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Moreover, this one quote is not much expanded upon; more emphasis is placed upon the raven and the lover than on the importance of the female character. Yet ...
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Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte
Elien Martens
Masterproef voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde Engels - Spaans
Academiejaar 2012-
Promotor Prof. Dr. Gert Buelens
Vakgroep Letterkunde
1. The number of women in Poe’s poems and prose
Before discussing how women are represented and categorized in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, we should have a closer look at how often they in fact appear in his oeuvre. We will do this by means of two graphs. The first graph illustrates the number of women in Poe’s poetry, the second in Poe’s prose. As a starting point, we will use the classification into “Poetry” on the one hand and “Fiction” on the other hand, as exercised in The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (the 2006 edition by Barnes & Noble). We will not include the Scenes from “Politian”, nor the prose poem Eureka or The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket , seeing that these do not result to be interesting for our analysis. The main focus of this paper will be on Poe’s short stories but we will have a brief look on his poetry as well, since Poe was a renowned poet and his vast number of poems can therefore not be ignored. The list of the classification of stories and poems used to compose these graphs can be found in the appendices.
From this graph, we can deduce that of the 63 poems mentioned in The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe , 29 poems or 46% do not deal with women at all. Two poems, or 3% of the total number of poems, make small mentions of women but are not truly about them. Only one poem, “Bridal Ballad”, has in fact a female poetic voice. All other poems have – or at least appear to have – a male poetic voice. Even though the
46%
3%
49%
2%
No (specific) women Mention of women but not about them About/for a woman Female poetic voice
larger percentage, around 54%, deals in some way with women, however small a mention it may be, a significant 46% does not deal with women at all. For a poet who claims that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world, that 46% of poems that completely ignores women is quite remarkable.
Regarding Poe’s prose, the numbers are a bit more varied. In this graph I have included the 70 short stories mentioned under the title “Fiction” in The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Of these 70 stories, 27% - or 19 stories – do not have any female character, nor is there any mention of a woman in general. The other 73% of the tales do contain women in smaller or larger roles. Even though it might seem contradictory to Poe’s famous statement mentioned in the previous paragraph, his prose actually contains more women than his poetry. However, nearly a quarter of the tales only enclose small mentions of women. In these tales, no woman plays a considerable role. In 46% of the stories, so nearly half of the total number, women actually do play a considerable part. And in two stories, or 3% of the total, we even come across a female narrator. Yet there is some discussion about this topic, seeing that one of these two stories mentioned, “Mellonta Tauta”, is mediated by two men and can therefore not completely be considered a tale with a female narrator – but we will discuss this later on.
27%
24%
46%
3%
No women at all Only small mention(s) Women with a considerable part Female narrator
can be found in Poe’s fiction, namely in “Ligeia”, a story which we will discuss later on. In this tale, the narrator is referred to with child-like terms, thus placing Ligeia in the role of mother. The next category is the virginal maiden. In Poe’s life, this role is performed by Virginia Clemm, his first cousin and wife. The virginal maiden is without a doubt the category that appears most often in Poe’s works, both in his poetry and his prose. In his poetry, we encounter the virginal maiden in what is probably one of Poe’s better known poems: “Annabel Lee”. According to some researchers, Annabel Lee is based on a real- life character, namely Virginia Clemm (Sova 12). Nevertheless, I agree with Elizabeth Phillips that we should not link the poet to his poems in such a biographical manner (103). Undeniably, “[r]eal disservice is done to Poe’s work by the assumption, perennial and predictable as spring peepers, that his works are simple keys to his biography” (Phillips 103). Another example of the virginal maiden in his poetry is “Lenore”, who is described as “the dear child that should have been thy bride” (Poe 55 ). In Poe’s prose, we find the virginal maiden in the figure of Mademoiselle L’Espanaye in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, who lives with her mother and is not described as having a relationship with a male of any kind. Berenice, of the tale with the same name, is placed into this category as well. She is engaged to the narrator, also her cousin, but is not yet married. Therefore, she can still be called a maiden. In addition, the narrator tells us that “feelings with me, had never been of the heart, and my passions always were of the mind” (Poe 230). Relating this reference to a non-physical relationship with the spirit of that time, in which a woman was supposed to remain a virgin until marriage, we can safely assume that Berenice belongs in the category of the virginal maiden. The last category mentioned in the documentary is the unobtainable icon. According to the documentary, Frances Sargent Osgood, a poetess in Poe’s time, represents this category most strongly. She is known for her literary relationship with Poe as well and many claim that they had a romantic relationship, but this is not completely certain (De Jong 27). However, it is certain that Poe wrote several poems in her honour, for example “To F--s S. O--d” (which easily fills in as “To Frances Sargent Osgood”). Regarding Poe’s other works, Lenore from “The Raven” can be placed into this category since she is now unobtainable for the narrator and he converts her into an icon by his nostalgia and repeated ponderings and cries for the “lost Lenore” (Poe 68-71). Ligeia, from the eponymous prose work “Ligeia”, is an example of this category as well since Ligeia does become a “partner” in the narrator’s studies but the narrator is not able to put his theory into practice the way
Ligeia does (Poe 256). On many levels, Ligeia rises above the narrator and therefore she can be seen as an unobtainable icon as well.
