Department of English and American Studies English Language And

Home , Eliza Poe, Frances Sargent Osgood

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Monika Zelinková

Emancipating Poe’s Women: Female Agency in Three Poe Stories Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D.

2016

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

Acknowledgment: I would especially like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D., for helping me with the thesis and giving me valuable advice. I appreciate everything you did to help me. I would also like to thank the staff of the library for helping me with searching for uneasily accessible secondary sources. Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 6

2 Perception of Women in the Nineteenth-century America: The Birth of the Woman

Movement ...... 9

2.1 The Cult of True Womanhood ...... 10

2.2 The Cult of Real Womanhood ...... 11

2.3 The Cult of Public Womanhood ...... 11

2.4 The Cult of New Womanhood ...... 12

2.5 Poe and the Cults of True Womanhood and Real Womanhood ...... 13

3 Poe’s Women ...... 17

3.1 Personal Life ...... 17

3.1.1 Elizabeth “Eliza” Arnold Hopkins Poe ...... 17

3.1.2 Frances Valentine Allan ...... 17

3.1.3 Virginia Clemm ...... 17

3.2 Female Writers in Poe’s Circle ...... 18

3.2.1 Frances S. Osgood ...... 18

3.2.2 Elizabeth Oakes Smith ...... 19

3.2.3 Sarah Helen Whitman ...... 20

3.2.4 Margaret Fuller ...... 20

3.3 Poe’s Relationship with Women ...... 21

3.3.1 Influence of Women from Poe’s Personal Life ...... 21

3.3.2 Poe and Women Writers ...... 22

4 Poe’s Body of Work ...... 24 4.1 Overview ...... 24

4.2 The Three Stories ...... 24

4.2.1 “Berenice” (March 1835) ...... 24

4.2.2 “Morella” (April 1835) ...... 25

4.2.3 “Ligeia” (September 1838) ...... 26

4.3 Analyses and Comparisons of the Stories ...... 26

4.3.1 Amount of Time Dedicated to the Female Characters’ Appearance ...... 26

4.3.2 Description of the Female Characters’ Intellect and Their Relationships

with the Narrators ...... 29

4.3.3 Sense of Mysticism ...... 34

5 Conclusion...... 40

6 Works Cited ...... 43

7 Resumé (English) ...... 46

8 Resumé (Czech) ...... 47

1 Introduction

This bachelor’s thesis will be dealing with women in the works of Edgar Allan

Poe. There are a lot of essays and articles concerning Edgar Allan Poe’s work, focusing

mainly on the topic of horror and crime. This thesis will, however, focus on something

that is relevant to the present days – women’s place in the stories. The fact that makes

the topic relevant is that the question of gender equality has nowadays been one of the

most discussed topics.

As Edgar Allan Poe himself said, “[t]he death of a beautiful woman is,

unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” (Macek 2). As the quote may

imply, many of Poe’s stories and poems deal with the unfortunate fate of their female

characters, for example “The Black Cat,” a tale in which the wife is of no importance,

and her purpose is only to be murdered by her husband (Tales and Poems 437). My goal

is then to draw the attention to those women in his works that go mostly unnoticed,

women that are smart and play an active role. The thesis will focus on the characters of

three tales, “Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia,” where “Berenice” stands as the

foundation for the following development of the other tales’ characters, ending with

“Ligeia” being the most complex one. By considering the influence of the historical

background and real women from Poe’s circle, this thesis will re-evaluate the “popular”

perception of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales and demonstrate that not all of the female

characters in Poe’s tales are vulnerable and helpless wives, but also elaborate

characters.

In the beginning, the thesis will focus on the background of the topic, from the

historical point of view. The second chapter concentrates on the nineteenth-century

society and its perception of women and their roles. Susan M. Cruea’s “Changing Ideals

of Womanhood during the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement” provides the

appropriate information for the chapter. It describes the development of the “Woman

Movement” in the nineteenth-century America, providing the type classification and its further definitions. The phases of the movement are “True Womanhood,” “Real

Womanhood,” “Public Womanhood” and “New Womanhood”. The chapter concludes with the explanation of how the movement influenced Poe and where those types of womanhood may be found in his tales.

Moving on, the third chapter explores the real women from Edgar Allan Poe’s circle. While the first part of the chapter focuses on women from Poe’s personal life – his mother Eliza Poe, stepmother Frances Allan and his wife Virginia Clemm Poe – the second part deals with the women writers Poe knew, reviewed and who influenced Poe in his writings and vice-versa. The sources mainly used for this chapter are Arthur

Hobson Quinn’s Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, Paul J. Macek’s Illustrated

History of Edgar Allan Poe, Leland S. Person’s “Poe and Nineteenth-Century Gender

Constructions” and “Women’s Place in Poe Studies” by Eliza Richards. Regarding the women of Poe’s personal and professional life, the reason for including them in the thesis is the influence these women had on Poe and his writing, which the concluding subchapter provides. For as Professor Floyd Stovall says, “for Poe [women] were a continual inspiration, and they always reflect in varying degrees his own personality”

(Stovall 199).

The fourth chapter provides the readers of the thesis with a general overview of

Poe’s body of work, drawing information mainly from Macek’s biography. Before introducing the stories themselves with short summaries, the chapter presents the context of Poe’s career at a time of publishing the three main stories of this thesis,

“Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia”. The chapter focuses on the main subject of the thesis, that is on the analyses of the three chosen tales. It is divided into particular topics

of the analyses; the amount of time that each story contributes to the woman character, considering their physical appearance and the intellect, the relationship with the male characters and a sense of mysticism in each of the stories. With the support of such pieces of work as Leland Person’s book Aesthetic Headaches, the chapter continues to focus on the development of the characters. “Berenice,” being written as the first of the three tales, proves to be the least elaborate, considering the power of the woman character, developing into more elaborate “Morella,” all the way to “Ligeia”. It is

“Ligeia,” to which the thesis pays most attention. The reason is that in the tale, the male narrator is not only astonished by Ligeia’s appearance, as the narrators in the previous tales also are, but he also admires Ligeia’s intelligence, which fascinates him (Complete

Tales 226). With all the analysed facts, the chapter proves the thesis’ statement, that as the Woman Movement in the nineteenth century progressed, Poe’s relationships and perception of women progressed as well, with the most complex and emancipated woman character of “Ligeia” serving as the proof.

2 Perception of Women in the Nineteenth-century America:

The Birth of the Woman Movement

To start with, it is important to mention that the roles of women in the

nineteenth-century America were very limited. In his book, Manhood in America: A

Cultural History (1996), Michael Kimmel claims, “[women] were not only domestic,

they were domesticators, expected to turn their sons into virtuous Christian gentlemen –

dutiful, well-mannered, and feminized” and at the same time he states that the

“repudiation of the feminine” was an important part of the manhood in the nineteenth

century (60). Talking about feminism is not relevant, because feminism as one may

know it today did not exist in the nineteenth-century America. As Nancy F. Cott, the

author of The Grounding of Modern Feminism (1987), puts it: “[t]he phrase [feminism]

did not become popular until the 1910s as efforts began to focus around women’s

suffrage, yet pre-feminist activity began long before 1910” (13). In the book, Cott

describes the process of changing perceptions of women in the nineteenth-century

America. Cott claims that at that time, the “Woman Movement” developed as a result of

“women’s strivings to improve their status in and usefulness to society” (3). Cott

describes the aims of the movement that were “to initiate struggles for civic rights,

social freedoms, higher education, remunerative occupations, and the ballot” (3). Edgar

Allan Poe, born into the “patriarchal society” in the beginning of the nineteenth century

(Cruea 187), lived to see the creation of the movement, in the years he was the most

productive. For example, “The Raven,” regarded as his most famous work, was

published in 1845 (Macek 55), while the Movement began with its first phase “[d]uring

the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s” (Cruea 188). The Movement was divided into four phases:

True Womanhood, Real Womanhood, Public Womanhood and New Womanhood

(Cruea 187). This chapter will provide a general overview of the nineteenth-century

American society, as well as information about the given phases of the Woman

Movement, focusing mainly on the True and Real Womanhood, since the rest of the

phases belong to the era after Poe’s death in 1849 (Macek 72) . In the end, the chapter

will explain in what way the nineteenth-century conventions and prejudices towards

women affected Poe, and hence influenced his writing.

