 The story has some autobiographical overtones as well, with the castle representing Moldavia, the Richmond home of Poe's foster-father John Allan. The Count, in this reading, would represent John Allan, and Poe the young Metzengerstein. Both Poe and Metzengerstein are orphaned at a young age. Poe may have found writing the story therapeutic; in it, he destroys "John Allan", though he is also destroyed in return. In focusing on the final fire scene, Poe may have been recalling the fatal Richmond Theatre fire of December 1811 which occurred three weeks after his mother, the actress Eliza Poe, had died.
