Edgar Allen Poe's Ligeia Literary Analysis

Usually, fairy tales are in connection to big and illustrious happy endings. But in Edgar Allan Poe’s case, it is evident that they do not exist, for his stories more often than not bear a grotesque demeanor. His life was surrounded by death. All of the women in his life died young, including his mother, sister, and wife. By the age of three, he had experienced what most would not experience until nearly the middle or end of their lives. Living in such an atmosphere allowed Poe to reach deep into his emotions when writing. Edgar Allan Poe was known for his macabre metaphors. These metaphors challenged the reader to endeavor themselves into his simple words; coming to find the gothic elements portrayed. He most commonly portrayed love and death in his poems. Poe is even credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe utilizes symbolism and portrays an envious love tale, ending in tragedy to expose the speaker’s emotional state in the poem “Annabel Lee.”

As it was said in the first part, Lady Rowena and the narrator in ‘Ligeia’ are seeing inexplicable things but it is considered as hallucinations. However, it is actually clues from the author, in order to prepare the reader to see Ligeia appear. At the beginning of the story, Poe takes the time to do an extensive depiction of Ligeia in order to the reader to be on the lookout for slightest resemblance. These “hallucinations” are only sharpening the reader’s attention because a small part of him knows something is happening but doesn’t know what and make him read faster to know the end.

Elie Wiesel used eyes as a motif in his narrative, Night, as windows to characters’ inner souls. He used eyes to assist the theme of surviving at all costs throughout the story by giving the audience an insight of people’s true emotions and status. Without eyes, we would have been blind to see past characters’ outer layers of fake emotion. There is more than the eye can see. One has to look deep into another’s eyes to see the true light or darkness within them.

While exploring her room, the narrator notices that “on the white ceiling… [there is] a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out.” (9) She

In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe uses many varying symbols, symbols that represent more than one feeling or idea. The old man’s eyes in the story are symbolic of a few things. The eyes are symbolic of how old man had a distorted view of the world which could possibly be why the narrator felt he had to kill the old man. The narrator calls the eye the “vulture eye” symbolic of the narrator’s feeling that because of the eye the man is evil (“The Tell-Tale Heart”). Kenneth Silverman says, “... eyes in Poe’s works arouse the dread of being consumed” (207). This is similar to how the narrator felt that the old man’s eye was controlling and took over its surroundings. Poe also portrays a blindness symbolized

The main themes of Edgar Allan Poe’s works are death, perversity, revenge and destruction. The settings he employed in the given short stories, especially in The Fall of the House of Usher and The Black Cat are Gothic. Therefore, naturally the mood of these stories would be dark and sepulchral. However, this is not a trivial employment undertaken to put the reader in a certain kind of zone.

These eyes, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, represent many things to the characters in this novel. He represents, hope, despair, and God, all while staring

In Poe’s short story “Ligeia”, Ligeia’s coming back to life leads the reader to believe she was engineered because of Poe’s supposedly dark ways, when in reality the narrator’s strange visions are induced by opium and his perpetual

Since Romanticism often places emphasis on the importance of emotion, Romantics may use dream imagery to display the overflow of abundant feelings. Such is the case with Edgar Allen Poe’s “Ligeia”. While Poe’s themes are usually Romantic, “Ligeia” uses dreams to “[dramatize] the romantic's disenchantment with a world drained of its power to arouse joy and a sense of elevated being” (Gargano 338). The fine line of fantasy vs reality is blurred and bestows multiple versions of reality as the narrator slowly descends into madness. Poe’s use of dream imagery is prominent during the descriptions of the house, the narrators reminiscences of his first wife Ligeia, and his opium induced hallucinations. The use of this literary device demonstrates how the loss of Ligeia messes with the narrator's sanity and sense of fulfillment in his life. These dreams enable him to revisit Ligeia“out of [his] own self-consciousness” (Lawrence).

The main character of That Eye, the Sky’ Ort, has a deep connection to nature and “the sky”, personifying them until they become characters in themselves and things that can really be believed in. Ort describes the sky as an eye and sometimes eyes looking down on him. Light is used symbolically, representing the effects of God Henry Warburton saw light as something that burned into his eyes which makes him start to preach the word of God. The cloud of light above Ort’s house stays there until the end of the novel until it envelops the house. This is when it is heavily implied that Ort’s father recovers from his position.

Throughout the whole novel symbolism in eyes was crucial to the understanding of the text. Even from this passage eyes is used, “But is was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew he lost that part of it…” (Ch 8 Pg. 153). His eyes could not keep up the with reality that Daisy was not coming back to him and that he had lost a part of himself by losing her forever. From each excerpt the symbolism might be different, but both are still crucial to the

As the topic suggests, this sketch intend to picture Scheherazade’s life beyond her royal life within an eye. Firstly, the trees and buildings on the top (eyelid) signify the time. From the early 1700s to 2018, the frame tale is still alive. The tallest building represents Empire state building. This scenario takes us to New York City, Queens College in particular, where some of her stories were studied. Next, the girly white figure portrayed in the center (pupil) is Scheherazade. The white represents her as light. She was the one who enlightened the king and changed his perspective on women. In the picture, she is telling stories to other person beside the king. The circular iris represents the clock, as well as the main transporter of the stories. Scheherazade turns left to tell those stories to the public. The stick man facing her is the first to listen her. As he walks away and starts his own family, he tells those stories to his child. His child fantasized about the magical creature. The white square is generally a reflection of the light in eye. Four squares represent the window, where the child imagines about Peter Pan inspired from Jinns. The

The quote essentially states that man only dies because of his lack of will. This despair contrasts with Ligeia’s resistance and by the end of the story, we see that Ligeia has found the will to return from the dead by taking over another woman’s

“Are you even listening?” Her once, shimmering, sea-green eyes that enrapture men due to their natural allurement, transform into forest-green, and ominous eyes.