2.1 The Cult of True Womanhood

This phase of the Movement began in the 1820s and it “was designated as the

symbolic keeper of morality and decency within the home, being regarded as innately

superior to men when it came to virtue” (Cruea 188). It was perhaps one of the reasons

why Poe made female characters mainly domesticated, described closely later in the

following chapters. The term “True Woman” was first described by Barbara Welter in

Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1976), where

Welter argues that “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” were considered as

natural features of every woman (Welter 21). The main duty of a woman was to give

birth to a child, sons preferably, so that they may become men of high positions. The

education of the women was minimal, just enough to be able to educate their children,

while higher education for themselves was “strongly discouraged” (Cruea 189).

Another attribute of a True Woman is that she “needed to be protected by a male

family member,” considering the fact that women imagined as “delicate and weak”

(Cruea 189). In spite of their low social value, women were ironically meant to be the

rulers over the households with their jobs elevating the family's reputation. Cruea also

acknowledges that “[women’s] belief in their moral superiority to men also empowered

them to attempt to right the wrongs, especially alcoholism and prostitution, inflicted on

society by sinful men”. The requirements previously mentioned changed with the

arrival of the Civil War, when the True Woman became a Real Woman (Cruea 191).

2.2 The Cult of Real Womanhood

The ideal of “Real Womanhood” represents the second phase of the Woman

Movement. After men left their homes for fighting in the war, there were vacant job

positions that women had to fill. Those were the roles of “teachers, office workers,

government workers, and store clerks” (Cruea 191). Cruea describes the phase as one

that “encouraged healthy exercise and activity, permitted women a minor degree of

independence, and stressed economic self-sufficiency as a means of survival”. The

attitude “differed from True Womanhood in its attitude toward health, education,

marriage, and, most importantly, employment”, speaking of the last one mentioned,

having a job on their own enabled unmarried women to be independent (191). What is

very important in this phase is the perception of women’s place in society, for as Cruea

explains, there were many times when women were considered equal or even superior

to men, biologically (192), which demonstrates progress, when compared to the role of

domesticators in the phase of True Womanhood.

2.3 The Cult of Public Womanhood

When talking about this particular phase of the Woman Movement, it is

important to mention the different perception of a “public woman” vs a “public man”.

Glenna Matthews, the author of The Rise of Public Woman, claims that a “public man”

was someone who “act[ed] in and for universal good;” a “public woman,” on the other

hand, “originally referred to a prostitute” and “was seen as the dregs of society, vile,

unclean” (4). Furthermore, Cruea reports that “[a] woman outside the home without a

respectable male escort risked ruining her reputation irreparably, for she would

immediately be suspected of participating in something immoral or socially marginal”

(194). Unlike the disgraceful description, “public women” were, for example, teachers,

nurses or even writers. One of the most significant women writers of that time was

Margaret Fuller, “one of America’s leading women’s activists, [who] called for

increased legal rights and greater self-sufficiency for women as well as equality within

marriage for a happier union” (Cruea 198). Margaret Fuller is a suitable example of a

Public Woman. Fuller is a contemporary of Poe, who, by her confident and leading

ways, became “the voice of oppressed groups” and made it her mission to “help other

women find their voices” (Mitchell 3). For the first time, women could be perceived as

rewarding members of the society, by becoming professional writers, respectably

earning an income (Cruea 197). As Matthews puts it, “the novel gave women authors a

means for taking powerful public action in a polity where lacked a franchise” (73).

Later, the main issue for Public Women was gaining the right to vote and gaining

freedom and “public access”. While this was considered a success, the successors of this

phase were ready to create “radical different roles for themselves” (Smith-Rosenberg

247).

2.4 The Cult of New Womanhood

The last phase of the Woman Movement was the most radical one. The New

Woman phase concentrated primarily on the equality between women and men, and on

eliminating the prejudices and expectations from the nineteenth-century society. The

women were fighting for being free, achieving results such as attending male

universities and working at a job of their interest. However, being a New Woman may

have meant not being accepted by society. The ideals were too radical for the time and

the members of the society could have not gotten accustomed to it (Cruea 198-201).

Nonetheless, as Cruea puts it,

[T]he nineteenth century proved fruitful for women. The four overlapping phases

of the Woman Movement advanced women from domestic prisoners to significant

members of their communities within less than a century. . . . Though nineteenth-

century culture was not ready for the New Woman, for many women, she

represented the promise of a future where, someday, independent, intellectual

women would be accepted. Without these alternative ideals, the feminist

movement might have never occurred. (202)

2.5 Poe and the Cults of True Womanhood and Real Womanhood

One could claim that all of the female characters in the tales of Edgar Allan Poe

respond to the scheme described in the first phase of the Movement. However, this

thesis will prove that Poe tried to move beyond the rooted social attitudes towards

women one was experiencing in his time. When Welter mentions that those conditions

were “natural to women” (Welter 21), Poe’s readers may remember that Poe is escaping

reality by making the women of his tales unnatural, as if they were out of this world,

given the example of “Ligeia” (Jack Davis and June Davis 171). In the tale, the woman

character, Ligeia, often appears unearthly and ethereal: “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” (Complete

Tales 224). By doing so, Poe criticises Welter’s opinion, as once the character is not a

domestic creature, she must be inevitably supernatural. Indeed, women in such tales as

“Ligeia”, “Berenice” or “Morella” are the opposite of being submissive “’Angel[s] in

the House’ whose primary purpose was to impart moral guidance to her family” (Cruea

190). Given the example of Ligeia, who is so educated that the narrator declares:

where breathes the man who has traversed, and successfully, all the wide

areas of moral, physical, and mathematical science? I saw not then what I

now clearly perceive, that the acquisitions of Ligeia were gigantic, were

astounding; yet I was sufficiently aware of her infinite supremacy to resign

myself, with a child-like confidence, to her guidance through the chaotic

world of metaphysical investigation. (Complete Tales 226)

By creating a female character more competent and accomplished than the male narrator or any man, Poe criticizes the minimum of education women should attain according to the cult of True Womanhood, which are “limited to religious seminaries and basic ‘book learning’” (Cruea 188). “As if mocking the reforming power of piety and other domestic values, Poe transforms this particular domestic ‘angel’ into an uncomplaining victim and then, finally, into a corpse. The Angel in the House becomes the Dead Wife in the Basement” (“Gender Constructions” 134). However, the characters of “Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia” are not only the “dead wives,” they are intelligent and powerful, as this thesis will later prove. In addition, although one may claim that it is the weakness or delicacy of women that makes them beautiful

(Dayan 5), Poe disproves the statement by creating the woman character of “Ligeia” beautiful and mentally strong. As Leland Person puts it, “Ligeia reverses the conventional power imbalance between husband and wife” (“Gender Constructions”

135).

In discussion of the expectation for a man to protect his woman, in the tales that this thesis deals with, there are men who should protect women, but fail to do so. By making the men become failures, Poe signals that the ideals of the nineteenth-century society about men/women relations mentioned above may not be justified. Examples can be seen in all three tales that this thesis is focusing on. In general, the readers may notice that the men not only fail to protect the women from their illnesses, but they also contribute to their death and finally become insane themselves. “Berenice” may serve as a suitable example of the male distraction of mind (Tales and Poems 134-145), and so is

“Morella”, where the narrator wishes “both Morellas” (wife and daughter) to die (Tales and Poems 40-45).

