| dc.description.abstract | A recurring theme in Poe’s poems and prose is his portrayal of the death of beautiful women. As such, the representation of the feminine is a frequent topic of interest in scholarly discussions on his writing. The traditional view from scholars, such as Stovall, is that the women in his prose are (idealized) versions of the women in his own life. Another view presented by Weekes is that their fate were instead manifestations of Poe’s idea about the death of a beautiful woman being “the most poetical topic in the world” (Weekes 148). This thesis examines the representation of the feminine in a selection of Poe’s body of work to explore the underlying symbolism of the women, and why Poe chose the death of a beautiful woman as his most poetical topic. I ask the question if these women are a representation of the women in Poe’s life, or if they are calculated choices, used as a literary effect by Poe, to increase the impact on the reader, and in what way this was received by his audience. By using Poe’s own essay, “The Philosophy of Composition” and “The Poetic Principle”, scholarly arguments, and close readings of some of his poems and stories, I will try to explain Poe’s motifs behind the choices he made regarding his portrayal of the feminine in his written work. | |