An Exploration On The Female Complex Of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whose statue is always in dispute, remains one of the most controversial figures in the history of American literature. Many of the readers and critics have had a study in the relationship between Poe and the female, either in his private life experiences or in his works. Due to their misunderstanding of Poe's thematic philosophy, which is "'a death of a beautiful woman' is the most poetical topic in the world", quite a few of them consider Poe's vision of the female goes in line with the contemporary mainstream—something of patriarchy. However, years' of close study and careful analysis on Poe's life experience, his literary philosophies and some of his literary works lead me to a different conclusion that Poe's vision of the female does not totally submit to the mainstream, and that it is a comparatively anti-traditional one. The authoritative biographies of Poe, his works of both literary theory and creation, and those sincere critical reviews of his writing philosophy and his works would all be taken as my backup to support what I would like to demonstrate.This thesis mainly consists of five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction. In this part, I present a different sketch of Edgar Allan Poe, with a brief review of his life experience, a brief review of literary critique on Poe and some of his works as well as a presentation of the frame work of this thesis. Chapter Two focuses on his unconventional view on female shown in his daily life details. Chapter Three analyses the unconventional elements buried in his literary philosophy and value mainly by comparing his literary conceptions with the feministic ones around his time and therefore have the conception of androgynous minds. And Chapter Four, not only confirms Poe's female complex by probing into some of his works to find out the feminine traits in those feminine images, including poems and short stories, but also attempts to find out the feministic factors with the idea of androgynous minds, which consequently leads to the Chapter Five—a conclusion where I summarize that Poe has stepped out of the traditional mainstream and formed his unique vision of the female.