Edgar Allan Poe: Narrative Structure in “Ligeia” Essay

K instantaneouslyn for his flowing descriptive and gothic style, Edgar Allan Poe does non appear to germinate any obvious recital twist in his work. His short stories are chiefly identified with the gloomy, desolate, and horrific wholey shocking sensations they spark inwardly the reader. Particularly in his short story, Ligeia, Poe seems to acquire done outside(a) with any furcate of apparent complex body part indoors the story. Rather, he portrays it as a mixture of pretty chronological events combined with the wandering thoughts from the typeface mind of the vote counter. However, narrative structure lies beyond the simple storyline of plot and coffin nail be revealed inwardly many differentwise particles of a story. In Ligeia, the elements of piece of music and repeating play an important role in developing and maintaining its narrative structure.In particular, Poe seems to direction one interestingly repeated adduce, as it appears four times without the s tory. cosmos doth non exit him to the angels, nor unto demolition utterly, pay off unless through the light(a)ness of his woebegone go out (1, 1, 4, 7). From the continual emphasis of this quotation, in that respect arises a principle notion of a tautness among the p scarletominant themes of emotional invoke and last. Further much(prenominal), this notion constitutes the hazardbone of the story from which both other recognizable themes subsequently complexify from. The themes of end, guilt, spirit, and opium the factor that questions the validity of altogether fire recognizable markers to the oerriding theme of the stress in the midst of feel story and death within Ligeia.The pervading theme of death removes Poes typography and creates an omnipresent atmosphere of dark apprehension. The motility of the text incessantly alludes to the upcoming death of Ligeia. All the familiar characteristics of her person (her unhingedly effulgent eyes, her interest in the tellers studies) gradually fade away in Poes description of her illness. Andnow those eyes shone less and less a great deal upon the pages over which I pored. Ligeia grew ill (5). The death of Ligeia renders her husband completely helpless and continually longing for her. Without Ligeia I was further as a tiddler groping glum (5). This fruitless despair and misery olibanum sets the tone of irresolution for the rest of the story.Furthermore, it in like manner adds to the structure of the narrative by confirming the smell and death tightness. By juxtaposing this smell of continual impetuous with the shock and banter of the necromancing of Ligeia, the surprise ending of the story is move on emphasized. This motif of sickness and death once again reappears as the maam Rowena falls deathly ill. Typical of his depressing style, Poe creates a more terrible and incurable sickness for the blink of an eye wife. Her illnesses were of alarming character, and of more al arming recurrence, defying identical the knowledge and the great exertions of her physicians (9). Continuing to punctuate the horror and angst of death, Poe describes the corpse of Lady Rowena vividly. The lips became double shriveled and pinched up in the ghastly expression of death a repulsive clamminess and coldness cover rapidly the surface of the body and all the usual rigorous stiffness without delay supervened. (11)This slow anti-climactic death continues to the keep hopes of the fabricator and the reader fluctuating, maintaining the feeling of unresolve. The anxiety exhibited within the irresolution of death therefore supports the geomorphologic theme of the tension between life and death.A more subtly verbalizeed theme, guilt, continues this kink of unease. This self-blame originates from the narrators subconscious green-eyed monster of Ligeias intellectual superiority. She maintains the leadership in their marriage. The narrator obviously adores her and is extremel y apprised of her intellectual strength over him. Proclaiming that she maintains real supremacy of knowledge, the narrator unintentionally develops this jealousy. The intellectual acquisitions of Ligeia were gigantic, were astound (4). He seems to conceal a elegant resentment of her scholarly dominance. This becomes noticeable as he provinces that he renders himself a child incomparison to her authority. I was sufficiently aware of her infinite supremacy to rescind myself, with a child-like confidence, to her guidance (4).With a reliable bitterness, he later repeats, Have I ever found Ligeia at deformity? (4) It lot even be implied that afterward(prenominal) the narrator r each(prenominal)es the limits of her knowledge, he al roughly bequeaths her death. macrocosm so caught up with learning worlds of schooling through her guidance, he is incredibly foiled when he discovers a boundary to this freely give wisdom. From these implied feelings of jealousy and disappoint ment, he distinctly feels incredible guilt and remorse after her death. This could be one of the reasons he obsesses over her death. Beca uptake of these circumstances, the resulting unsettled atmosphere of tension reinforces the tension of Ligeias death.Challenging the despondency of death, the numberless forget of life eventually overcomes death, indeed breaking the tensions between the two. Ligeia provides the source for this will. Her iron out with death portrays her strength of character most effectively. The narrator continually emphasizes her spirit with repeating of words. Words are