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Plummer AP Lit 7 8 December 2013 Good and Evil in Ligeia: A Pet Theory Edgar Allan Poes Ligeia revolves around the classic mental conflict between good and evil. In the short story, Poe uses careful diction, historical allusions, and metaphors to subtly hint that Ligeia does not exist literally, but rather serves as a metaphor for the narrators evil attributes. That is, not only is Ligeia a figment of the narrators opium-influenced imagination, but she is a manifestation of all that is sinful in the narrators mind. Rowena, meanwhile, is the voice of the narrators conscience; she too is imaginary, but she represents the narrators last remainders of virtue. Ligeia, unable to live with Rowenas righteousness, initiates a struggle with her rival, representing the narrators mental split between right and wrong. To begin with, Poe makes it clear that neither Ligeia nor Rowena are physical characters. At the very beginning of the short story, Poe writes that I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia (Poe 1). He continues that I have never known the paternal name of her (Poe 1). His failure to know Ligeias last name and to recollect where he first met her would be odd enough if she were merely some former mistress, but in fact Ligeias significance to the narrator is, supposedly, far greater: he tells the reader that she was his first wife. Initially, this confession seems difficult to comprehend after all, what husband could forget the name of his first wife? Literary critics concur that this revelation

Stekl 2 makes it unlikely that the narrator was literally married to a physical women named Ligeia (Davis and Davis 173). However, Poe soon offers an explanation when he writes that the narrator is habitually fettered in the shackles of [opium] (Poe 6). This is notable because opium is a hallucinogen that often results in wild dreams of which one can remember only very little after they conclude. For instance, an opium user like the narrator might have a hallucination in which he marries a girl such as Ligeia, only to forget the surname of his imaginary wife upon becoming sober. And indeed, Poe confirms that Ligeia is an opium-inspired dream with his description of Ligeias beauty as the radiance of an opium dream (Poe 1). Several contemporary literary critics have concluded after careful analysis that Poe almost certainly chose this description deliberately; in combination with the previous information about the narrators opium addiction, then, it becomes increasingly likely that Ligeia is merely a character in an opium-induced hallucination (Byers 45). Poe continues to provide evidence that Ligeia is not real as he describes her. For instance, Poe writes that Ligeia does not walk like an actual woman, but rather [comes] and [departs] as a shadow (Poe 1). According to several professors of literature, this description should be read literally Ligeia is indeed a shadow in the sense that she is an apparition (Davis and Davis 174). Poe also praises Ligeias eyes as far larger than the ordinary eyes of our own race, hinting that the narrators mental image of Ligeia is so distorted that in his mind, she no longer resembles a human (Poe 2). Even Ligeias voice is unreal she does not speak in any human language; rather, her low sweet voice sings dear music (Poe 1). All these features are indicative of Ligeias too-good-to-be true

Stekl 3 nature they all demonstrate that throughout the story, the narrator is fantasizing about a fictional woman who does not physically exist. Ligeias fictional nature is recognized by most contemporary literary critics with the exception of James Schroeter, who stubbornly ignores the mounting evidence demonstrating that Ligeia is imaginary, almost no professors still contend that Ligeia physically existed (Schroeter 397). However, a close reading reveals that she is not the only character dreamt up by the narrator of Poes short story. To the contrary, Lady Rowena too is a product of the narrators imagination. Poe first hints that Rowena might not be real when he says that the narrator married her in a moment of mental alienation, implying that the narrator might have been in a temporary state of obliviousness such as that induced by opium during his marriage (Poe 5). It is possible, then, that this second marriage, much like the first, took place only in the narrators opiate hallucination. This possibility becomes more concrete when Poe not once, but twice describes the chamber in which the narrator and Rowena sleep as phantasmagoric (Poe 6). Phantasmagoria refers to a sequence of mental images or dreams that may induced by a sickness or, alternatively, by a drug such as opium (phantasmagoria 1). Thus, Poe explicitly equates the time the narrator spends with Rowena to a drug-induced hallucination. This diction, combined with the information that the narrator has become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium, makes it doubtful that Rowena exists outside of the narrators imagination (Poe 5). This conclusion is verified by Terry Castle, a literary critic who studied the use of phantasmagoria throughout 19th century literature. Castle writes that Poe used the phantasmagoria figure precisely as a way of destabilizing the ordinary boundaries between inside and outside, mind and world, illusion and reality