Since the phase of the Real Womanhood has its beginnings after the outbreak of

American Civil War (Cruea 191) and “Ligeia” written in 1838 (the last tale of those this thesis deals with), Poe was beforehand and in a sense predicted the changing of ideals.

Whereas the task of a True Woman was to be submissive upon her husband, Ligeia,

“[i]n her erudition and intellectual power . . . has her origins in the ‘Ideal of Real

Womanhood’” (“Gender Constructions” 135). With Ligeia’s superior intellect, she has

“power of will that turns the tables on male misogyny” (“Gender Constructions” 137).

Speaking of “Ligeia”, there is another reason why Poe is ahead of his time. Cruea explains, “a woman able to work could support herself and her family when illness, death, or financial disaster struck” (193). Ligeia, however, financially supports the household completely, with no such circumstance mentioned above by Cruea (Complete

Tales 229). From this point of view, Poe created an innovative character and an independent woman. After Ligeia’s death, the narrator states he does not suffer from lack of money, as his wife has left him “far more, very far more than ordinarily falls to the lot of mortals” (Complete Tales 229), as opposed to the nineteenth-century

American women who worked hard for a minimal income (Cruea 193).

When it comes to the topic of Public Womanhood, Margaret Fuller was definitely one of the most famous women at that time to influence Poe. Poe respected

Margaret Fuller, even though he did not fully agreed with her. As Leland Person, the author of “Poe and Nineteenth-Century Gender Constructions,” puts it, even though

“Poe did not know Margaret Fuller when he published ‘Ligeia’ in 1838, but it is tempting to add Ligeia’s name to the short list of exceptional women Poe associated with Fuller” (“Gender Constructions” 135).

In conclusion, the perception of women changed quickly during the nineteenth century in America. Because of the Civil War, the Woman Movement began to take its shape. Poe criticized the domestication of women in the nineteenth century by showing the readers that the death of a woman is the only “logical outcome of woman’s separation and idealization,” making the True Woman an object of the man (“Gender

Constructions” 138). The ideal of True Womanhood evolved into Real Womanhood, which lead up to the ideal of Public Womanhood, whose best-known representative is

Margaret Fuller. Poe criticized Fuller for generalizing about women (“Gender

Constructions” 131-32), a proof that Poe was opposing such generalizing and categorizing, such was the Woman Movement and especially its True Womanhood, which provided women with no rights. By creating characters such as Ligeia, Poe proved to be ahead of his time with “feminist” thinking, escaping the prejudices of the nineteenth-century society.

3 Poe’s Women

3.1 Personal Life

3.1.1 Elizabeth “Eliza” Arnold Hopkins Poe

Eliza Poe was Edgar Allan Poe’s mother. She and Edgar’s father David Poe

were traveling actors. Eliza worked as an actor from her early age, debuting on stage at

nine years of age. After marrying David Poe, Eliza Poe worked in Richmond,

Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. It was in New York City, however, that

Eliza’s husband left her and their family, including little Edgar. Two years later, Eliza

died. After her death, her three children were split and sent to various foster homes.

Edgar Poe was sent to live with John and Frances Allan in Richmond (Macek 2). Edgar

Poe was two years old when his mother died (Macek 2), making it the beginning of a

series of deaths of the women that he loved.

3.1.2 Frances Valentine Allan

After Eliza Poe’s death, the Allan family took Edgar Poe to foster care.

Although they never formally adopted him, Edgar was baptized, which gave him the

middle name of Allan. Frances Allan taught young Edgar to read and write and showed

affectionate feelings for her stepson. This, nevertheless, cannot be said about her

husband and Edgar’s stepfather, John Allan. Even though he provided Edgar with

education, he was never a loving parent. After David Poe, who left Eliza Poe and the

whole family, John Allan is another male disappointment during Edgar’s early

development, which failed to grant him a good male model (Macek 3).

3.1.3 Virginia Clemm

Virginia Clemm is one of the most important people in Poe’s life. Virginia was

Edgar Allan Poe’s cousin and after declaring his love for her, they got married (Quinn

219). Poe loved his wife dearly and did not stop when Virginia became ill with

tuberculosis (Macek 12). As a part of showing his affection, Poe provided Virginia with

education: “While he was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger he devoted a large

part of his salary to Virginia’s education, and she was instructed in every elegant

accomplishment at his expense. He himself became her tutor at another time, when his

income was not sufficient to provide for a more regular course of instruction” (Quinn

198).

Poe’s deep love for his wife and the immense fear of losing her reflected in

Poe’s severe depression in the time of her illness. As Paul J. Macek, in The Illustrated

History of Edgar Allan Poe, states, “[o]ne can read the influence of Virginia’s dying on

Poe’s work in the following titles: ‘Berenice,’ ‘Eleonora,’ ‘Ligeia,’ and ‘The Fall of the

House of Usher’” (12). If for Poe, as he claimed, “the death of a beautiful woman is,

unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” (Macek 2), then the death of the

beloved Virginia gave him boundless poetic voice.

3.2 Female Writers in Poe’s Circle

While there were many poetesses in the Antebellum America, there is little that

is remembered about them. The reason why the poetesses are forgotten is that they

survived in the male poets’ works. Those whom Poe thought to be worthy of his

admiration and critique were, for instance, Frances Sargent Osgood, Sarah Helen

Whitman and Elizabeth Oakes Smith (Poetics of Reception 36). They influenced the

male poets to the extent that though their own works are not known, one may gain a

thorough understanding of the nineteenth-century poetry only after learning about the

female poets (Poetics of Reception 59).

3.2.1 Frances S. Osgood

Frances Sargent Osgood was a poet and an author contributing to journals

including those Poe was editing. Osgood was publicly involved in a platonic, romantic

relationship with Poe. They exchanged “mutual compliments at the New York City

literary salons, as well as their ongoing exchange of romantic poems in the pages of the

Broadway Journal” (Poetics of Reception 92-93). Poe challenged Osgood to write a

poem that would be as good as his, meaning he thought Osgood could write at high

quality level (Poetics of Reception 1). Osgood was attacked by Elizabeth Oakes Smith

who accused her of being the cause of Poe’s death by stating he “was murdered because

he refused to return a woman’s love letters” (Poetics of Reception 191).

3.2.2 Elizabeth Oakes Smith

Elizabeth Oakes Smith was “a delegate and speaker at the women’s right

convention,” (Poetics of Reception 176) who was sure of women’s superiority. As Eliza

Richards puts it, “[b]ecause the female form is the divine shape of moral purity, then

earthly women cannot help but hold premonitory significance” (Poetics of Reception

183) and she adds a part of Oakes Smith’s work to prove it:

In the great archetype there is no sex

The relevator on his lonely isle

The woman yet to be, beheld – and sad

In vision, gorgeous and sublime, a shape

More grand and beautiful than earth has seen… (qtd. in Poetics of

Reception 183)

Richards is clear of its meaning, “[t]he ‘woman yet to be’ is a non-existent ideal that

earthly women nevertheless resemble. If true poets are future women, then the Great

Archetype is a Poetess in which the feminine is not a termination but a foundation”

(Poetics of Reception 183). “Men have written for us, thought for us, legislated for us;

and they have constructed from their own consciousness an effigy of a woman, to which

we are expected to conform” (Poetics of Reception 179). By stating this, Oakes was

criticizing the ideals of Womanhood made in the nineteenth century. Richards further

explains the issue by saying that the “individual woman cannot emerge before the

public has ratified an ideal to which she can aspire” (Poetics of Reception 179). Hence,

paradoxically, to become an independent and socially accepted woman, one needs to

live up to the social male expectations. Richards describes; “a number of her friends and

acquintances did not approve of women speaking in public and ceased relations with

her” (Poetics of Reception 176). By doing things she was not expected to do and

talking about the false perceptions of women at public lectures, Oakes Smith may have

been an inspiration for Poe’s characters, such as Ligeia.

