Poe....

Was Poe autistic? They would have never known that diagnosis then.... Poe likes to gloomy side of life...the side that others are not willing to examine. He has a way of showing us the dark side of our souls and psyche....He is willing to say what most want unsaid...Poe's symbolism is outstanding.... Poe writes, "How is it from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?---from the covenant of peace, a simile of sorrow?" (13) Poe is pointing out the other of love...or what was termed as perverseness in class. This seems to be the part of love that no one wants to face or deal with... the obsession of love. Everything good must have a bad side...it is the way the world, nature, works. Poe's writing examines the obsessions within relationships. For his characters it seems to be one item or characteristic. For example the evil eye in A Tell Tale Heart, the black cat, or the white teeth of Berenice. What I find most interesting about the latter story is that Poe did not seem to notice Berenice when she was young and vibrant but fell in love with her when she became ill....focusing on the one item of beauty still left on her. Poe describes this obsession as "Monomania" (18). It is the irrational, one-dimensional, fixated, and addictive focus of a lover...this type of love leads to insanity...the lack of sleep, lack of hunger and that leads to delusion. This is an example, "The teeth! the teeth!--they ere here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow and excessively white, with the pale lips writing about them" (18). Often in Domestic violence counseling for victims the question is asked, "how do you want to be loved? What is love to you? Is he loving you the way you want to be loved?" While reading Poe I contemplated these questions. Why did Berenice stay? What did she love about him? Why did the wife stay with the drunken husband who was beating and killing animals? Why did the man stay with the gentlemen with the evil eye? Is Poe turning against love? I do not believe he is... I think he is showing us that every lover, every relationship has an obsession, a torture, a perverseness. For example, whenever a relationship ends or a friendship ends, there is always something we really miss from the other person. We long for it...that things is what makes us cry. Now hopefully we are not out digging in graves to obtain that "thing". It is our sanity that keeps the average person from becoming stalker-like. As I think about love and relationships and obsession, I think that often we are self-obsessed. We see the reflection of others distorted within ourselves. Poe makes me think about the movie 9 1/2 weeks starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke (when he was sexy and only had one color hair). The film is about a man who pursues a woman. He wins her over, he cares for her person, he completely engulfs her in his love, attention, and devotion. He is completely taken by her. At one point in the movie she asked how he knew she would respond to him the way he has and he replied "I saw myself in you." (please find the video clip at www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd0yzgA3Yng). Ultimately though, Kim's character leaves Mickey's character and he desperately tries to give her what she really wants and that is him. What is even more interesting about Poe's writing is his use of Gothic Literature style. He takes what I have been referring to as love and relationships and twists it into non-traditional types of love or relationships. It is a relationship between the old man and the caretaker in the Tell Tale Heart. However it is the insanity or supernatural ability of the caretaker to hear the heart of the old man that makes him pounce on him to end the torment of the evil eye, ""there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage" (195). That torment was the obsession of the relationship. Gothic literature describes a deteriorated setting or a decaying episode. It focuses on dread and terror. The dread of the cat loving the drunk...his personal decay allowed him to scoop the eye out of an animal that adored him. He became vexed at the sight of the animal and that let to his demise.