Stekl 4 (Castle 50). It seems evident, therefore, that both of the wives of the narrator of Ligeia are dreamt up. The question now becomes from what part of the narrators conscience each wife springs. Poes initial description of Ligeia seems to make it clear that she represents evil and sin. The narrator recalls vaguely that he first met Ligeia in some large, old, decaying city near the Rhine (Poe 1). However, it would be difficult to completely forget the name of a large and likely major European metropolis, especially if it were the site where the narrator met his first wife. This, then, refers to a state of moral decay rather than a literal city, which one would be unlikely to forget. When read through the lens of moral decay, this sentence casts a dark light on Ligeia the narrator did not meet her in just any dream, but one filled with moral decay and corruption. The next hint at Ligeias dark nature comes in Poes physical description of her. First, Poe reports that Ligeias hair is raven-black (Poe 1). This description is notable not only because the color black tends to represent darkness and evil in literature, but also because Poes illustration of Ligeias shade of black relies upon the word raven. Writers have long used ravens as bad omens perhaps due to their propensity to eat carrion, ravens are often portrayed as messengers which bring death and evil. This is especially true for Poe, who some years after the publication of Ligeia wrote a short story entitled The Raven, in which a raven indeed represented a harbinger of misfortune. Such is the nature of the hair that covers Ligeias head: it is dark, evil, and comparable to an evil omen. A second statement which should arouse suspicion comes later in the same sentence, when Poe says that Ligeias tresses [set] forth the full force of the Homeric epithet, hyacinthine! (Poe 1). The adjective hyacinthine here is an allusion to the Greek hero Hyacinthus, who

Stekl 5 according to Greek mythology was slain by the wind god Zephyrus. After Hyacinthus was slain, a plant grew from his blood a hyacinth (Hyacinthus 1). Poes comparison of Ligeias hair to the plant that grew from the blood of the heroic Hyacinthus foreshadows that Ligeia will take over the body (or grow from the blood) of the heroic Rowena. Ligeia, then, is like a plant that grows out of a dead hero; this lends insight into the wickedness she represents. As the passage continues, Ligeias evil nature becomes even more clear. Poe notes, for instance, that Ligeias teeth [glance] backevery ray of the holy light which fell upon them, indicating that she deflects holiness (Poe 2). By far the most explicit example of Ligeias evil nature, however, comes when Ligeia is on her deathbed and she bids the narrator to repeat to her some poetry that she herself wrote not long ago. And so the narrator reads: See, amid the mimic rout / A crawling shape intrude! / A blood-red thing that writhes from out / The scenic solitude! / It writes! it writhes! with mortal pangs / The mimes become its food (Poe 4). The mimes referred to here are identified earlier in the poem as mimes, in the form of God on high (Poe 4). The mimes, then, are angels who encounter and are eaten by a blood-red worm-like creature. Ligeia, however, does not seem to regard the killing of the angels as a misfortune; in fact, the last two lines of her poem read the play is the tragedy, Man, and its hero the Conqueror Worm. It seems telling that Ligeia here seems to praise the angel-devouring worm as a hero. Further, when read in context of the rest of the short story, the Conqueror Worm in the poem is a perfect analogy for Ligeia herself like the worm and its conquest of the angels, Ligeia conquers the body of the angelic Rowena. Not only is Ligeias evil nature symbolic of the narrators own diabolical aspects, but her evilness spreads throughout the narrators being as the narrator becomes

Stekl 6 increasingly demonic. This is first hinted at when the narrator admits that Ligeias beauty passed into my spirit, dwelling there as in a shrine (Poe 2). In light of the information Poe has already offered about the dark essence that is represented by Ligeias beautiful black hair, this passing of Ligeias beauty seems to indicate that the narrator is inheriting Ligeias evil traits. It is likely because the narrator becomes more and more evil throughout the story that he so despises the innocent Rowena and all that she stands for. The narrator calls the first month of their marriage unhallowed, and he later says that Rowena hates him due to his moody temper, and he in turns [loathes] her with a hatred belonging more to demon than to man (Poe 6). This demonic capacity for hate seems to convey the evil spirit that has overcome the narrator at this point in the story. As demonstrated by each womans physical characteristics, Rowena and Ligeia are polar opposites therefore, if Ligeia represents the narrators evil side, then Rowena must represent his redeeming qualities (Zlotnick-Woldenberg 406). Because the narrator has so few virtues, however, there is less written about Rowenas good nature than there is about Ligeias evilness. Still, Poe does mention that Rowena is fair-haired and blueeyed, both of which are key characteristics of the common portrait of an angel (Poe 5). Additionally, these physical attributes contrast sharply with Ligeias raven-black hair, underscoring the many deep oppositions between the two characters and the sides of the moral dilemma they represent. A second divine aspect of Rowena is that she becomes sick shortly after being introduced into the narrators Satanic bridal chamber. For if Rowena is a manifestation of the narrators virtues, the bridal chamber is a metaphor for the darkest crevices of the narrators mind and a virtuous being cannot thrive in these crevices. The room is described as pentagonal in shape, with semi-Gothic, semi-

