Aspects of Visual Sensation in Edgar Allan Poe’s Depiction of Violence against Women

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Symbolic Meaning of Sight
2.1. Ethereal Beauty
2.2. Superior Knowledge and Imagination
2.3. Will Power and Passion

3. The Distorted Vision of the Narrator
3.1. Monomania
3.2. Opium.

4. Visual Trickery and Optical Illusions

5. Conclusion

6. Works Cited

1. Introduction

Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories deal with a fixation on dying women as he famously states in “The Philosophy of Composition: “death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” (1621). The death of those women is often violent as they are murdered by a male character as a result of an “emotional estrangement between the male protagonist and a fated female” (Kennedy 118). Interestingly, the characters and the circumstances surrounding those deaths are described with an emphasis on the “lexical field of sight” (Marín-Ruiz 58) so that already “a cursory exposure to Poe’s fiction leaves a strong impression of his recurrent emphasis on the eye” (Scheick 80). Detailed accounts of eyes, glances, gazes and vision keep reappearing in the selected stories, so that sight becomes one of the key elements of the tales. In this paper, I will argue that this emphasis on visual sensations is directly related to the violence against women as it exposes the murderers’ motives and drives, their course of action as well as their attempt to then distort the reader’s view of the truth in order to cover their involvement. For my discussion of this thesis I will consider Poe’s short stories “The Oval Portrait,” “Morella”, “Berenice” and especially “Ligeia”.

The first part of this paper will deal with the depiction of the women’s eyes and their symbolism. Their eyes will be analyzed with regard to their representation of outstanding beauty, intrinsic knowledge and imagination, and a strong will and passion for life. It will also be considered what effect those unusual eyes have on the male character. This first portion will thus analyze these factors as they are presented by the narrators. But can their narration blindly be trusted?

To answer this question, the second part will evaluate the male characters’ vision. Since they are in most cases also the narrators of the stories, the reader is presented with a one-sided account of the women’s deaths. Consequently, the narrators’ credibility will be inquired. It will be argued that their vision seems to be somewhat impaired. This will be exemplified by examining the sight presented to the reader in terms of a psychological illness, monomania, and an opium- induced distortion of their vision. Here, “Poe’s keen interest in demonstrating the human propensity to see what is desired and not what is actually there” will be discussed in relation to the unreliability of the narrator (Cantalupo 54).

The focus of the third part of this paper will be on the visual description of the characters’ surroundings, namely the visual tricks and optical illusions posed by a careful composition of furniture and décor. It will be explained in how far this plays a significant role in causing the women’s death. Their involvement in manipulating the reader’s view of the story will also be considered.

2. The Symbolic Meaning of Sight

The male narrators in the selected short stories present the reader with very detailed descriptions of the outer experience of women who are often their wives or lovers. It is striking how visual sensations dominate these descriptions whether it is in the direct account of the women’s eyes or in their ability of deep insight. In the following, it will be demonstrated in how far their sight has a symbolic meaning in terms of beauty, knowledge, and will power and passion.

2.1. Ethereal Beauty

In Poe’s tale “Ligeia,” the narrator describes the outstanding beauty of his wife in great detail as he neglects all other factors concerning her family background, paternal name or their first encounter. He belongs to the group of narrators who are “intensely pre-occupied with images reflecting their sense of the beautiful, which pre-occupation displaces all else including themselves in the stories” (Bieganowski 185). He proclaims her to be the most beautiful woman on earth known to him as in” beauty of face no maiden ever equaled her” (Poe, “Ligeia”80). While he closely regards and describes the character of Ligeia’s nose, mouth, skin, hair and the outline of her face, he can detect nothing but pure perfection. He describes her looks by using different concepts of beauty. For one, he employs religious worshipping terms as he calls her a “divine” majesty and “a triumph of all things heavenly” being engulfed in “holy light.” One can also call it an apotheosis of Ligeia; her beauty is ethereal. He also claims her beauty to be in accordance with the conception of beauty in Greek antiquity as he compares the contour of her chin to equal Apollo’s ideal symbolizing “the softness and the majesty, the fullness and the spirituality” (80). From this, one can infer the narrator to be fascinated by this beauty that keeps haunting him long after her death.

