The Paradox of Edgar Allan Poe’s Feminine Ideal

Abstract

This paper analyzes Edgar Allan Poe’s controversial visions of feminine ideal. Most women in Poe’s work are not only super beautiful, but highly intelligent. However, these females share a common destiny -they decease young. Poe lived in the early 19th century when feminism started to defy patriarchy. As a defender of traditional values, Poe appreciated women’s obedience, wisdom and beauty but showed great fear and aversion to the rebellious consciousness of some women as well. Based on Poe’s critique, Poe’s contradictory views on females in his poems and short stories are adequately demonstrated: he idealized the delicacy of females whose existence and destiny are merely to serve the needs of men’s emotional experiences. Once the females stand on their own feet as independent individuals, they will be ruthlessly strangled by men.