3.2.3 Sarah Helen Whitman

A poet and an admirer of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Sarah Helen

Whitman, was “was intelligent, gifted, witty, and warm. She was widely read: in one of

her essays alone she cites thirty-three authors and three current periodicals. She was

fluent in German, French, and Italian” (“Sarah Helen Whitman”). After becoming

friends with Margaret Fuller, Whitman was interested in transcendentalism and the

occult sciences. Whitman and Poe also exchanged poems that later lead to their

engagement, which was not fulfilled in the end. After Poe’s death, Whitman published

Edgar Allan Poe and His Critics to defend his reputation (Macek 67).

3.2.4 Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller can be considered as the first feminist writer. She was a teacher,

critic and an author, particularly remembered for her book Woman in the Nineteenth

Century (1845), “a tract on feminism that was both a demand for political equality and

an ardent plea for the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual fulfilment [sic] of women,”

which “examined the place of women within society” (“Margaret Fuller”). Fuller

exchanged letters with Poe, who had a high opinion of her. In Poe’s criticism, “The

Literati of New York City - No. IV.,” Poe declares his admiration for Fuller “for high

genius she unquestionably possesses” (“Margaret Fuller”).

3.3 Poe’s Relationship with Women

3.3.1 Influence of Women from Poe’s Personal Life

Women influenced Edgar Allan Poe from his early age. As Leland Person puts

it, “the way his mother’s death causes a lifelong fixation on women’s deaths and returns

from the grave” (“Gender Constructions” 129). He explains that when a young child

loses a parent, they then “invest[ ] desire in the parent’s return from the dead” (“Gender

Constructions” 129). However, his mother is not the only beloved whom Poe lost

prematurely. There is also his foster mother Fanny Allan and mother of Poe’s childhood

friend’s, Jane Stanard (“Women’s Place” 10). Such influence of these ladies can be seen

in many of Poe’s tales with the theme of resurrection, including the tales of this thesis,

“Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia”. Eliza Richards explains, “the dead woman is a

symbol that foregrounds its literal referent. In various critical arguments she represents

Poe’s melancholic attachment to lost mothers . . . and the writer’s insatiable longing to

enliven the memory of the beloved” (“Women’s Place” 10). In addition, Poe’s loss of

his mother and the lack of a father-male role projected in the relationship between

characters of many of his tales. The narrator is often a rude and ill-mannered man

“enact[ing] violent revenge on women because of their enthralling power” (“Women’s

Place” 10), whereas the beautiful dying woman is the one who suffers under the man’s

circumstances.

The influence of the death of Poe’s wife Virginia Clemm (as well as her mother

Maria Clemm) is undeniable. It can be seen, for instance, in one of Poe’s most known

poems, “Annabel Lee,” which is a story about a beautiful but dying young woman

(Macek 12). Furthermore, the influence is more visible in the tales this thesis is focusing

on, “Berenice,” “Morella,” and “Ligeia” (“Gender Constructions” 136), especially then

in “Berenice,” where the narrator is to marry his cousin (Quinn 213). The influence of

Virginia on the female character in “Ligeia” is also detectable, for “[t]here were

intervals, naturally, when Virginia’s health seemed restored,” (Quinn 348) reflected in

the scene of Ligeia’s recurrent resurrections (Complete Tales 232).

3.3.2 Poe and Women Writers

Edgar Allan Poe was not only the author of tales and poems, but also a

significant literary critic (Macek 57). In Richard’s view, “a large number of highly

verbal women, both literate and loquacious, surrounded Poe during his lifetime” and

much of Poe’s criticism was applied directly to those women, given the example of

Elizabeth Barret Browning, Margaret Davidson, Frances Sargent Osgood, Lydia

Sigourney, or Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Richards adds that “Poe wrote about women

writers; he wrote to women writers; women writers contributed heavily to both the

journals that he edited and those to which he contributed; he attended the literary salons

of women writers; he became romantically involved with women writers” (“Women’s

Place” 11). By his literary criticism, “Poe’s promotion of women writers” (“Women’s

Place” 13) was another way to elevate the women Poe respected. “Poe knew and

respected women writers, and his many personal and professional relationships with

women certainly provided him with models on which he could have based complex

female characters” (“Gender Constructions” 133). The influence of women writers

whom Poe criticised is visible in the way Poe described both his fellow writers and his

characters. “In his later sketches of ‘The Literari of New York City,’ Poe always

included a thumbnail sketch of the writer, male or female, and he often provided a trait-

by-trait anatomy of which this lengthy inventory of Ligeia’s features is an

exaggeration” (“Gender Constructions” 144). What follows is an extract from Poe’s criticism of Margaret Fuller, published in “The Literari of New York City”:

She is of the medium height; nothing remarkable about the figure; a

profusion of lustrous light hair; eyes a bluish gray, full of fire; capacious

forehead; the mouth when in repose indicates profound sensibility,

capacity for affection, for love — when moved by a slight smile, it

becomes even beautiful in the intensity of this expression; but the upper

lip, as if impelled by the action of involuntary muscles (qtd. in Capper

216).

Such thorough description of the woman’s appearance is very common in Poe’s tales, with the example of “Ligeia,” which is closely described and being focused on later in the thesis.

In addition, considering the statement that “Poe was as earnest in his criticism of women writers as he was in his assessment of his male peers” (“Women’s Place” 12) were true, the following statement is a crucial point of the way one perceives Poe and his relationship with his female contemporaries. In his Essays and Reviews, Poe stated, that if the “greatest poems have not been written by women, it is because, as yet, the greatest poems have not been written at all” (qtd. in “Women’s Place” 12-13). In return, these women writers “promoted him in turn, especially after his death” (“Women’s

Place” 11). Poe admired the poetesses’ emotional side, which provided him with inspiration for his tender female characters, leading even to such a powerful woman as

Ligeia, making the poetesses undoubtedly an integral part of influence on Poe’s writings.

4 Poe’s Body of Work

4.1 Overview

The known total number of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales is sixty-nine, with the first

one, “[Gaffy],” being written in 1826 (“Collected Works” 3) while visiting the

University of Virginia where he was studying ancient and modern languages (Macek 6).

The last tale written by Poe is “The Light- House,” being written soon before his death

in 1849 (“Chronological List of Poe’s Tales”). “Berenice” was first published in a

periodical where Poe worked as an editor, Southern Literary Messenger in March 1835

(“Collected Works” 207). This happened one year before Poe married his cousin

Virginia (Macek 12). The following tale, “Morella,” was published in the identical

periodical one month later than “Berenice,” in 1835. After moving to Philadelphia

during the summer of 1838, “’Ligeia’ became the first short story by Poe . . . published

in The American Museum, a Baltimore monthly magazine” (Macek 17-18). All of the

tales belong to a period before Poe became well known for his famous piece of work

written in 1845, “The Raven” (Macek 54). The fact that the three tales, which this thesis

focuses on, were written in a chronological order (with “Berenice” being the first and

“Ligeia” the last one) proves Poe’s development regarding the issues of women

prejudices and the changing perception of them.

4.2 The Three Stories

4.2.1 “Berenice” (March 1835)

“Berenice” tells a story about a man called Egaeus who lives in a family

mansion together with his cousin and bride at the same time, Berenice. Berenice had

always been cheerful and full of life, whereas Egaeus only grew miserable, physically

and mentally. Suddenly, under mysterious circumstances, a serious disease strikes

Berenice. Watching Berenice grow more ill, Egaeus’s own illness is getting worse. The

narrator explains the characteristics of his disease. He talks about his attention disorder,

which, as the readers later find out, lies in his fixation on particular objects. Egaeus

becomes obsessed with Berenice’s teeth and cannot stop thinking about them. Soon,

Berenice dies and is buried, yet the narrator is not fully aware of it because of his

mental disorder. Once Egaeus is “awaken” again, he finds a box in front of him. One of

the servants enters the room saying the place Berenice was buried in has been violated

and Berenice was found alive. The narrator notices traces of blood and mud on his

clothes. In the end, Egaeus opens the box to discover Berenice’s teeth, which makes

him remember what he did and realize he was the one who did the horrific act.