2.2 The classification of Poe’s fictional women – Floyd Stovall’s “The Women of Poe’s Poems and Tales”
Floyd Stovall’s classification of Poe’s women does not refer much to the actual women in Poe’s life but rather to his fictional women; the women in his prose and poetry. In his article, “The Women of Poe’s Poems and Tales”, Stovall suggests that there are five general types of women in Poe’s works (198). Stovall’s categories are as follows:
First there are a number of pieces that describe spiritual beings in feminine form. Then there are both poems and tales that have to do with the death of women, Poe’s favorite theme. A third group introduce ideal and preternatural women; and a fourth group should be made to include all other types of fictional women. Finally, there are the living women of Poe’s acquaintance. (Stovall 198)
As is clear, most attention goes to Poe’s fictional women. Where Webb observes that there are a lot of similarities among the Dark Ladies (215), Stovall earlier noted that “[m]ost of Poe’s women, too, are very much alike in appearance and in character” (197). Yet it is still possible to place them into categories, based on their role in the poems and tales. Stovall’s categorization depends a lot on the importance of the role the women play in the stories and poetry, thus his classification is very interesting for this paper.
His first category, the spiritual beings in feminine form, is accompanied by the examples of Nesace in “Al Araaf” and the angels in “The Conqueror Worm”. The next category, namely that of the beautiful, dead or dying woman, is of more interest to us. Stovall refers to the poems “The Sleeper”, “Lenore” and “The Raven”, but also “To One in Paradise” and of course, “Annabel Lee”. This category appears most often in Poe’s poetry, but there are definitely examples in his prose as well. The Dark Ladies are generally described as beautiful and all of them die or seem to die at some point. Therefore, I believe they fit in this category as well. However, Stovall places some of them in another category, namely that of the women who have ideal or preternatural
3. An overview of my approach
As is clear, Poe’s women have been represented in many different ways, but I would like to propose a new view that does not leave out the lesser-known variations. However, first we must discuss the archetypal women of Poe’s poetry, followed by those of his prose, in order to be able to detect how the variations are in fact variations. Regarding his poetry, we will offer a short overview of his poems, accompanied by some critical attention that has been given to them. Regarding his prose, we will discuss the stereotypes by means of the Dupin tales, more specifically “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, but I will also refer to “The Purloined Letter”. In the first tale, the women are dead from the start. In the second tale, the female character does not appear herself but is only discussed indirectly and consequently represented as a poor, helpless maiden who needs the help of a man to solve her problems. In addition, we will also discuss the representation of the female narrator in Poe’s works. Seeing that a female narrator is very rare in Poe’s works, it is definitely worth investigating how this exception is represented. When we have discussed this clichéd image of the dependent Poesque woman – or rather girl – and the female narrator, we will move on to the lesser-known variations in Poe’s work. These lesser-known variations are the smart women, who outwit men and are represented in a strong, positive light. They have not received much critical attention and are often barely known among (beginning) Poe readers, so therefore it is undeniably worth examining these “exceptions”. Additionally, also the well-known tales of the Dark Ladies deserve to be mentioned. Even though these tales are already rather popular, they can be seen in a different light than usual as well. In fact, the women of these tales are not as powerless and unimportant as they might seem to be during a first reading. After having then discussed these Dark Ladies, we will draw some conclusions about how women thus are represented in Poe’s stories and moreover, how the image of the Poesque women is in fact more varied than most people believe it to be.
