44 pages • 1-hour read
The Man Who Was Poe
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Part 3, Chapters 19-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Story”
As Poe drinks heavily while trying to write his story, the alcohol affects his ability to discern between reality and fiction. When Edmund returns with his mother, Poe believes “The characters he’d been writing about had actually come to life” (172). Edmund begs Poe for money to get his mother some food, jostling Poe out of his trance. At the saloon, Edmund approaches Throck and tells him he found his mother. He asks for his help in finding Sis so Throck can still receive the reward money. Edmund returns with Throck, who bribes Poe with liquor in exchange for his assistance.
Poe insists that Sis can be found in his story and only wants to focus on that. Frustrated and desperate, Edmund snatches Poe’s notebook and threatens to destroy it if Poe does not help. This finally convinces Poe, who rereads the coded message. Throck points out that in winter, sunrise is closer to seven a.m., not six a.m. It is two in the morning, and to Edmund’s dismay, the two men pass the full bottle of liquor back and forth until they drunkenly fall asleep. Despite his anger, Edmund also cannot help but doze off.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Sunrise”
Edmund wakes up past four a.m. to find everyone else asleep. As he frantically thinks about an alternate meaning of the word “Sunrise,” he realizes it is the name of a boat he saw at the wharf the previous day. He tries to wake Poe, who reiterates that Sis must be dead before falling back asleep. Edmund angrily rips up the pages of Poe’s notebook, takes Throck’s pistol, and goes to the docks alone. Edmund spots movement on the wharf and approaches with the gun drawn. He sees Peterson preparing Sunrise for his and Rachett’s escape. With Rachett on the way, Peterson stalls for time. He tells Edmund he would have killed Sis had Rachett allowed him to do so. Nevertheless, he encourages Edmund to search the boat for her (184). Unnerved, Edmund leans over the wharf to call for Sis before someone hits him from behind.
Chapter 21 Summary: “The Chase”
As Sunrise sails away, Poe and Throck wake up Edmund on the dock. The trio set chase Sunrise in a smaller boat named Peggy. Convinced that Sis is dead, Poe insists that Edmund will not “destroy” his story (188). Throck successfully navigates their boat through a storm and closes in on Sunrise, effectively trapping it.
Peterson retrieves Sis from below deck and holds her in front of him while trying to shoot at Poe. Sis breaks free, and in an attempt to catch her, Rachett abandons the wheel which jeopardizes the boat. Sis jumps into the water, and Edmund jumps in after her, but not before Poe tries to restrain him and reminds him of “the story” (195). As Sunrise capsizes with Peterson and Rachett, Throck pulls the children out of the water. Poe weeps.
Chapter 22 Summary: “The Beginning of the Story”
Later that day, Poe and Edmund say goodbye to one another. Poe is unsure if he will marry Helen because “he believes he has too many enemies, due to his fearful work” (197). Edmund confronts him about wanting to ensure Sis’s death for the sake of his story and accuses Poe of being afraid of living (198). Poe explains that Sis would have “lived longer’’ in his story and leaves behind the only page that Edward did not rip. Edmund reads the prologue to Poe’s story, which is identical to the prologue that begins this novel. Poe originally named the boy Edgar but crossed it out and changed it to Edmund.
Part 3, Chapters 19-22 Analysis
The final chapters of the novel see Poe enter the depths of his alcoholism and obsessive writing: Chapter 19 amplifies the trope of the “tortured artist” who is so immersed in his work he cannot tell the difference between real people and written characters. He tells Edmund that writers “sometimes [...] lost control of [their] characters” (176), further showing that he considers Edmund, his mother, and Throck to be no different than characters in his story. This blur between reality and fiction does not scare Poe; it delights him, for he believes this is a testament to his genius. His belief that Sis’s death is necessary culminates with an attempt to keep Edmund from rescuing her, and his reaction in failing to do so shows how unwell he is. With his ideal ending ruined and his manuscript destroyed—a consequence of his selfish and obsessive behavior—Poe decides there is no longer a story worth writing. Even though he finds immortality in the stories he creates, where the characters can live indefinitely on the page, this attitude overwhelms and affects his ability to live in his present reality.
In two days, Edmund learns the jarring lessons that not all adults are reliable or trustworthy, and moreover some of them are filled with true malice. He matures quickly, growing from a timid child into a brave boy willing to risk an adult’s disapproval and true danger. Even with all Dupin/Poe’s deductions, it is ultimately Edmund who solves the final clue about Sunrise and saves Sis.
The last chapter is ironically named “The Beginning of the Story,” which reveals Poe’s drafted prologue to be the same as the novel’s—an embedded narrative that creates a sense of déjà vu, just as Edmund did when he left the locked room for food. The use of an embedded narrative challenges readers’ perceptions of Poe’s capabilities and concludes the novel with a characteristically Gothic sense of doubt and eeriness.
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