4.2.2 “Morella” (April 1835)

The narrator marries Morella, his friend and an exceptionally educated woman.

The narrator is soon captivated in Morella’s readings and becomes her pupil. After

some time, he becomes afraid of Morella’s obsession with the teachings of German

philosophers, dealing with the questions of identity. The fear of her wife makes the

narrator wish she were dead. Soon, Morella dies at childbirth. Her last words are that

even though she dies, her child will remain alive. The narrator states he loves his

daughter more than he could imagine, but that changes when the daughter grows up.

She becomes increasingly similar to her mother. Being scared of his daughter, the

narrator brings her to baptism, hoping it would reverse the mysterious events happening

to her. When the narrator is due to tell his daughter’s name, he exclaims “Morella”

(Tales and Poems 45), after which his daughter proclaims, “I am here!” and dies. The

narrator brings his dead daughter to the tomb, but the resting place of his dead wife is

empty – Morella’s body is not there.

4.2.3 “Ligeia” (September 1838)

The tale tells a story about a married couple – the narrator and lady Ligeia. Even

though the narrator does not completely remember the consequences of their first

meeting, he confesses unconditional love for his perfect spouse. Ligeia is immensely

beautiful, but also more educated than anyone else the narrator knows. One day, Ligeia

falls ill. On her deathbed, Ligeia asks the narrator to read aloud a poem that she herself

had written. After Ligeia’s death, the narrator is devastated by the loss and needs to

change the environment. Soon after moving out, he marries another woman that looks

as an absolute opposite of Ligeia – Lady Rowena. Unfortunately, the narrator’s second

wife soon dies as well, following with a series of inexplicable events. On the following

day of her death, the narrator hears a moan coming from the corpse. The woman lives

again. However, soon after that, she dies again. When she resurrects the next time, the

narrator notices something odd about her. The posture grew taller and the hair changed

its colour. The person standing in the chamber is the narrator’s first beloved wife,

Ligeia.

4.3 Analyses and Comparisons of the Stories

4.3.1 Amount of Time Dedicated to the Female Characters’ Appearance

The first person that the narrator of “Berenice” mentions, other than the narrator

himself, is his mother. “Here died my mother. Herein was I born” (Tales and Poems

135). This mention of his dead mother is the first obvious resemblance between Poe’s

characters and his own life, as Eliza Poe died at Edgar Poe’s early age (Macek 2). The

order of the words and sentences in this particular part are well chosen, with the purpose

of indicating how much mothers sacrifice in order to give birth to them. Moving on to

the description of the main character’s (Berenice’s) appearance, the readers only get an

idea of her visage provided by a brief description from the time of Berenice’s illness.

The only time the narrator mentions Berenice’s visage from the preceding era is the following, “Ah, vividly is her image before me now, as in the early days of her light- heartedness and joy! Oh, gorgeous yet fantastic beauty!” (Tales and Poems 136).

However, while she suffers an unknown disease, the depiction of Berenice is more specific, as if only to refer to the illness:

The forehead was high, and very pale, and singularly placid; and the once

jetty hair fell partially over it, and overshadowed the hollow temples with

innumerable ringlets, now of a vivid yellow, and jarring discordantly, in

their fantastic character, with the reigning melancholy of the countenance.

The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and seemingly pupilless [sic], and I

shrank involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the

thin and shrunken lips. They parted; and in a smile of peculiar meaning,

the teeth of the changed Berenice disclosed themselves slowly to my view.

(Tales and Poems 141)

Moving on to the second of the tales, “Morella,” the narrator talks only briefly about the female character’s appearance, and when he does, it sounds like he is accusing

Morella of being supernatural. Another time Morella’s appearance is commented on is when she begins to “pine[ ] away daily” and “the crimson spot settled steadily upon the cheek, and the blue veins upon the pale forehead became prominent” (Tales and Poems

41). The succinct description of Morella’s appearance emphasizes the narrator’s fear of the female character’s growing intellectual power.

On the other hand, the female character of “Ligeia” receives a thorough description of her appearance, as well as her intellect. Firstly, soon after the beginning of the tale, the readers find out about the beauty and importance Ligeia represents for the narrator. By doing this, the narrator assures the readers of his dedication to Ligeia,

but also it shows how important Ligeia is in his life. Even though the narrator warns about the bad condition of his memory, caused mainly by the use of opium (which is being dealt with later), Ligeia remains unforgettable:

There is one dear topic, however, on which my memory fails me not. It is

the person of Ligeia. In stature she was tall, somewhat slender, and, in her

latter days, even emaciated. I would in vain attempt to portray the majesty,

the quiet ease, of her demeanor, or the incomprehensible lightness and

elasticity of her footfall. She came and departed as a shadow. I was never

made aware of her entrance into my closed study save by the dear music

of her low sweet voice, as she placed her marble hand upon my shoulder.

In beauty of face no maiden ever equalled her. (Complete Tales 224)

The narrator continues with the description of Ligeia, talking about “the contour of the lofty and pale forehead . . . the skin rivalling the purest ivory, the commanding extent and repose, the gentle prominence of the regions above the temples; and then the raven- black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses” (Complete Tales 225).

Given the example above, it is clear that the appearance and the whole persona of

Ligeia is significant to the narrator. In addition, the narrator later pays a significant amount of attention to the eyes of Ligeia, providing a thorough depiction of them:

And then I peered into the large eyes of Ligeia. . . . They were, I must

believe, far larger than the ordinary eyes of our own race. . . . The hue of

the orbs was the most brilliant of black, and, far over them, hung jetty

lashes of great length. The brows, slightly irregular in outline, had the

same tint. . . . The expression of the eyes of Ligeia! How for long hours

have I pondered upon it! (Complete Tales 225)

There is an innovative thought in the way of describing Ligeia’s looks, given the

example of her eyes. The narrator begins with the notion of the eyes’ size. There is,

however, one thing he highlights – their expression (Complete Tales 225). Because of

the notification, Poe, through the words of the narrator, remarks that what is behind the

beauty is more important than the beauty itself. Furthermore, in discussion of Ligeia’s

eyes, the narrator continues to attach the importance to them. He explains that only

seeing exceptionally beautiful things of nature gives him a feeling only the eyes of

Ligeia could provide. After the passage that is dealing with the description of the eyes

and the feelings they provide the narrator with, it is clear that he is obsessed with them

or captured by them: “I was possessed with a passion to discover. Those eyes!”

(Complete Tales 225). The description of Ligeia’s appearance is very thorough in this

tale, more than in the previous two tales, which is proving the tale’s complexity.

4.3.2 Description of the Female Characters’ Intellect and Their Relationships with the

Narrators

When it comes to the intellectual side, the narrator of “Berenice” provides the

readers with a thorough description of the features of her personality. The narrator

describes Berenice as “agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy . . . roaming

carelessly through life, with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of

the raven-winged hours” which may sound naïve, compared to the depiction of the

narrator who is the opposite of Berenice, “addicted, body and soul, to the most intense

and painful meditation” (Tales and Poems 136). The narrator examines Berenice’s

health, remarking with revulsion on her physical disability:

Among the numerous train of maladies super-induced by that fatal and

primary one which effected a revolution of so horrible a kind in the moral

and physical being of my cousin, may be mentioned as the most distressing

and obstinate in its nature, a species of epilepsy not unfrequently

terminating in trance itself. (Tales and Poems 136)

Nevertheless, after focusing on the health of Berenice, the narcissistic narrator immediately brings attention to himself, starting to talk about his own health problems, as if they were more important. What is more, the narrator’s mental illness is caused by the illness of Berenice, as seen for example when Berenice’s illness proves in the changes of her physical appearance (Tales and Poems 136-139). The narrator defines his “monomania”, as he himself names it, in length at least twice as much as he did

Berenice’s. Because of the recurring narrator’s need of favouring himself before

Berenice, he declares his alleged superior status.

