally self-absorbed man, full of nightmares that haunted him to the end. He married his 13-year-old cousin Virgina Clemm in 1835. 8 years later the young woman began to show the clear symptoms of what is now known as tuberculosis.
Edgar began drinking and using laudanum (believed), due to its opium content, to manage pain. It is obvious that by this time Poe fell into a deep depression from which he would not emerge. Virginia died in 1947 from her tuberculosis.
Failed suicide attempt and a strange death
A year later Poe tried to commit suicide with laudanum, but failed. He returned to Baltimore and started a relationship with an old girlfriend. It was said that he looked happy and the marriage date was set for October 17, 1949.
Edgar Allan Poe quote.
Despite the alleged engagement, Poe disappeared until October 3, when he was found in poor condition, delirious. 4 days later Poe said goodbye to the world while summoning a certain Reynolds and closed with a last breath "God help my poor soul!". Unfortunately, and as in many cases, it was after his death that he gained recognition.
Poe and depression
His story is the living story of depression, his death-filled tales are a clear demonstration of his own losses.. The writer never received help, because at the time it was not possible, so his life always moved on the border between sanity and mental illness.
In his words, the raven in his poem is based on a talking bird by Dickens, but his tormenting, black feathers, and the bird's painful flapping seem to be more in keeping with the description of depression. "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" are clear demonstrations of how guilt mistreats and drives mad. The fault is that ugly sister of depression, who always comes holding her hand and resonates in anyone's ear.
Edgar Allan Poe was such a tormented being that he died in poverty because he could not assert his own pen. Depression sunk him from before adolescence and never stopped appearing on his path, in his stories and writings. Just as Garrick filled the world of poetry with laughter despite having a hole in his heart, Poe filled literature with horror because of his own hole in his heart.