After Ligeia dies, the narrator of "Ligeia" can’t stand to be in their city by the Rhine and, with no lack of wealth, buys an abbey in a wild, remote part of England. The devastated appearance of the old building perfectly describes how he feels,
and he doesn’t want to repair it. But inside the building, he
has hope of lifting the mood, and decks it outwith luxurious draperies and carvings and decorations. But the narrator doesn’t want to talk too much about these things. He goes onto the most important room of the abbey, the bridal chamber,
where he married his new wife, Lady Rowena of Tremaine. He isn’t sure how it happened that the family of the bride allowed their daughter to marry him.
Fitting Poe’s tendency to connect place and person, the narratorfinds the old city tarnished by the memory of Ligeia. But his escapedoes not free him from this condition. He chooses an old, Gothicabbey, which represents the grieving, maddened state of his mind.By confining himself in this way, and surrounding himself with rich,dark decorations, the narrator only exaggerates his dark mood.But he can describe the bridal chamber perfectly. It is a pentagonal room
at the top of a high turret, with a venetian glass window covering one of the five sides. This glass was such a dim color that it transformed the light that entered the room and made everything look sickly. There are vines growing over the walls and the ceiling is carved oak with many elaborate
Gothic figures shaped in the wood. There’s an incense burner in the center of the ceiling and many other Eastern decorations and granite figures in the corners standing over the proceedings like tomb sculptures.
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