Poe's Stories brief biography of edgar allan poe
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Short Story By Flannery OConnor
| narrator in a horrible parallel situation—in which reason and scientific inquiry themselves seem to become nonsense. The ship is surrounded by night and now walls of ice. The narrator of "Manuscript" admits he was silly to be afraid of the rough sea previously, as all of those terrors are mild compared to the sheer force of the ocean here. The ship is rushing headlong as if on an unstoppable tide. The narrator is terrified. But he is also very curious. He knows that they are heading fora vey interesting discovery and the ferocity of the ship’s drive forward makes him excited to find out what wilderness they will uncover. Beyond the strange breed of men that the narrator has found on board the foreign ship, the sea—nature— is still the ultimate force arrayed against him. It is an unbeatable, unsympathetic antagonist. Its ability to transform and present sublime depths and heights that dwarf even this huge ship, shows that the natural world is uncontrollable. Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2017 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 18 The crew has the appearance of eagerness and impatience, as if they too are waiting for this discovery. But then, the ice around them opens and the ship is being pulled into the icy current. The narrator of "Manuscript" knows this is it. They are plunging into the whirlpool. He narrates as they go, and the last words area fearful going down.” Having setup the form of the story as a kind of diary, Poe stays right in the center of the present action so that when the sea finally turns against the ship, we follow the narrator’s monologue to his demise and we, as readers, are ourselves immersed in the horror of the whirlpool. LIGEIA The narrator of "Ligeia" cannot remember how he came to know Ligeia. He says his memory has become weak through years of suffering. Or perhaps it is because Ligeia’s qualities affected him so gradually and imperceptibly. Anyway, he remembers meeting her in an old city near the Rhine, but cannot place what was mentioned of her family and now struggles to remember even her paternal name. Like many of Poe’s narratives, Ligeia begins with a memory. But the narrator’s efforts to conjure the memory of Ligeia—his wife—are unclear. Ligeia’s origins area mystery, even to her husband. The figure of Ligeia is immediately linked to an indistinct, dream-like feeling, and in this way she becomes connected also to all longing or senses of loss. There is only one aspect of Ligeia that the narrator of "Ligeia" does not ever fail to remember, the form and appearance of her. He remembers how quietly she walked, and could enter a room without one knowing. And he remembers the low tone of her voice. She is radiant like a specter, with pale skin and her beauty is unusual. He knows that her figure is somehow irregular but it seems exquisite to him in its strangeness, and he can’t quite place how it is irregular. Her features are fine, delicate, like porcelain. All of her qualities present themselves like those of Greek Goddesses to the narrator. But one aspect shines above the rest – Ligeia’s large eyes The list of descriptors create a powerful impression of Ligeia. Her quietness, her ability to sneak upon the narrator, her low voice, and pale skin—all of these features combine to create an image of a ghostly, ethereal woman. She seems already to be haunting the narrator, in a way. These eyes are larger than human eyes usually are – there is something animal about them. They are usually only slightly noticeable but when Ligeia gets excited, they enlarge and their size and blackness become intensely strange. But though the form of Ligeia’s eyes is haunting, it is their expression that he really remembers. The narrator of "Ligeia" says he has spent hours thinking about this expression, trying to understand its power. He calls them divine orbs, and they seem to have an almost religious power over him. Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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