Analysis Of Poe 's ' Oedipus Complex '

Edgar Allan Poe’s mom died when he was young and his father left, so he was fostered by John and Frances Allen, but they did not officially adopt him. He had a good relationship with Frances but had a tense one with Frances’s husband John. Poe experienced a lot of death in his childhood. Harold Bloom states, “At age three, Poe witnessed his mother 's death, watching as she died coughing up blood from tuberculosis after a performance” (11). Poe was separated from his

Edgar Allan Poe had a hard time growing up. He first lived with his mother, father, brother, and sister, although he did not know them very well because his father left very early in his life and his brother William and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was only three years old. He then went to live the Allan family and soon created a bond with his mother Frances Allan but had a harder time connecting with his father. His father brought him down to his writing and thought that he should do the family job because he needed the help and thought it would be more beneficial. Poe was

I agree with the fact that Sophocles’ Oedipus had suffered from the Oedipus complex because Oedipus has shown that he is part of the triangle of being the young child who is “in love with one parent and hating the other” (Freud 472). If a person is one to not get over this stage in his childhood, to detach from his mother and forgive his father, then the conflict of the triangle has not been resolved leading him to be psychoneurotic. In the next paragraphs, I’m going to discuss why I think the oracle is at fault for Oedipus turning out the way he did, the tragic relationship with his father, and also about the unknowing relationship with his mother.

Men 's relation with women always plays an important role in men 's lives. Life of Edgar Allan Poe was not exclusion. Moreover, it influenced on his works too. For example, the famous poem “The Raven” has an image of a woman Lenore. It is difficult to say who was a prototype of the lost woman for Poe. First woman whom he lost in his life was mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. It is better to say – which he never really knew. Later Edgar Allan Poe had a deep need to have close relations with women who could play the role of mother to him. They were Frances Allan, Mrs. Stanard, the mother of his friend Richard, who became a “substitute-mother” to him; Mrs. Maria Clemm, his aunt who became his mother-in-law; her daughter, Virginia, who became his “wife-mother”; Mrs. Shew, his physician-nurse; Mrs. Whitman, the poetess he tried unsuccessfully to marry; Mrs. “Annie” Richmond, the married woman he deeply loved but could not have for a wife; or Elmira Royster Shelton, former childhood sweetheart (Benton, 1-2).

Poe’s troubled childhood contributed to many difficult relationships with others. He did not get along with his foster father John Allan, as their strong personalities conflicted often, leading to general distrust between the two. Allan described Poe as lazy, ungrateful, “miserable, sulky, & ill-tempered” (Allan, John. Received by Henry Poe, 1 Nov. 1824.). Allan could not provide enough money to support Edgar at university, so Poe resorted to gambling, and ended up in debt. This enraged his foster father, and he refused to help Poe financially. Later on, Poe’s foster mother, Frances Allan, died, separating a connection between the two men. Poe’s gambling and drinking that led to his deliberate expulsion from West Point also angered his father. Later, Poe became engaged in more family issues and eventually his foster father disowned him. However, the breaking point of their relationship occured when Poe wrote to Sergeant Samuel Graves, stating that “Mr. A[llan] is not very often sober” (Poe, Edgar Allan. Received by Sergeant Samuel Graves, Richmond, 3 May 1830, Richmond.). Allan learned of this and sent an undocumented letter to Poe, who replied accusing his father of abuse:  “I wrote to you for some more money, and for books — You replied in terms of the utmost abuse — if I had been the vilest wretch on earth you could not have been more abusive than you were” (Poe, Edgar Allan. Received by John Allan, West Point Military Academy, 3 Jan. 1831, West Point Military Academy).

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. One year later his father abandoned his family. A year after that Poe’s mother passed away from Tuberculosis, leaving him to grow up in foster care. His mother, the one person that he loved and depended on as a baby has left this life. One couldn’t imagine the traumatic impact this has on a young child. He has lost both his parents and is now being raised by another family. As he grew older could he be wondering if his own birth may have been the cause of his father's abandonment and even his mother’s death?

Edgar Allen Poe was the very embodiment of the word abandonment.his rollercoaster that only went down started when he was one, his father left he, his siblings, and mother. Poe’s mother, Eliza, died of tuberculosis when he was only three years old. Little didyoung edgar know that she would be the first of many taken away from him by the disease. Poe and his siblings were split up and adopted by different people. Poe was taken in by the Allens, where he was adored by Mrs. Allen and regarded harshly by Mr. Allen. As one could have guess this is where he got his middle name of Allen. When Poe was about fourteen the mother ,Jane Stannard, of his best friend had died of brain cancer. Poe was devastated, after all she was the one who encouraged

She had become engaged to another man while Poe was gone. He was heart broken.When Poe started college he needed to find a way to make money because Allan didn’t give him enough money to attend school. Allan wanted other things for Poe. Poe wanted to write and Allan wanted him to be a business man. When Allan’s wife died of tuberculosis, Poe was in the army and didn’t make it back in time to see her alive or buried. She was the only mother he had ever known.

As a result from the death of Poe’s mother caused by tuberculosis (called consumption then), it caused him to be orphaned before the age of three. According to an article, “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Edgar Allan Poe”, he gives an interesting fact stating, “[. . .] his class-act father responded to her death by abandoning Poe and his two siblings” (Trex, WEB). This major loss during

Early on in Poe’s life his foster mother got tuberculosis and soon after that, she died. His actual mother died three years after he was born; his father left and abandoned him. Poe and his foster father did not get along. His foster dad wanted him to be a business man and Poe didn’t want to, so his foster dad stopped paying for him. Poe published his first poem in 1827 ever; since

Edgar Allan Poe has always been known for his depressing and sad writings. I have no doubt that these feelings would follow him into the present day. Poe didn’t have a good family life growing up. His parents were both absent in his childhood, and he was separated from his brother and sister to go off and live with John and Frances Valentine Allan. Poe was always a very talented poet growing up, but his literary passions were not supported by the household he lived in. Being suppressed as a child probably didn’t help his mental health nor did it help to cope with day-to-day life. As a young adult, Poe went to the University of Virginia but he could not afford to pay the

Edgar Allan Poe, famous for his interesting and intriguing works, was born on January 19, 1809. As a child, his parents divorced and his mother took his siblings and him with her. Sadly, after the divorce, his mother passed away from Tuberculosis, and Poe’s family was divided up again. His siblings went to live with different people and Poe was taken in by the Allan couple. He was given a good education but his new stepfather did not like him. Edgar Allan Poe joined the army at eighteen years old and is loving stepmother, Mrs. Allan, passed away, also from Tuberculosis. Later on, Mr. Allan helped Poe go to West Point but did not give him enough money. Poe got expelled from the school. Later on, he moved in with his relatives,

Incest is an issue throughout the story and Poe constantly used symbolism in the story to relate back to incest. Poe uses symbolism to expose character traits throughout the story, from the

Oedipus Rex, is a Sophocles play, that according to Freud exemplifies a formative stage in a individuals psychosexual development. The psychosexual stages are the age related developmental periods in which sexual impulses are exerted through different bodily zones and then activities are associated with those areas in the bodily zones. These is when a young child will transfer his love object from the breast to the mother. When the child gives up the breast and moves to the mother it is known as the oral phase. The child then has the sexual desire for the opposite sex parent and will usually have hostility towards the same sex parent.

Roderick states that Poe seemed to be “consumed with paranoia, distrust and insecurity” (Roderick 10). From the very beginning Poe was abandoned by his father, leaving him without a male role model to instill the confidence, composure, and motivation a young man should possess. Poe was well aware of his position in life without a father and felt as if something was missing.