1.2 Women in Poe’s Life

    One of the reasons that Edgar Allan Poe was regarded as the most controversial writers in American literature was his obsession with describing women in his works. In his short forty-year life, he was acquainted with lots of women such as Jane Craig Stanard, Virginia Poe, Maria Clemm, Frances Sargent Osgood, Elizabeth F.Ellet and Sarah Helen Power Whitman. All of them were not only physically beautiful but also spiritually elevated. Most importantly, as a proverb says that beautiful women suffer unhappy fates, most of them died young and unnaturally. The early death of these women undoubtedly made Poe suffer badly, at the meantime, it changed the way Poe perceived the world and thus provoked his literary theme of death of beauty. Among these women, four women who played the most profound role in Poe’s life were Elizabeth Poe, Poe’s biological mother; Fanny Allan, Poe’s foster mother; Jane Stanard, Poe’s first crush; and Virginia Poe, Poe’s beloved wife.