Ligeia is a master piece of literary work presented by Edger Allen Poe. The author is known for his special style of horror and thrill in his writing. He has capacity to draw the attention of reader till the end of stories. Allen Poe has beautifully portrayed different emotions together in the story to make it mesmerizing for the readers. As claimed by the writer, Legia is one of his best works. The paper is intending to present an overview of Ligeia and further goes to discuss one of several themes of the story.
Ligeia is one of the most interesting and thrilling literary work by Edgar Allan Poe that makes readers very excited. The story is true reflection of author’s extraordinary skills and unique style of writing. The story of Ligeia was published in the year 1838. The story revolves around a woman named Ligeia and her unnamed narrator who is also husband of Legiea. Narrator is very depressed but gives a detailed account of legia’s life and his own life. Author portrays Ligeia as a combination of extraordinary beauty with brain. Narrator begins the story by describing beauty of Ligeia, her curly raven hair, black eyes and her musical language. The narrator further describes where they met and how she was died. After death of Ligeia narrator marry to Rowena, another beautiful woman. Narrator was unable to forget Ligeia even after his second marriage. His married life with Rowena was loveless and unhappy. After one month of marriage Rowena also fell ill and died. The narrator did not bury her body and kept it overnight. He saw that dead Rowena was transformed into live Ligeia.
Theme - Love and Hate:
In his story, Poe depicts a common theme of love and hate throughout the story. The narrator was deeply in love with his wife Ligeia. He was dependent on her for each and everything. After death of Ligeia he was all alone but being a practical man, He tries to forget her and move ahead in his life. He reflected this by forgetting her name at one place while narrating the story. Life never stops for someone and narrator also moves on in his life and marries another women. But he was unable to forget Ligeia. The author depicted unconditional love of narrator for ligeia. His love for Ligeia was so strong that he never paid any attention to Rowena. Ligeia’s extraordinary beauty and unmatchable intelligence always overshadow Rowena. Narrator tries his best to forget Ligeia and live his life in present but was unable to do so. When Rowena realizes the fact that her husband still loves his first wife, she felt very depressed and dejected. In very less time after her marriage to narrator, she gone under depression, fell ill and died very soon.
Ligeia also loved her husband so much that she never wanted to die. Her will to remain live pull her back from the death. Author tries to show here that if a person has strong will to remain live he can comeback even from the burial ground. Legia was having some super powers which let her enter into Rowena’s body and converted her into Ligeia. The author here depicted the true love of husband and wife that brought wife back to live. Edger Allen Poe is known for such work in which love and death are related. Ligeia story is somewhat similar to other works of Author like“Morella” as well as “Berenice”. In other two stories women strong will power does not kept them dead for a long period. In another story “The Fall of the House of Usher”; the main character Madeline was blessed with supernatural power to live. The systematic arrangement, incidents and other aspects Ligeia differentiate it from other similar type of works. Author as well as readers also claims Ligeia to be the best among other similar stories of writer.
The authors presented various psychological composite situations by describing two completely opposite feelings i.e. love and hate. Author very brilliantly combined these two opposite feelings in a same story by same person as if they are bounded to be together. In Ligeia Narrator is true example of such feelings. Narrator’s love for Ligeia and hate for Rowena were brilliantly put together by Allen Poe. Author not only simply portrayed but was able to make readers feel these two emotions successfully. If observed very closely, it is not that difficult to find out that Allen Poe’s work is highly influenced by S. Freud works. These two different feelings are influenced by various factors like mental condition, emotional attachment, past experiences, time, place and the like.
After having observed the abovementioned analysis of the Legia and different expressions of author, it is good to conclude that author has portrayed the characters, emotions and incidents of the story in an observable sequence. The author has done his job in the most perfect way that attracts the readers and further impresses them after they finish the book. He has presented love and hate as one of the main themes of the story and kept the readers mesmerized with it. It is difficult for the readers to leave the book without completing it, once started reading it. After several decades of its inception, the book is still read and liked by the readers in a very enthusiastic manner. After reading Ligiea, it is not difficult to read why author himself is very impressed with his own creation and considers it the best among several other literary works of him.