Even though we will mainly focus on Poe’s short stories in this paper, we cannot disregard Poe’s poems. As we have seen in the previous chapter, nearly half of the poems do not deal with women in any way. This is a lot more than in the short stories, where “only” a quarter of the stories do not deal with women at all. Following Poe’s theory about his perfect poetical topic, a lot of his poems should deal with the death of beautiful women. In this chapter, we will thus offer a short overview of how women are represented in Poe’s poems and investigate if Poe in fact follows his own theory or not.
“The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” are probably two of Poe’s most famous poems. And indeed, both deal with women who have passed away. Moreover, the poetic voice is that of the “bereaved lover”, “the lips best suited for such a topic” – as Poe claims in his “The Philosophy of Composition” (165), written to explain how he composed “The Raven”. In this poem, Lenore is characterised only as a “sainted maiden” (Poe 71), “the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (68) but who passed away, causing the poetic voice much sorrow. She clearly is the stereotype of Poe’s poetic woman: dead and beautiful. The same goes for Annabel Lee, who is described as “a maiden” (Poe 89), “a child” (89), “the beautiful Annabel Lee” (90), “my darling, my life and my bride” (90). Both women’s characters are not developed; the only thing we really know about them is that they were beautiful, but unfortunately have died and that this causes the poetic voice much grief. Indeed, these poems rather deal with the man’s grief than actually discuss what these women looked or were like. This follows Person’s statement about Lenore that she “exists hardly even as a memory in the involuted game the speaker plays with the raven” (“Poe’s Poetics of Desire” 2). Additionally, even though Annabel Lee’s poem is in fact named “Annabel Lee”, we do not learn much about this character either. Both women might have been “[n]ameless here for evermore” (Poe 68).
In Poe’s prose we encounter a female narrator (see chapter 4) and as we have seen in the first chapter, there is a female poetic voice in Poe’s poems as well. One poem, “Bridal Ballad” is told from a woman’s point of view. This makes it stand out from his other poems, in addition to the fact that it is now a woman who mourns a deceased man, the
She covered me warm, And she prayed to the angels To keep me from harm – To the queen of the angels To shield me from harm. (Poe 87)
In addition, the “I” in this poem places himself on her breast, a typical position of the child when lying with the mother:
She tenderly kissed me, She fondly caressed, And then I fell gently To sleep on her breast – Deeply to sleep From the heaven of her breast. (Poe 87)
Yet again, this woman is not physically described. She is identified as a mother figure only, protecting and loving the poetic “I”. In the other “mother poem”, “Sonnet – To My Mother” – written in honour of Maria Clemm, Virginia’s mother – the woman is again primarily characterised as a mother whose main function it is to love and care. She is identified as “mother to the one I loved so dearly” (Poe 89) and is said to be “dearer than the mother I knew” (89) but that is all we truly know about her.
Keeping in mind Poe’s famous theory about the perfect poetical subject, it is rather surprising that only 51% of his poems are in fact about or for women. A stunning 49% hardly deals with women – or even not at all. Yet it is interesting that Poe uses the subject of the beautiful, dead woman in his prose as well: think for example of the Dark Ladies or the Dupin tales. Regarding his poetry, this topic in fact does not arise all that often, so it seems that the term “poetic” does not apply to poetry alone. Moreover, most of his poems are recounted from a male point of view, discussing the male’s feelings, thoughts and views. The woman is not characterized at all; it seems that the most important element about her is that she is beautiful. There is hardly any interest in the female’s character, thoughts or emotions in most of the poems about or for a woman.
