Edgar Allan Poe

The Mystery and Theories of Edgar Allan Poe’s death

How did Edgar Allan Poe die?

No aspect of Poe’s life has fascinated his fans and detractors as his death. Unfortunately, there is also no greater example of how badly Poe’s biography has been handled. Covered in opinion and disagreement, the important details of Poe’s final days leave people with more questions than answers. Poe’s death will probably always remain a mystery. The puzzle still teases and tempts researchers today. They review the stories over and over again in hopes of finding something new, to settle the question once and for all (http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm). Poe was 40 years old when he died on October 7, 1849. He had traveled by train from Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore a few days earlier, on September 28. While in Richmond, he had proposed marriage to a woman who would have become his second wife. Poe intended to continue on to Philadelphia to finalize some business when he became ill. Poe was discovered lying unconscious on September 28 on a wooden plank outside Ryan's saloon on Lombard St. in Baltimore. He was taken to Washington College Hospital.

There are many theories of his death like: alcohol, rabies, and brain tumor.

The Alcohol Theory

This is the theory most people think of when they are asked about Poe’s death. That Poe engaged in bouts of drinking, particularly during Virginia’s long illness is well established, but how exactly he may have died of alcoholism has never really been explained. Clearly, Poe did not have an accident and his drinking seems to have been neither so constant nor so intense as to cause sclerosis of the liver. It has been suggested that poor nutrition and a weakened condition brought on by other illnesses could have allowed hallucination tremens to occur with fewer and less intense episodes of drinking than would normally be required, but none of these offerings completely explain his condition and the change of clothing (http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm) . Also there are accounts that say Poe stopped drinking six months prior to his death.

The Rabies Theory

I found an article about the rabies theory at (http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-17.htm). The doctors at University of Maryland Medical Center believe that rabies was the cause of Poe’s death and have many reasons why. They released an article about it in September of 1996. This article is really great and everyone should definitely read it.

The Brain Tumor Theory

The theory is what interested me most. Mr. Pearl, a writer, wanted to write a non fiction novel about Poe’s death in 2007. He wanted some actual evidence to go by and discovered something really amazing. He looked through a bunch of articles and discovered that Poe’s body had been exhumed, 26 years after his death, so that his coffin could be moved to a more prominent place at the front of the cemetery. Also a few of the articles suggested that the great man’s brain had been visible to onlookers during the procedure. Mr. Pearl realized there was no way that Poe’s brain was still there after 25 years. He researched and found out that a tumor that was in his brain could have still been there and looked like a shrunken brain. This is just a summary of the article about Mr. Pearl’s discovery. The article is at http://www.observer.com/2007/10/poes-mysterious-death-the-plot-thickens/. This was my favorite theory overall.

There are many theories about Poe’s death, but it is still a mystery. Poe wrote of darkness and mysterious. I believe he would like for his death to always remain a mystery.

Washington Irving

How was Washington Irving’s work considered Romanticism?

Romanticism was a movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from the neoclassicism and formal belief of the preceding period. The Romantic Period was during the age of great westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North.

One of the first most famous Romanticism writers was Washington Irving. (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng372/intro-h4.htm).Most romantic stories were about the evil of human nature during this time period. The work of Washington Irving showed the influence of European Romanticism. Irving would stress on nature, the supernatural, and superstitions in his stories. Irving began to write for purposes that would be associated with the American Romantic Movement, including the purposes of protesting materialism, development, and the fraudulent nature of American society. One of Irving's works The Legend of Sleepy Hollow demonstrates the power than superstition can have over people. Ichabod Crane was a very careful man who avoided walking under ladders, crossing black cats, or tipping over the salt shaker. When Ichabod heard the legend of sleepy hollow, he was so frightened even the simplest of noises scared him (http://www.123helpme.com/romanticisam-and-washington-irving-view.asp?id=157628). Another Washington Irving story that has examples of Romanticism throughout it is Rip Van Winkle. It begins with a detailed description of the Catskill Mountains,and how they are considered perfect barometers through the "magical hues and shapes" that they exhibit to indicate the weather.  Later, while climbing them, Rip sees the Hudson River moving on its "silent but majestic course, the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands." 

This final description does not further the story by helping to set the scene because the river is quite distant. It is included to introduce a sense of communion with nature, which is something Irving felt was of supreme importance. Elements of Romanticism pervade all of Irving’s writings.  His love of nature, sense of wonder, and optimism all show through even in his early work. All these elements became more distinct as the freedom of expression. Ultimately, Irving’s work has come to be viewed as a symbol of the Romantic era (http://wolf.flatrock.org.nz/wolf_den/Opinions_Articles/american_romanticism.htm).

These are just two of Washington Irving stories that influenced the Romantic Period.

Frederick Douglass

What were the struggles of African Americans and women to gain the right to vote?

The definition of suffrage to most white men in the 1800’s was simply the right to vote, but to the African American’s and women of this time it was so much more. African Americans and women both struggled to achieve the right to vote. Prior to the Civil War, black abolitionists and white women rights’ activists were strong allies who anticipated that a victory for either cause would be a victory for the other. In 1839, more than 14,000 women signed a petition to the Massachusetts legislature demanding the repeal of laws that discriminated against Blacks and prohibited interracial marriage. Frederick Douglass returned the favor by being a vigorous defender of women’s rights. ‘Right is of no sex,” declared the first issue of his abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, in December 1847. The black abolitionist leader Francies Maria Steward insisted that the struggles for racial and sexual equality were the same. But after the Civil War, in 1866, Republicans proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, penalizing any state that denied suffrage to its male citizens, and in 1868, the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade states from denying suffrage “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/women/).

 

States tried to stop blacks from voting. Some of these things were poll taxes; fees were charged at voting booths and were expensive for most blacks, and the literacy test. Since teaching blacks were illegal, most adult blacks were former slaves and illiterate.  Many African Americans died trying to exercise the right to vote. Segregation was supported by the legal system and police.  But beyond the law there was always a threat by terrorist violence.  The Ku Klux Klan murdered thousands of blacks to prevent them from voting and participating in public life (http://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/brown_v_board/segregation.htm). Many years’ later women finally gained citizenship. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising and declaring for the first time that all American women, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy. On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. (http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage).

Many African American’s and women fought years to get the right to vote. In the 2008 presidential election 16,416,000 African Americans voted. Women have voted in larger numbers than men since 1980. In the 2008 Presidential race, nine million more women than men voted. So, African Americans and women still do exercise their right to vote, but it is nothing like it was for them a hundred years ago.