At the beginning of “Morella,” the readers may receive mixed feelings about the relationship of the narrator with his wife, Morella. Even though the narrator is loyal and devoted to Morella, it is not for loving her. The very first time the narrator mentions

Morella, he talks about her as of a friend (Tales and Poems 39). Following description of their meeting supports the sense of uncertainty, when the narrator explains he was

“[t]hrown by accident into her society many years ago” (Tales and Poems 39). Not even after the narrator’s admission how happy Morella makes him, he still does not confess his love towards her. The suspicion about the conditions of their relationship is not disproved even by their marriage, for the narrator exclaims their marriage is their destiny. That may give the readers a feeling that it does not matter whether he was in love or not, it was fate who brought them together and there was nothing they could do about it: “Yet we met; and fate bound us together at the altar, and I never spoke of passion nor thought of love” (Tales and Poems 39). The strange feeling is not reversed, but the opposite; the following statement by the narrator deepens it: “It is a happiness to wonder; it is a happiness to dream” (Tales and Poems 39). Such statement may make

one think the narrator thinks of the relationship with Morella only on the intellectual, dream-like, level. Their relationship may be described as an emotionless companionship, at least until Morella becomes a threat.

Morella receives more recognition from her husband when dealing with her intellectual strength, for as the narrator explains, Morella’s intellect is “of no common order” (Tales and Poems 39). The way the narrator talks about Morella’s superior learning makes one assume there is an aspect that frightens the narrator. In fact, one may sense they are the spiritual and intellectual sides of her person that are superior.

The first time the speaker mentions Morella’s looks is at a time when he feels anxious about her superiority, “I could no longer bear the touch of her wan fingers, nor the low tone of her musical language, nor the lustre of her melancholy eyes” (Tales and Poems

41). He is certain of her intellectual power, which is apparent from the following statement: “Morella’s erudition was profound. As I hope to live, her talents were of no common order – her powers of mind were gigantic” (Tales and Poems 39). The narrator continues by admitting he “became her pupil” and that he endorses her favourite study topics (Tales and Poems 39), suggesting his subordinate position, or, as he later explains, “I abandoned myself implicitly to the guidance of my wife, and entered with an unflinching heart into the intricacies of her studies” (Tales and Poems 40). The narrator pays a lot of attention to describing Morella’s education and her studies, highlighting its importance:

It is unnecessary to state the exact character of those disquisitions which,

growing out of the volumes I have mentioned, formed, for so long a time,

almost the sole conversation of Morella and myself. By the learned in what

might be termed theological morality they will be readily conceived, and

by the unlearned they would, at all events, be little understood. The wild

Pantheism of Fichte; the modified Paliggenedia of the Pythagoreans; and,

above all, the doctrines of Identity as urged by Schelling, were generally

the points of discussion presenting the most of beauty to the imaginative

Morella. That identity which is termed personal, Mr. Locke, I think, truly

defines to consist in the saneness of rational being. (Tales and Poems 40-

41)

The narrator becomes “sickened” (Tales and Poems 41) with the exceptionality of his wife that he soon wishes her to be dead:

Shall I then say that I longed with an earnest and consuming desire for the

moment of Morella’s decease? I did; but the fragile spirit clung to its

tenement of clay for many days — for many weeks and irksome months

— until my tortured nerves obtained the mastery over my mind, and I grew

furious through delay, and, with the heart of a fiend, cursed the days, and

the hours, and the bitter moments, which seemed to lengthen and lengthen

as her gentle life declined — like shadows in the dying of the day. (Tales

and Poems 41-42)

After Morella’s death, the narrator seems to be in a peaceful state of mind, watching

Morella’s baby, which she delivered just before dying, he was full of love he felt toward their daughter, “a love more fervent than I had believed it possible to feel for any denizen of earth” (Tales and Poems 43). Such condition does not last long. The narrator’s calm mind is soon disrupted, once the daughter starts growing up. “But, ere long, the heaven of this pure affection became darkened, and gloom, and horror, and grief, swept over it in clouds” (Tales and Poems 43). The narrator is captured by fear again when he observes “with an agonising anxiety” (Tales and Poems 43) the way his daughter starts resembling her mother Morella, mainly on the intellectual side that made

Morella powerful. “I said the child grew strangely in stature and intelligence. Strange, indeed, was her rapid increase in bodily size, but terrible, oh! terrible were the tumultuous thoughts which crowded upon me while watching the development of her mental being” (Tales and Poems 43). This statement proves the narrator’s anxiety about being rationally subordinate, and hence less powerful.

Same as it was in the previous tale, “Berenice,” the narrator here is afraid of his wife’s intellectual power. What makes “Morella” more progressive than “Berenice” is the fact that the narrator admits Morella’s superior thinking and learning. The narrator’s fear is reflected in his behaviour, when he is accusing Morella of being unearthly, suggesting it is not common in a woman to be well educated. The fact that he is only calm once Morella is dead confirms the narrator’s fear of inferiority, which makes him despise his powerful wife. As “Morella” was a “preliminary study” of “Ligeia,” (Quinn

269) the logical outcome is the development of the female character in “Ligeia”.

In fact, the qualities of Ligeia’s character are what makes this tale most elaborate, in a sense of perceiving women. Even though it seems like the man makes the story about himself more than about the woman, provided the part when the narrator brings attention to his problems caused by Ligeia (Complete Tales 227), later the readers find out it is Ligeia who is “superior” in the tale. When the narrator starts talking about Ligeia’s learning, he mentions it is “immense – such as I have never known in woman” (Complete Tales 226). A statement like this one may make one consider the thought to be far from “feminist,” nonetheless, the narrator later restates it by saying the following, “I said her knowledge was such as I have never known in woman – but where breathes the man who has traversed, and successfully, all the wide areas of moreal, physical, and mathematical science?” (Complete Tales 226). Such

announcement demonstrates that the narrator is aware of Ligeia’s superiority and is not

afraid of admitting so.

4.3.3 Sense of Mysticism

Even though the narrator of “Berenice,” Egaeus, has already mentioned

Berenice’s looks before, there is one time he pays attention to it again. The time is when

his mental illness is at a progressed stage. The narrator recounts: “I sat (and sat, as I

thought, alone) in the inner apartment of the library. But, uplifting my eyes, I saw that

Berenice stood before me” (Tales and Poems 140) that may give the readers a sense of

mystique. The impression of mysticism is even more highlighted in the following

section when reading of “the misty influence of the atmosphere – . . . or the grey

draperies which fell around her figure – that caused in it so vacillating and indistinct an

outline” (Tales and Poems 140). Throughout the tales, there are several hints that imply

the narrator is more scared and fascinated at the same time by Berenice, than in love

with her. After all, the narrator claims: “[d]uring the brightest days of her unparalleled

beauty, most surely I had never loved her. In the strange anomaly of my existence,

feelings with me, had never been of the heart, and my passions always were of the

mind” (Tales and Poems 139-140). In addition, the narrator entitles the moment of

proposing to Berenice as “an evil moment” (Tales and Poems 140). To sum up with,

even though Egaeus pays more attention to himself than he does to his wife, in the

course of time, he becomes rather nervous by Berenice’s presence. Being afraid of

Berenice gives her the quality of having power over Egaeus, and hence it may lead to

the act of crime done by the narrator in the end of the tale. Even though the story is

named after the female character, the plot is more about the male character, Egaeus.

