Literature Network » Edgar Allan Poe

"To make Venus vanish": misogyny as motive in Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue".(Edgar Allan Poe)

Content courtesy of

From: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Date: 20060601
Author:Church, Joseph

Despite his otherwise unconventional ways, in his personal life Edgar Allan Poe held the most conventional early nineteenth-century views about the subordinate place of woman in man's world. As Ernest Marchand concludes, "in all matters touching women, sex, marriage, 'morals,' no more conventional-minded man than Poe ever lived" (35). Poe makes explicit his assumptions about women's subservience in his remarks about their proper education:

 
   The business of female education with us, is not to qualify a woman 
   to be head of a literary coterie, nor to figure in the journal of ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Edgar Allan Poe

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.