Annabel Lee Research Paper

“A genius of macabre operatic plots and suspenseful pacing, Edgar Allan Poe earned the title of father of modern horror literature” (Snodgrass). Surrounded by death from an early age, Edgar Allan Poe’s work focused on classical gothic themes such as star struck lovers, isolation, and death. One of his most famous works, “Annabel Lee,” published in 1849, encompasses all three of these themes and reveals Poe’s desire to reunite with his beloved “Annabel Lee.” Due to the ambiguity throughout the poem, critics disagree about the identity of Annabel Lee; however, most critics agree Annabel Lee represents an important female figure in Poe’s life, either his mother, Rosalie, or his wife, Virginia.

In order to fully comprehend and identify the underlying story of the poem, certain biographical information about Poe’s life is required since

Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. At six months old, Poe moved to New York where he lived for a year. He then moved to Norfolk where his mother raised him after his father left. Finally, he moved to Charleston where his mother would eventually die, leaving him orphaned. It should be noted that Rosalie’s death was not a peaceful one. Poe witnessed “…her slightness and beauty; her illness and consumption; her pallor and wasting; her blood-spittings and finally her cold, white, dead body” (Bonaparte). After his mother’s passing, Poe lived with foster parents and begin immersing himself in gothic literature, particularly pieces by E.T.A. Hoffmann, William Beckford, and John Neal. At age twenty six, he married his cousin of half his age, Virginia Clemm. This marriage led him to write “a series of unrequited loves, heartsick lovers, and frail, sinking damsels” (Snodgrass). In 1842, Virginia’s heath