Berenice’s illness only provides the readers with the explanation of the narrator’s

illness, for most of the time Berenice only wanders in the background of the story, while

the narrator concentrates on himself. After reading this tale, the readers might hardly get an idea of Poe as someone who wished to liberate women, or someone having origins of feminist thinking. There is, however, the male’s fear of a woman’s power that

“Berenice” possesses and which is developed in “Morella,” and later escalated in

“Ligeia”. However, the feminine power, which the three tales have in common, is directly related to the quality and extent of the mental illness of each of the male characters, wherein each self-absorbed narrator attributes his feelings of dread to eerie and occult qualities in the women.

In “Morella,” the impression of mysticism given by the narrator’s description of his wife arises from his fear of her intellectual power. For as the narrator says, “one instant my nature melted into pity, but, in the next, I met the glance of her meaning eyes, and then my soul sickened and became giddy with the giddiness of one who gazes downward into some dreary and unfathomable abyss” (Tales and Poems 41). When the narrator looks in Morella’s eyes, he senses the strength coming from their expression and realizes the abyss he is talking about is the difference between their learning, leading to Morella’s intellectual superiority. The narrator talks only briefly about

Morella’s appearance, and when he does, it sounds like accusing Morella of being supernatural. Another time that Morella is talked about in the sense of mysticism is when the narrator comments on her appearance once she begins to “pine[ ] away daily” and “the crimson spot settled steadily upon the cheek, and the blue veins upon the pale forehead became prominent” (Tales and Poems 41). Such description mentioned above implies some kind of unearthliness of Morella, with her “wan fingers” and “low tone of her musical language” (Tales and Poems 41) she leaves an impression of a mythical, supernatural creature. The impression is intensified with the choice of words when the speaker is talking about his wife. He addresses her readings of “mystical writings” as a

list of “low, singular word, whose strange meaning burned themselves” in the narrator’s mind (Tales and Poems 40). It is even more enhanced when the narrator is speaking of those writings in relation with Morella and the way she studies them:

And then, hour after hour, would I linger by her side, and dwell upon the

music of her voice, until at length its melody was tainted with terror, and

there fell a shadow upon my soul, and I grew pale, and shuddered inwardly

at those too unearthly tones. And thus, joy suddenly faded into horror, and

the most beautiful became the most hideous. (Tales and Poems 40)

Because of all the indications mentioned above, it feels as if the narrator accuses

Morella of witchcraft. The narrator confirms the perception by declaring, “the time had now arrived when the mystery of my wife’s manner oppressed me as a spell” (Tales and

Poems 41). Furthermore, the moment Morella dies, there is “a dim mist over all the earth,” highlighting the spiritualism (Tales and Poems 42). In summary, the narrator finds a way to comfort himself by suggesting there is something mysterious, sorcerous even, behind Morella’s intellectual superiority.

Finally, same as it was with the previous two tales, there is something unique about Ligeia as well. With the thorough description of her throughout the story, one may notice certain hints of being unearthly. First of all, in the very beginning, the narrator confesses he does not even remember how or when he met Ligeia. Moreover, the way she moves is worth mentioning by the narrator, as she “came and departed as a shadow”. Such statement makes Ligeia look like a ghost, or an angel. In addition, her voice sounds like “a melody more than mortal” to her husband (Complete Tales 227).

When considering those features, one may think that Ligeia is out of this world, or even that she does not exist at all. By making the character suspicious regarding her realness, it shows the possible struggle of accepting a strong, independent female character.

However, Poe uses a hint to contradict the speculation by making Ligeia herself proclaim, “Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly” (Complete

Tales 229). By saying this, Ligeia refutes the possible indication of her being ethereal, or like an angel.

In this tale, the roles given by the nineteenth-century society are reversed. The woman is the breadwinner of the household. After Ligeia’s death, the narrator acknowledges that he has “no lack of what the world calls wealth. Ligeia had brought me far more, very far more than ordinarily falls to the lot of mortals” (Complete Tales

229). Ligeia is also a writer, known by the situation when she asks her husband to read her verses before she dies (Complete Tales 227-28). Another important aspect of her character is her strength. When she lies on her deathbed, she proves to be extraordinarily resiliant, proving her wish to escape death. As her husband puts it,

“[w]ords are impotent to convey any just idea of the fiercness of resistance with which she wrestled with the Shadow” (Complete Tales 227). As Leland Person in his Aesthetic

Headaches: Women and Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne puts it,

“Ligeia insists upon having a dynamic presence in the narrator’s life – and in his narrative – through a monumental act of will,” or, as he later adds, “a battle of wills finally won by a woman” (30). The battle Person is talking about is the battle of the sexes. Once she comes back to life, the narrator is weakened again, as he fears that the perfect image of his wife is going to be denied by Ligeia’s resistance (Aesthetic

Headaches 31). “Poe implicitly criticizes the objectifying tendency of the male imagination,” (Aesthetic Headaches 26) or in other words, the “imaginative process by which women are transformed into objects of wish-fulfillment” (Aesthetic Headaches

28). The narrator is confident in his words only at times when Ligeia is repressed or dead, again declaring her superiority.

In “Poe’s Ethereal Ligeia”, Jack L. Davis and June H. Davis claim that there are two views “Ligeia” can be read: “the traditional view which interprets the story as a literal tale of the supernatural, and the psychological view which interprets the story as happening on both the literal and psychological level”. The latter theory explains that there is, in fact, no Ligeia, she “exists only in the mind of the narrator” (Jack Davis and

June Davis 170-71). While the authors of the essay are right about the narrator being affected by the usage of opium, they are not correct about the way he is affected. Jack

Davis and June Davis claim the narrator was only imagining Ligeia, while it is the opposite – Rowena is the one who never existed. In the essay, one of the arguments about Ligeia’s being imaginary is that the narrator cannot remember Ligeia’s last name

(173). This should convince the readers that Ligeia lives only in the narrator’s head.

However, this statement is refuted in one of the narrator’s reports about his state of mind, claiming he is “sadly forgetful” (Complete Tales 229). Ultimately, the narrator talks often about his “opium dreams” (Complete Tales 230). Moreover, the authors of the essay claim Ligeia’s voice is not real, because it is described as “dear music”, “low” and “sweet” (Complete Tales 224). This statement does not prove the imaginary vision of Ligeia, it may only prove the unconditional love the narrator carries for his wife

(Complete Tales 227). Jack Davis and June Davis also claim that Ligeia’s intelligence

“should be taken by the reader as yet another clue to her unreality” (173) which may be just Poe breaking conventions about intelligent women. Using arguments such as that one does not read about Ligeia caring about the narrator is excluded by a single exclamation by himself: “That she loved me I should not have doubted; and I might have been easily aware that, in a bosom such as hers, love would have reigned no ordinary passion” (Complete Tales 227).

The false arguments of the essay mentioned above lead to the conclusion that, being a drug-using lunatic, the narrator never married Ligeia, as there is no such person.

However, according to the essay, he does marry Rowena, who is real only for the fact that he remembers her full name (Jack Davis and June Davis 175). Although opium is the key reason of the narrator’s behaviour and state of mind, the impact is the opposite of the false theory. There is no Rowena. Ligeia is the narrator’s wife since the beginning of the tale. As the narrator confesses, he “had become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium, and my labors and my orders had taken a coloring from my dreams” just before “marrying Rowena” (Complete Tales 229) which explains why he would think there is some other person instead of Ligeia. He also mentions his opium usage while being in the fake marriage with Rowena, admitting he “was habitually fettered in the shackles of the drug” or another time hallucinating of ghost-like Ligeia while being

“wild with the excitement of an immoderate dose of opium” (Complete Tales 231). That is the last time the readers can notice the narrator mentioning his drug use. The name he recalls and assigns it to Rowena is the forgotten Ligeia’s name, which he remembers after the drugs’ effects fade, for at this part of the tale he does not mention using the drugs anymore.

Even though there are attempts to question the main character of “Ligeia,” they are false. Ligeia is an example of a beautiful, educated and independent woman, the most elaborative from the rest of the tales. Suggesting that Ligeia may not be real is only an attempt to devalue the power she possesses. Overall, Edgar Allan Poe himself called “Ligeia” to be the best of his stories (Jack Davis and June Davis 170), which proves his “feminist thinking”, and hence Ligeia’s credibility.

