Ligeia By Edgar Allen Poe

American Romanticism was a literary movement that took place from about 1840 to 1865. Its focus is to to show the importance of the individual, as well as nature. Many different authors contributed to this movement through a variety of poems and short stories. A popular short story from this era is “Ligeia,” by Edgar Allen Poe. It is a story told through a potentially untrustworthy narrator who is fixated on the beauty and knowledge of his first wife, Ligeia. This short story shows many elements of Romanticism, such as the willing suspension of disbelief, characterization and mood, and the stress on emotion rather than reason displayed throughout the story. Poe incorporated many supernatural elements into “Ligeia.” This short story requires
Poe did an excellent job at characterization. He established the narrator as untrustworthy and almost delusional. “It was the radiance of an opium-dream -- an airy and spirit lifting vision more wildly divine than the phantasies which hovered vision about the slumbering souls of the daughters of Delos” (Poe 1). In “Ligeia,” the narrator was often high on opium -- an addiction he picked up after the death of his first wife. This made it difficult for the reader to tell if what is happening is real, or if it is simply an opium-induced hallucination. The mood was set to match the theme of horror in the piece. The narrator described the chamber in which he married his second wife, Lady Rowena. “The ceiling, of gloomy-looking oak, was excessively lofty, vaulted, and elaborately fretted with the wildest and most grotesque specimens of a semi-Gothic, semi-Druidical device” (Poe 4). Poe used these elements to add to the horror of the story, and to get the reader questioning the credibility of the narrator -- if he really was telling the truth in the end, or if all of it was a
His infatuation is quite clearly painted. “And now, while I write, a recollection flashes upon me that I have never known the paternal name of her who was my friend and my betrothed, and who became the partner of my studies, and finally the wife of my bosom” (Poe 1). He cannot remember the maiden name of the woman whom he loved, but went on to write more than two large paragraphs about her grace, beauty, and wondrous knowledge. After his marriage with Lady Rowena, the narrator became bitter without reason, and “loathed her with a hatred belonging more to a demon than to man” (Poe 5). Another moment when reason was ignored was when he saw Lady Ligeia rise from the dead. “‘Here then, at least,’ I shrieked aloud, ‘can I never -- can I never be mistaken -- these are the full and the black, and the wild eyes -- of my lost love -- of the lady -- of the LADY LIGEIA’” (Poe 8). The narrator is so overwhelmed by the event and the resurrection of the woman he had devoted the rest of his life to loving that he didn’t question the event, but instead, chose to marvel at the sight of her standing in front of him once more. This puts emphasis on emotion, imagination, and the extreme -- a factor of what makes this piece a piece of