Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Poe, Edgar Allan - Frequently Asked Questions About Poe

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Frequently Asked Questions About Poe

Was Poe insane?

Poe was never admitted to a sanatorium, nor did he ever seek professional help for a mental problem. There is, therefore, no clinical evidence that he suffered from any type of madness. But even if he had doubts about his own sanity, he would have been rational enough to avoid treatment. In his day, lunatics were usually placed in prison-like asylums for keeps. The narrators of several of Poe's stories are mad psychopaths, and he had uncanny insights into the workings of the murderer's mind, including some ideas that were later validated by criminal psychologists. But simply because he wrote about supernaturally horrible acts from the perspective of deluded narrators does not prove Poe himself was mad.

He did suffer a large number of personal tragedies, including traumas stemming from the deaths of three "mother figures" in his life and, later, the death of his young wife. He was clearly depressed...

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1. Introduction
2. Introduction
3. Biography
4. The Influence of Poe’s Life on his Work
5. The Debate Over Poe’s Use of Alcohol and Drugs
6. Poe at Work
7. Poe's Works
8. Poe on Poe
9. Frequently Asked Questions About Poe
10. Copyright

1. Edgar Allan Poe