Yet it is the specific element of sight that is depicted as “the most alluring and enchanting physical element” of Ligeia (Marín-Ruiz 60). Next to the concepts of beauty mentioned above, the narrator favors a definition of beauty of Bacon, Lord Verulam, presuming a certain “strangeness in the proportion”, which is significant when looking at the importance of the eyes constituting Ligeia’s beauty. This strangeness cannot be found in Ligeia’s perfect features. It is indeed the eyes, which the narrator detects as inhabiting the strangeness, the “secret to which Lord Verulam alludes” (Poe, “Ligeia” 80). Ligeia’s eyes are unusually large and luminous, with dark black pupils and lashes. In “moments of intense excitement” they reach an extraordinary fullness. In those moments, the uttermost true beauty of Ligeia is revealed by the unique “expression” of her eyes. The narrator perceives her eyes as beautiful in a sense which is otherworldly, seeming to be “either above or apart from the earth” (80). He attempts to directly describe the specialness of her eyes but cannot grasp it. This may be explained by the following fact: “Poe maintained that beauty, truly supernal beauty, could not be apprehended by direct vision, but only obliquely” thereby resorting to Newtonian theory of indirect vision (Scheick 86). However, it is this undefined quality of Ligeia’s eyes, a mystery within their blackness the narrator cannot trace, which is fascinating to him, leaving him “aroused” (Poe, “Ligeia” 81). He idealizes her as he is able to soar “into a transcendent realm of dream and delusion” (Gargano 339). It is thus noteworthy that her beauty is in no way defined by “exposures of flesh [or] overt sexual encounters [which] mark the relationship of the hero and heroine “(Moldenhauer 285). It is this mystery alone, the intrinsic qualities of Ligeia the narrator cannot quite comprehend, which defines her beauty for him and results in sheer devotion. This being symbolized by her eyes, her sight is related to the narrator’s attempts to revive her and thereby kill Rowena.

The Lady Rowena is a stark contrast to Ligeia. Constituting the extreme opposite to the dark and adored Ligeia, Rowena is abhorred “with a hatred belonging more to demon than to man” (Poe, “Ligeia” 85). Only a short remark describes her as having blond hair and blue eyes that seemingly pose no mystery to the narrator. This again confirms that beauty is here not simply related to the outer appearance but to an intrinsic insight Rowena lacks. It also makes clear why the narrator is unscrupulous in terrorizing Rowena as is further explained later in this paper.

Another contrast to Ligeia is the young wife in Poe’s “The Oval Portrait.” While she is also depicted as a “maiden of rarest beauty” she lacks the “strangeness”, the mystery, which rounds up Ligeia’s perfect beauty (Poe, “Portrait” 67). She is to be seen in context of art. In this story, the conventional notion of art preserving life is challenged since it “alternates between destruction and preservation” (Bronfen 112). Bronfen explains that the outstanding beauty of the bride is to be preserved. Yet here she is a “representative of natural materiality, simultaneously figures as an aesthetic risk.” As she will get older, her looks will inevitably change. She is “endangering the artwork” so that she must be “removed” (112). Her beauty thus leads to her death.

Another form of depicting beauty is to be found in “Berenice.” While she is said to have had a “gorgeous yet fantastic beauty” when she grew up, the better part of the story focuses on Berenice being worn by a severe illness, “a species of epilepsy not unfrequently terminating in trance itself” (72). The trance can also be found in her “lifeless” eyes (74). Sardonically, it is this state of his cousin that the narrator is shocked yet fascinated by and proposes marriage to her. One can assume that only through this illness which disrupted her prior energetic, bright and extrovert life and confined her to the same state of isolation the narrator has been living all of his life in, she gets within reach of the narrator. Being ill himself, he was always “buried in gloom” (72), not adequate to her life and he “never loved her” (73). But now that she is weak, he enjoys her dependence on him. He seems to abuse his power of her with delight as he states that “bitterly lamenting her fallen and desolate condition, I called to mind that she had loved me long, and, in an evil moment, I spoke to her of marriage” (74). Berenice’s trance induced lifeless eye is thus a symbol for a destroyed beauty and the narrator’s superiority over her which enables him to violate her in the end.