5 Conclusion

The nineteenth century was a revolutionary time for American women. With the

Woman Movement, the society started to gradually change from one that was

imprisoning women at home as a part of the Ideal of True Womanhood, to the Ideal of

New Womanhood that allowed women to attend the same universities as men did, or to

choose jobs of the women’s interests. Even though the society was not completely ready

to accept the new society features, the Woman Movement was a grounding point for the

emancipation of women.

Edgar Allan Poe himself was a women’s writer. He did not only draw

inspiration from women, he also wrote about them. The gruesome events that

accompanied Poe in his life made sources for his tales’ characters. Starting with the

death of Poe’s mother, Eliza Poe, and ending with the passing of his beloved wife

Virginia, the death of a beautiful woman became the main topic of many of Poe’s pieces

of work, poems (“Annabel Lee”) and tales (“Ligeia”). Moreover, there were also

women in the professional sphere that Poe adored. These female poets, or so called

“poetesses,” were influenced by Poe and vice versa, with the example of “A Valentine”.

Moreover, Poe even mentioned that a woman might be the author of the best poem ever

written. As a result, Poe did not perceive women only as the obedient homemakers. He

respected their ability to educate themselves, as can be seen with his support of his

wife’s education. This respect is reflected in making powerful woman characters, such

as those of “Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia,” tales that this thesis focuses on.

The three tales are listed chronologically, as they were written. Even though

Berenice is silent in the tale, the narrator assures the readers of her erudition, making

“Berenice” the foundation for the following development. The description of the

woman’s appearance is deficient and the emphasis is mainly on the male narrator. In

addition, the female character, Berenice, is in the end of the story killed by the narrator himself (Tales and Poems 144), which proves the lowest degree of feminist thinking in

Poe, yet gives a starting point for later gradation.

The female character of “Morella” occurs in the tale more often and the level of her education is more profound than that of the female character in “Berenice”. The advancement of the second tale is the most visible when focusing on the narrator’s perception of the woman. The narrator emphasizes Morella’s abilities and education, which makes the tale more enlightened, compared to the previous one – “Berenice” – where the intellectual side of the character includes no mention of education. Even though the narrator highlights Morella’s progressive thinking and learning, there is a sense of mysticism about her persona that may degrade these positive aspects. However, the relationship between the narrator and Morella is different from the relationship of

Egaeus and Berenice. Here, Morella is the one who is clearly intellectually above the narrator. Because of the personality of Morella being progressive and innovative, the narrator struggles to deal with his wife, a powerful woman, by accusing her of being supernatural.

The narrator acknowledges Morella’s exceptional intelligence and one may sense the female character is superior to the male character. Such feeling escalates in the last of the three tales, “Ligeia”. The tale is the most elaborate for several reasons. The narrator pays attention to describing Ligeia in detail, a factor that is either missing or appears to a lesser extent in the previous two tales. Another fact that makes “Ligeia” the most complex tale is in the power of the female character. The female character in

“Ligeia” is the most elaborate of the three tales analysed in this thesis. The narrator thoroughly describes Ligeia’s appearance, as well as her character. Within this tale, Poe

is creating a female character that is not only beautiful, but also intelligent and independent, which makes the tale the most progressive.

In the previous two tales, even though the narrators describe the women, they always get back to talk about themselves. In “Ligeia,” it is clear the story is about the woman. With writing “Ligeia,” Poe predicted the phases of the Woman Movement, as it was written during the True Womanhood phase, although having features of women from the subsequent phases. Even though there are attempts of the narrator to discredit

Ligeia for her abilities and power by making her look unnatural, those attempts are only

Poe’s depiction of the society’s inability to accept such women yet. However, despite the common view of Edgar Allan Poe as the woman-killer horror writer, he breaks away from the prejudices and perception of women of the patriarchal society and creates a female character who is not only beautiful, but also very educated, intelligent, independent and a powerful, emancipated woman.

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7 Resumé (English)

This bachelor’s thesis provides with analyses of three of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales about women – “Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia”. The analyses are divided into three sections, each focusing on different topics. The aim of the thesis is to disprove a common perception of Poe as a writer, considering he is often regarded as the author of dark horror tales, in which the women are killed and play no important role. Thus, the purpose of the thesis is to introduce the three stories as those that celebrate intelligent and powerful women, who are even superior to men. The thesis is composed of six chapters, with the first one introducing the topic of the thesis. The second chapter examines the American society of the nineteenth century and its perception of women.

Chapter Three is dealing with women from Poe’s life and is subdivided into two parts.

The first part focuses on Poe’s personal life, whereas the second part deals with women writers and their relationships with Poe. Chapter Two and Three are important in order to gain general overview of the nineteenth century and background to Poe’s writing.

Chapter Four concentrates on the author’s body of work. Firstly, there is an overview that explains where the three stories fit in Poe’s career. The next subchapter then provides with summaries of the three stories, following with the main part of the thesis

– the analyses themselves. The outcome of the analyses is that beginning with

“Berenice,” the stories evolved together with the female characters in them. After analysing the three tales thoroughly, “Ligeia” proves to be the most elaborate one, with the woman character being strong, intelligent, powerful and independent. Hence, the bachelor’s thesis confirms that even though there are many pieces of work written by

Edgar Allan Poe with female characters of no or little importance, he escaped from the prejudices of the nineteenth century toward women by writing tales where men are subordinate to powerful and emancipated women.

8 Resumé (Czech)

Tato bakalářská práce poskytuje analýzy tří povídek o ženách od Edgara Allana

Poea – “Berenice,” “Morella” a “Ligeia”. Tyto analýzy jsou rozděleny do tří sekcí, kde se každá zabývá jinou záležitostí. Cílem této bakalářské práce je vyvrátit jedno z běžných vnímání Poea, coby autora ponurých hororových povídek, ve kterých jsou ženy buď zabity, nebo nehrají důležitou roli. Kvůli tomu je záměr této práce představit tyto tři povídky jako ty, které oslavují inteligentní a mocné ženy, které jsou dokonce nadřazené mužům. Tato bakalářská práce se skládá z šesti kapitol, s první úvodní kapitolou, která přibližuje hlavní téma této práce. Druhá kapitola se zaměřuje na americkou společnost v devatenáctém století, zvláště na její vnímání a postavení žen.

Třetí kapitola se zabývá ženami z Poeova života a je rozdělena na dvě části. První část se věnuje ženám z jeho osobního života, kdežto část druhá je o spisovatelkách a jejich vztazích s Poem. Druhá a třetí kapitola jsou důležité k získání potřebného přehledu a pozadí k období, kdy Poe působil jako spisovatel. Čtvrtá kapitola se soustřeďuje na autorova díla. Nejprve je poskytnut obecný přehled, aby si byli čtenáři schopni zařadit tři povídky, o kterých je tato práce, do celkového obrazu Poeovi kariéry. Dále následuje podkapitola se shrnutími těchto povídek, které vedou k poslední a nejdůležitější podkapitole, která obsahuje již zmiňované kritické analýzy. Výsledkem těchto analýz je fakt, že počínaje povídkou “Berenice” dochází k vývoji povídek a jejich ženských postav. Po důkladném prozkoumání tématu se “Ligeia” prokáže jako ta nejpropracovanější z povídek. Ženská postava je zde silná, inteligentní a nezávislá.

Díky tomu tato bakalářská práce dokazuje, že přestože je známo mnoho povídek od

Edgara Allana Poea, ve kterých žena hraje malou nebo žádnou roli, Poe unikl předsudkům vůči ženám, které byly běžné v devatenáctém století. Toho dosáhl tím, že vytvořil povídky, kde jsou muži podřazeni mocným a emancipovaným ženám.