Therefore, considering this surprising representation of women in Poe’s poetry, it seems appropriate to turn in more detail to his “Philosophy of Composition”, that deals with how a story or poem should be constructed. To explain this matter, Poe describes step- by-step how he has composed “The Raven”. However, even though the sentence about the death of a beautiful woman may be the most famous phrase in this essay, he writes about much more than this. Moreover, this one quote is not much expanded upon; more emphasis is placed upon the raven and the lover than on the importance of the female character. Yet from this small extract (nearly the only one that deals with the subject of woman), we can deduce that indeed, the female’s most important characteristic must be her beauty:
Now, never losing sight of the object supremeness , or perfection, at all points, I asked myself – “Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?” Death – was the obvious reply. “And when,” I said, “is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?” From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious – “When it most closely allies itself to Beauty : the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world – and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” (Poe “The Philosophy of Composition” 165).
The rest of the essay deals with Poe’s mode of constructing the story line, rhythm, the lover’s feelings and the “conversation” between the lover and the raven. We can thus infer that not much attention has been specifically devoted to women in this essay. Naturally, his best-known sentence is striking for its rather harsh treatment of women, but we should thus keep in mind that most of the essay deals with the tone, the rhythm, the lover and the raven, and not so much with the female character.
In addition, the fact that most of Poe’s poems do not even deal with women and that the poems that do include them often only describe them as being beautiful, seems to contradict some researchers’ theory that the women in Poe’s poems actually represent (a version of) Poe himself. This theory can be found in Baudelaire’s view on Poe’s poetic “phantom women”: “they are types for Poe himself” (qtd. in Dayan “Poe’s Women” 4). Since we often only learn that these women are beautiful, but learn nothing about their
1. The helpless maiden
Discussing women in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, one cannot help but notice how often they are completely ignored, as we have demonstrated by means of graphs in the first chapter. Moreover, when women do appear in his stories, they are often placed in the role of helpless victims. In this third chapter, we will therefore analyze the image of the helpless maiden that has become the cliché of gothic literature and that is evidently present in Poe’s works as well. This image is the one that is best known among Poe readers and therefore constitutes the prototypical Poesque woman. Yet it is interesting to observe that exactly the tales where the female character is helpless and dependent of men are the most popular ones. The – admittedly rather scarce – tales where a woman is intelligent and independent go mostly unnoticed. In this chapter, however, we will first offer an overview of the stereotypical image of the helpless maiden in order to then refute in the following chapters the popular view that this is Poe’s most important portrayal of woman.
2. Case study: The Dupin tales
According to Stovall’s classification, as discussed in chapter 1, the women who merely serve as mechanisms of the plot – and thus receive no important role in the story whatsoever - can be found strikingly in the detective stories about C. Auguste Dupin (205). Indeed, these tales are among the most famous works of Edgar Allan Poe, especially considering that they are widely acknowledged to be the first detective tales (Thoms 133). When reading these tales, one cannot help but notice how the women are characterized in these tales – or better yet, how they lack any character of their own. Stovall recognized that they “are usually not described, and [...] exist for no other purpose than to satisfy the exigencies of the plot” (205). Exactly because for example “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” has become so popular, the women in these tales have helped in creating the image of the helpless and dead or dying maiden that is seen as stereotypical of Poe’s works. Indeed, the most important women in this tale, Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter Mademoiselle Camille L’Espanaye, are identified only by their helpless shrieks and deformed corpses.
2.1 “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
As is clear in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, it is a man who is described as being clever and a remarkable analyst. In this respect, one cannot fail to notice how in the rather theoretical beginning of the tale the whole explanation of what an analyst is, is characterized by the personal pronoun “he”, not “she”. The two murdered ladies do not get speaking roles – given that shrieks hardly count as interesting additions to the conversations – and are not described physically, apart from the wounds inflicted on their bodies. Following Church, “Poe locates meaningful, rational discourse in the two men and limits the two women to ‘shrieks’ and ‘screams’” (411)^3. The harshness of the violence towards these women has led researchers to various theories. Marie Bonaparte reduces the story to “a Freudian ‘primal scene’” (qtd. in Church 409) while Lemay sees the murders as “the deleterious consequence of modern humankind’s sexual repression” (qtd. in Church 409).
(^3) However, we should not make the mistake to connect Poe to the narrator or to claim that this tale represents Poe’s own misogynistic views.
