Bipolar disorder, childhood bereavement, and the return of the dead in Edgar Allan Poe’s Works

Abstract

‘It [the wall] fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder ...’
From ‘The Black Cat’, written c. age 35 (Poe 1975:230).

Keywords: Edgar Allan Poe; bipolar disorder, childhood bereavement, and the return of the dead; literary criticism; American poetry; American short stories; lyric poetry