2.2. Superior Knowledge and Imagination

The description of Ligeia’s eyes as brilliantly black while “luminous” reflects her great intelligence and knowledge which the narrator describes as uniquely deep in various fields of study, including mathematical science and a variety of languages (81). Here, Poe is said to have integrated the theory of human optics as presented by Plato. According to the Platonic concept, “the eye is the source of light” (Scheick 80). Plato speaks of the "`eye of the soul´ and of the `light of reason´” coming from within (Jonas 507). This inner light in Ligeia’s luminous eyes then can be seen as representing “the interior light of the imagination shining outwardly through [her] eyes upon the world.” The luminosity in her eyes is thus not reflected light but emanating imagination from within (Scheick 81). Her great imagination which is depicted as enabling her to leave and transcend the real and material word is otherworldly, just like her beauty and her intrinsic passion and will. An indicator for her gift of imagination is given in the fact that she is the author of the poem “The Conqueror Worm.” Because of this, Kennedy goes so far as to title her the “personification of the poetic principle” (120). He also sees the name Ligeia rhyming with “Idea” as a proof for her pronounced imagination (115). Her musical voice completes the picture of a very creative and artistic character.

During the joint study of the narrator and his wife Ligeia, he indulges in the “many mysteries of the transcendentalism” she emanates. Yet it is important to note that, although the narrator shows admiration for his wife’s great knowledge and wishes to also access a transcendent state, he is not able to match her level of knowledge at all (82). He willfully subordinates himself to her as he compares his relation to her like a child’s towards his mother. The narrator notes how he trusts with a “child-like confidence” that he will gain admission to the knowledge through her guidance.

With how vast a triumph−with how vivid a delight−with how much of all that is ethereal in hope−did I feel, as she bent over me in studies but little sought−but less known−that delicious vista by slow degrees expanding before me, down whose long, gorgeous, and all untrodden path, I might at length pass onward to the goal of a wisdom too divinely precious not to be forbidden! (82)

Note how the terms “vast … triumph” and “vivid … delight” refer to a child-like exuberance and overestimation of one’s own capabilities at the beginning of the metaphorical path towards wisdom. The “delicious vista” is her divine insight that the narrator yearns for. Nevertheless, the reader understands that after some years, his expectations have not been fulfilled. He has not grown up, walked to the end of the path and received divine insight but exemplifies the “juvenile character of his dependency” (Kennedy 120) on Ligeia in the following quote: “Without Ligeia I was but a child groping benighted” (82). By looking into her eyes, he can get a glimpse at a world of wisdom, yet it remains beyond his reach for “his imaginative desire has outrun his capabilities” (Basler 365). One could argue that the impossibility of Ligeia passing on her knowledge can also be symbolized by the distinct blackness of her eyes as black is understood to be a color which absorbs light, but does not reflect it. Accordingly, her inner capability of imagination and wisdom may be visible in her luminous eyes, but it is not transferred to the narrator. Regarding the narrator as having been in contact with “the realm of the Ideal” represented by Ligeia’s eyes, it is clear to see that he “seeks even unto madness to recreate his lost ecstasy” which also proves to be the drive behind killing Rowena (Gargano 338).

To undermine the argument of the eye as a symbol for a great intrinsic knowledge and imagination in the Platonic sense, one can find a very similar description of the eye in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This time, however, the eyes belong to a male character, Roderick Usher. Very much like Ligeia’s eyes, Roderick’s eye is defined as “large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison” (Poe, “Usher” 90). Again, this luminosity correlates to Plato’s theory of the “interior light of the imagination” (Scheick 81). It is used to “convert sight into a symbol of intense imagination which suggests a withdrawal from the world of sensations” (Marín-Ruíz 58). Roderick Usher is described as an artistic character as he is a painter of an “idea” and playing various instruments (92). Whereas Ligeia derives her great wisdom and insight from heavy literature and philosophical theories, for Usher it is the engagement with art which is depicted as enabling him to reach the realm of imagination. Similar to the account in “Ligeia,” the narrator also proves to be unfit in equaling Roderick’s mental capabilities. In other words, he is also rendered inferior to the main protagonist.

