Ligeia

The success of the terror of “Ligeia” comes from Poe’s narrative ambiguity, established through his unnamed narrator’s first-person and unreliable narration. Readers have no choice but to follow along with the narrator’s interpretation of events and must then decide whether such events really occurred or whether they reflect the narrator’s unstable mind.

“Ligeia” is a story that is profoundly interested in the relationship and boundaries between life and death. Although the narrator establishes that he is reflecting on his past, his description of events are vivid and detailed, which conveys a sense of present moment rather than reflection. So, while the women of the story are presumably dead at the time of the telling, the narrator’s story brings them back to life. The nature of death is challenged as the narrator’s relationship to the women, specifically Ligeia, is very much alive, regardless of their physical status.

Although the boundaries between life and death are explored, especially as Ligeia seems to come back to life and reanimate Rowena’s body, the story ultimately presents Death as Omnipresent. Death permeates the narrative as a pervasive and dominant presence. The story begins with the narrator’s recollections of death and his musings on its enigmatic nature. The reader is immediately confronted with the theme of mortality, setting the stage for the exploration of death’s transcendence. This theme is evident in the narrator’s obsession with the power of the will to conquer death. Ligeia herself symbolizes the idea of defying mortality, as her presence continues to influence the narrator post-mortem. Even after her physical demise, her influence lingers over the narrator. He is consumed by his memories of her and becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of her return. Ligeia’s continued hold on the narrator underscores the human longing for immortality and the belief that the spirit can endure beyond the boundaries of life and death. With the focus and obsession of overcoming death, the narrator actually further substantiates its presence in his life.

The way in which death becomes omnipresent can be attributed to the narrator’s obsessive personality. Specifically, the narrator depicts both The Allure and Destructive Nature of Obsession. The narrator’s intense fixation on Ligeia and his subsequent descent into “madness” highlight the story’s exploration of the human psyche and the consequences of unchecked desires, a reality within the burgeoning modernity of the time period. As science and technology increasingly shifted human power, particularly over life and death, humans were met with the possibility of unlimited potential. This desire for power over nature (death) fills the narrator with a passion that is extensive. He becomes convinced that the strength of his will can defy the natural order and bring the dead back to life. Obsession promises the narrator the unending drive to pursue power, yet that very obsession is shown to be destructive.

The narrator’s behavior and personality are not the only elements of the story to establish the story’s intensity and foreboding tone. Poe employs vivid and sensory imagery throughout the story to create an atmosphere meant to engage readers’ senses. In his description of Ligeia, the narrator includes “the incomprehensible lightness and elasticity of her footfall” (13), which conveys her quiet and stealth physicality. Later, when Ligeia falls ill, the narrator explains how without her he was “a child groping benighted” (82) to establish not only the emotional helplessness he felt, but also his physical helplessness. Additionally, when describing the ghost of Ligeia, the narrator says “she let fall from her head, unloosened, the ghastly cerements which had confined it, and there streamed forth, into the rushing atmosphere of the chamber, huge masses of long and disheveled hair; it was blacker than the raven wings of the midnight!” (241). Here, Ligeia’s hair takes on similar qualities as water or a flock of birds, emphasizing her powerful presence.

As the narrator continues to describe Ligeia in ways that are almost god-like, other spiritual notes come into view. Indeed, Poe relies on The Spiritual Nature of Horror to create great unease and anxiety in his readers. Mythology and allusions to Christianity create a setting that establishes the significance, and perhaps even ritual nature of the events that unfold. Further, despite the amount of detail that the narrator provides about Ligeia’s beauty and intelligence and the amount of detail he uses to depict his own emotional states, much of the text suggests that the events of the story surpass language. The narrator speaks with hyperbole and many sentences include exclamation marks or are written as rhetorical questions. There is something that cannot quite be conveyed through words that asks readers to imagine what can only be felt.

Poe also makes use of other literary devices to establish the extraordinariness and horror of the story. One device he uses is foreshadowing to create an atmosphere of tension and anticipation. The story’s epigraph paired with the narrator’s extensive description of Ligeia that makes her seem otherworldly point towards a future event when the power of death must be navigated. Additionally, the narrator’s ambivalent, if contemptuous feelings towards Rowena suggest that something fatal awaits her.

Another literary device that helps to establish the horror is the use of a first-person unnamed and unreliable narrator. Readers are forced into the mind of someone who seems to have no identity, must less a rational view of the world. As readers must engage with the narrator’s perceptions and emotions, their ability to understand reality and imagination is severely hindered, especially as the narrator complicates his own ability to interpret the world with his misuse of opium. This device allows readers to deeply engage with the narrator’s emotions, delve into the psychological aspects of obsession and “madness,” and experience the story’s eerie atmosphere and Gothic elements directly through his perspective. Ultimately, it underscores the Spiritual Nature of Horror, as the narrator’s sense of self and his disturbed spirit are psychological experiences that transfer to readers.

In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe's “Ligeia” is a haunting and enigmatic tale that delves into profound struggles with death, obsession, and the human desire for transcendence. Through his use of literary elements and an unreliable narrator, Poe weaves a narrative that invites readers to explore the darkest corners of the human psyche.