rms possibly represented Poe's intentions at heart, but the impunity of the one provoking was lost through his words. Edgar's father, David Poe, left his mother never to be seen again when Edgar was very young. This in itself could have sparked some kind of anger and insanity even at this young age. Rumors began to set in that Poe's younger sister Rosalie was not David Poe's daughter, but instead, she was the result of another lover of Eliza (Silverman 7,9). It would possibly cause problems in any child to be caught up in the midst of all these devastating acts by his parents. This kind of behavior in his day was very uncommon. Society shunned people like Edgar's parents, which also caused a lot of emotional damage to Edgar as well (Silverman 9). To top off the whole ordeal, his mother became very ill when Edgar was nearly three years old. "He was with her throughout her whole sickness and it is believed that he was even present at her death" (Silverman 8). Poe was left orphaned with the memory of his mother dying, as his last memory of her (Silverman 8). For a three-year-old child, any psychologist will tell you that this is just too much to bear. How could anyone help from becoming somewhat insane under these circumstances? I could not bear the thoughts of all of this happening at once even now, but to have to deal with the emotional stress at that young age would be nothing shy of devastating. Though he may not consciously remember the situation, it still had an impounding affect on his life.Edgar's father may have represented Fortunato. Edgar may feel that his father insulted him and his family by leaving him and his mother when he was such a young boy. Though Edgar could not take out his anger and his humiliation on his father personally, this story could have represented what was going through his head as he thought of how he would have loved to see his father suffer in the way that Fortunato did in his story. His ...