A similar presentation of a female character in terms of profound knowledge is found in “Morella.” Morella’s eyes are “meaning” and full of “lustre” (69), which can also be referred to Plato’s concept of an inner light signaling a great knowledge and wisdom. Her “powers of mind,” the narrator states, are “gigantic” (68). Like Ligeia, Morella is said to be very well versed in literature and different philosophical concepts. And she too is depicted as “imaginative” (69) and having a “music of her voice” (68). In addition, in both Ligeia and Morella, a deep knowledge and study are connected with isolation and “withdrawal from the world rather than engagement with it” (Zanger 535). While the narrator in “Ligeia” chooses an abbey in the “least frequented portions of fair England (83), Morella’s narrator prefers the “rigorous seclusion of [his] home” (Poe, “Morella” 70). Further similarities between the two characters can be found in Morella’s superiority over the narrator as he admits to have “abandoned [himself] implicitly to the guidance of [his] wife” in following her studies. But unlike the narrator in Ligeia who clearly enjoyed taking part in his lover’s transcendent thinking, the subordinate position the narrator in “Morella” takes seems to displease him. In fact, the strangeness of the studied topics seems to be so severe and the discrepancy between his capability of understanding and that of Morella so wide that his prior fascination with her turns into “horror” (68) and he longs for her death “with an earnest and consuming desire.” Her “meaning eyes” which seem to see into his soul then cause a sickening feeling in him and are thus directly linked with violent and deathly thoughts (69).

Shortly before her death, Morella gives birth to a girl who “breathed not until the mother breathed no more” (70). What started with a loving relationship between the narrator and his child quickly changes as his ten year old daughter shows first signs of a surprisingly mature wisdom and passion, again being symbolized by the eye which is “full and speculative.” As he realizes the resemblance, further even, the sameness, the child shares with Morella, as exemplified by “Morella’s own intense and bewildering meaning eyes” looking “into the depths of [his] soul”, he is again overcome with a feeling of horror (70). To the readers he presents the child to be a reincarnation of his late wife. The feeling of horror upon this discovery, triggered by her eyes, causes him to name the child Morella. The utterance of her name proclaims her doomed and thereby kills her. Before she dies, she turns her “glassy eyes from the earth to heaven.” A glassy eye can be seen as lifeless and blurried, whereas her upward glance can be a sign for her unearthliness and ability to leave the material world (71).

2.3. Will Power and Passion

While the narrator in “Ligeia” is fascinated by the beauty of his wife’s eyes, he is not able to grasp the origin of his fascination. He cannot detect the nature of what he insufficiently calls the “strangeness” and “expression” of her eyes (80). He fails to put his fascination into words as he cannot “define that sentiment, or analyze, or even steadily view it” (81). Ligeia’s eyes are a mystery he cannot solve. This seems to result in a feeling of uneasiness and impatience on part of the narrator. An indication for this is his long pondering of the unique character of Ligeia’s eyes and his claim to be “possessed with a passion to discover” what it was that made his lover’s eyes so unusual. He gets frustrated that he cannot express himself with “mere sound” (81).

He does, however, define the “radiant lustre of her eyes” (82) signaling a burning strength within her. It is in the fullness of Ligeia’s eyes in excitement that he detects “an intensity,” a power of will, and a wildness, a “stern passion” of a kind never before encountered by the narrator (81). Her passionate nature is reflected in an “idolatrous” love for the narrator which he holds onto and equally feels for her, even after her death. But the topic of a passion for life and sheer willpower, communicated through her eyes, is also supposed to be relevant for the understanding of Ligeia’s reappearance in the end of the story. A quote attributed to Joseph Glanvill becomes significant in this context since it appears three times throughout the story: it constitutes the epitaph of the story, is recited by the narrator, and by Ligeia herself, in her final moments before death: “Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will” (83). The crucial essence of this passage is that only the weak willed people die, or, turned around, it claims that those with a will strong enough can escape and defy death. Ligeia’s utterance of those her last words may then be seen as foreshadowing her reappearance as her strong willpower to hang onto life allowed her to defy death and be revived. The dramatic solution of the mysterious revival and dying of Rowena’s body is reached when the narrator identifies the woman to be Ligeia. And he does so by recognizing her eyes, or more precisely, the expression of her eyes that are again described as being “wild” (88). From this it can be derived that an unmatched power of will and a fierce passion are made to have brought her back to life.

In “Morella” the female character’s will power and life force is not demonstrated by an outright description of her eye. Nevertheless, she seems to have a certain foresight which the narrator lacks. The narrator recalls her being “conscious of a cause, to [him] unknown, for the gradual alienation” of the narrator. She has an insight into his feelings which he himself cannot verbalize and she had seen the signs for his growing aversion all along. Moreover, she foresees her reappearance in form of her daughter: “I am dying, yet shall I live” (Poe, “Morella” 69). She thereby displays a life force and will very similar to that of Ligeia. She predicts his life to be full of misery before she turns away from him, thus averting her eyes and disrupting his attempt to understand the world within her eyes. Her will for life is supposedly successful as she can be seen as returning in the body of her daughter proven by her empty grave.

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