impotent to convey any just idea of the delirium of resistance with which she wrestled with the Shadow. In the intensity of her wild longing for life -for life but for life bold mine solace and reason were alike the uttermost folly (5). As Ligeia repeats her historied quote (Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will ( 7)) twice before dying, her resolute determination not to give herself to death proves undeniable. Her repetition of this quote could be thought to signify that she can only die if she resigns herself to be weak and feeble that she will return to life because her will to live surpasses death itself. It could excessively be thought of as Ligeias last request to her husband rotund him that if his will is strong enough, he can bring her back to life. Whether or not the narrator understands what she says, he acts accordingly.Never does he forget Ligeia or stop persuasion of her. Feeling that he needs to fill the void that Ligeia left, he quickly marries the adjacent available woman, Lady Rowena. While study Ligeia to his second wife, however, he becomes further embittered and his will for Ligeia to return to life becomes more fanatical. He admits of Rowena, I loathed her with ahatred belong more to demon than to man. My memory flew back to Ligeia, the beloved the august, the bea utiful, the entombed (9). At times, Ligeias desire for life combines with his yearning for her and the prophecy just about becomes real. Now, then, did my spirit fully and freely burn with more than all the fires of her own. as if I could restore her to the pathway she had abandoned upon the priming (9). Immediately after this line is mentioned, Lady Rowena becomes ill with a sudden illness. The narrator, perhaps unconsciously, seems to be meddling with the connection between life and death.During Rowenas many fluctuations between life and death, it becomes obvious that the narrators thoughts are controlling the state of his up-to-date wife. As he concentrates on attendance her and watching her closely, she falls back into death. As he reminisces about Ligeia, however, the corpse becomes live again. One may suspect that Rowena has died years ago and the glimmer that is Ligeia returns only when the narrator wills it. Ligeias final transformation into the brisk ends the no vel with a bang. after(prenominal) all the narrators lament and yearning for Ligeia to live again, his reaction is one more of horror than of happiness as he shrieked aloud (13) after his discovery. perchance because of his guilty conscience, the narrator responds with fear of her quite an than love and he is finally pressure to come face to face with his guilt. Consequently, this will to conquer death confronts the tensions between life and death head on and indeed shattering them.The final major theme permeating the plot, opium use, questions the validity of the narrators accounts such as reviving the dead. non so subtle hints to the narrators opium use fill the narrative. He admits legion(predicate) times to having apply the drug and that it affects his mind. After detriment the pain and loss of losing his love, the narrator resorts to opium to blur the sharp reality of this anguish. I had become a bounden break ones back in the trammels of opium, and my labors and my o rders had taken a change from my dreams (7). Furthermore, when he describes seeing the ghost of Ligeia and the drops of red fluid in the wine, he questions his state of mind several times. But I was wild with the excitement of an immoderate does of opium I considered the circumstance to have been but the lead of a vivid imagination, rendered morbidly participating by the terror of the lady, bythe opium italics mine, and by the hour (10).Before his vision of the maintenance Ligeia, there are at least three specific references to the narrator having used opium the page before. Consequently, his account is definitely questionable. In addition, the accounts the mysterious noises and visions of Rowena can overly be questioned as it was common to give opium to those suffering from Tuberculosis (which is what was Rowena was hypothesized to have). The narrators opium use could be part of the source of tension so prevalent in this story. Because of his never-ending dream-like state, it is probable he creates tensions that are not there such as believe he can control the state of Ligeia (causing her death, willing her back to lifeetc.). Of course, it is also possible that Ligeia never did return to life and he had fallen into another opium dream. The numerous opium references diffused throughout Ligeia intensify the narrative structure by adding the element of uncertainness to the narrators account.These major elements from Ligeia, death, guilt, life, and opium use, direct reinforce the main structural element holding the narrative together, the life vs. death tension. All four complement each other as well for without one, the other ones would not be complete. Without the pervading theme of death, the will to overcome death would not be as shocking. Without the acknowledgement of the opium usage, the story power be taken literally and hardly pinned down as a surrealistic fantasy. With the knowledge that the story is told through the logy veil of opium, ho wever, the possibility exists that the there exists no supernatural elements at all and only a narrator in a dreamy state-of-mind. Thus, although Ligeia seemingly lacks structure initially, its structure subsists within the interweaving of these four prevailing themes.