Stekl 7 Druidical animal heads scattered around it (Poe 5). The pentagonal shape is often a literary metaphor for Satanic activity, which lends to the chamber an evil, diabolical nature. It is likely due to her inhabitance of this dark chamber that Rowena is attacked with sudden illnessand in her perturbed state of half-slumber, she [speaks] of sounds, and of motions, in and about the chamber (Poe 6). Given that the chamber is evil and that it makes Rowena sick, it seems safe to conclude that Rowenas aversion to evil can be taken as indication that she is righteous. Remembering that Rowena and Ligeia are both mental creations of the narrator, and that their contrasting virtuous and iniquitous qualities symbolize the opposite sides of the narrators conscience, it seems inevitable that the two will clash. After all, such good and evil cannot coexist in ones mind without a resultant mental chasm. And clash they do after Rowena becomes sick and dies, the narrator reports that Ligeia takes over Rowenas body. This happens gradually, however, and only after a bitter internal struggle between Ligeia and Rowena for control of Rowenas body. Poes descriptions of this struggle hint that it is a metaphor for the narrators own internal struggle between his conscience and his sin. First, he says that during Rowenas death, there rushed upon [him] a thousand memories of Ligeiawith the turbulent violence of a flood all while he remained gazing upon the body of Rowena (Poe 7). This indicates that even though the narrator is watching his second wife a symbol of goodness die before him, memories of his first wife a symbol of evil are all he is able to contemplate. These memories come upon him violently (with the turbulent violence of a flood) and command his full attention (Poe 7). Poe is therefore introducing the theme that the struggle between uprightness and sinfulness tears one apart, just as the narrator is torn

Stekl 8 between his observation of Rowenas death and his memories of Ligeia. After Rowena dies and comes back to life multiple times, the narrator says, again I sunk into visions of Ligeia (Poe 8). Here Poe reinforces the aforementioned intensity of the narrators mental struggle even while his current wife is dying, the narrator cannot help but think of his first wife; that is, even while his sole remainder of virtue is smoldering away, the narrator cannot help but long for a return to evil. Finally, Poe notes that each agony by which he is referring to every time that Rowena is revived wore the aspect of a struggle with some invisible force (Poe 8). Here he makes it clear that Ligeias attempt to take over Rowenas body is a struggle just like the narrators struggle between living a good life and falling into the trap of evil. Because Poe relies upon vague language to describe the narrator, his wives, and their experiences, the short story could be about anyone its themes are truly universal (Bieganowski 184). Thus, the central theme of Poes Ligeia is that everyone faces a mental struggle between good and evil. The good is represented in this short story by the character Rowena, while Ligeia embodies evil. While both are imaginary in that they are merely characters in the narrators opiate hallucination, they are also exhibitions of the two very real sides of the narrators conscience. These conflicting inner voices are clearly on a collision course, and their clash results in the conquest of Rowena by Ligeia. Indeed, true to the predisposition toward darkness that is characteristic of negative romantics, Poe allows evil to triumph over good in Ligeia (Horn 1). In the end, the full, and the black, and the wild eyes of the LADY LIGEIA return in the place of the fair-haired, blueeyed Rowena (Poe 9). The question posed by this startling conclusion is as follows: is everyone doomed to a life of evil?

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Works Cited Bieganowski, Ronald. "The Self-Consuming Narrator in Poe's "Ligeia" and "Usher"" American Literature 60.2 (1988): 175-87. Print. Byers, John R. "The Opium Chronology of Poe's Ligeia." South Atlantic Bulletin 45.1 (1980): 40-46. Print. Castle, Terry. "Phantasmagoria: Spectral Technology and the Metaphorics of Modern Reverie." Critical Inquiry 15.1 (1988): 26-61. Print. Davis, Jack L., and June H. Davis. "Poe's Ethereal Ligeia." The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 24.24 (1970): 170-76. Print. Horn, Jessica. Edgar Allan Poe's Short Story Ligeia as a Text of the Romantic Period. Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2013. Print. "Hyacinthus, Apollo's Handsome Partner from Sparta." Greek Gods. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. phantasmagoria. Collins-Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary, 2014. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. Poe, Edgar Allen. Ligeia. Textual.net, 1838. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Schroeter, James. A Misreading of Poes Ligeia. Modern Language Association 76.4 (1961): 397-406. Print. Zlotnick-Woldenberg, Carrie. "Edgar Allan Poe's 'Ligeia': An Object-Relational Interpretation." American Journal of Psychotherapy 53.3 (1999): 403-12. Print.