Essay Po's Death from Alcoholism

Submitted By SusanScruggs
Words: 822
Pages: 4

Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19th, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is known as one of America's best writersof all time. He who wrote stories that are deep, dark, thrilling and suspenseful. "His painful life, his neurotic attraction to intense beauty, violent horror, and death, and his sense of the world of dreams contributed to his greatness as a writer." (The Free Dictionary) No one knows how Edgar Allen Poe died. There are about twenty different theories about how Poe died The most popular theories believe that Poe died either by drinking too much alcohol or he died from a disease like rabies. My theory is that Poe got really drunk one night. He tried to make it back to his hotel room but fell down and passed out in the street. When he fell, he cracked his skull on the pavement. The blow to his head caused his brain to hemmorage and he died four days later. Even though there are several theories of what caused his death, an autopsy was never preformed on Poe to determine the exact cause of his death. Not knowing the exact cause of his death has left many to speculate on what really happen to Poe. Edgar Allen Poe was an alcoholic and his excessive drinking is what lead to his death. Poe's body was found outside of a Baltimore, Maryland saloon on October 3, 1849. (The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography)
One reason alcohol played a role in Poe's death is because an attending doctor at the hospital that Poe was being taken care of at describes Poe as having "Tremor of the limbs, and at first a busy, but not violent or active delirium -constant talking - and vacant converse with spectral and imaginary objects on the walls. His face was pale and his whole person drenched in perspiration" (Walsh 41) After his wife died it was reported that Poe started drinking a lot of alcohol and his life began to spin out of control. New York Times newspaper released an article that stated Poe might have an alcohol problem even as a kid. My thoughts regarding this article are consistent what I think happened. I think Poe was outside the saloon. Poe might have had a drink not intending on getting drunk and dying.
My third and final piece of evidence is that dmits the primary weakness is that the lack of scratch marks and or bite marks that Poe would have gotten had he been bit by a rabid animal disproves the theory that Poe died of rabies. After hearing Dr. Bentiez admits the primary weakness is the lack of scratch marks or bite marks. (If only Poe succeeded when he said to never drink) After reading that,I feel you really cannot prove the rabies theory. At the time, the technology wasn’t the greatest so without the bite or scratch marks I feel doctors couldn’t prove that Poe had rabies.
Other sources say that Edgar Allan Poe was not an alcoholic and that even the smallest amount of alcohol would make him sick.Others think that Poe’s cause of death was rabies. Their reason is that most rabies