The document provides background information on Edgar Allan Poe and summarizes his short story "Ligeia". It describes the plot where an unnamed narrator recalls his deceased first wife Ligeia and later remarries another woman, Lady Rowena. However, Rowena also mysteriously falls ill and dies. The narrator is then shocked to see Rowena's corpse reawaken, realizing it is actually his first wife Ligeia returned from the dead. The document also analyzes themes, symbols, characters, and style elements in Poe's story.

1. Prepared by Ahmad Ashour

2. Edgar allan poe
•Born in Boston 1809
•Died in Maryland 1849
•The father of Gothic/horror fiction
•The father of detective fiction
•The father of short story

3. Summary:
Ligeia is a story about an unnamed man. He recalls
his first wife ligeia and describes her in great detail,
he talks about how he doesn't remember much about
her besides her unusual features. For example he
talks about her eyes that were Raven colored and her
naturally curly hair that matched her eyes. For the
most part the way that the man describes his
admiration and love for Ligeia is ideal, until she
becomes mysteriously ill, the man then tells about his
wife dimishing appearance as ligeia dies the man
reads her a poem in which she composed by herself
just days before.Devastated by ligeia's death then
move to England and eventually remarries a lady
named lady Rowena

4. They live happy until the man realizes that Rowena
doesn't love him, after about two months of
marriage Rowena falls mysteriously ill just like
ligeia did, as her health depletes, Rowena passes
away as well, The day after her death color returns
back to Rowena and she moans. More color returns
to her face but unexpectedly she becomes icy cold
once again and doesn't make a sound,Soon after this
happens, the man has a terrible encounter with
Rowena's reawakening corpse.This time though, as
she rises and walks towards the man, he realizes that
it's his beloved ligeia.

5. Characters :
• 1- The Narrator : a learned man enslaved to the
memory of a woman whose powerful will once
triumphed over death itself to return to him.
Half insane through grief after Ligeia’s death,
and addicted to opium, he nevertheless
remarries. Forgetful of Ligeia for a month, he
abandons himself to Lady Rowena; but memory
returns, and love turns to hatred and loathing.
He witnesses (or so he believes) the dropping of
poison into some wine he gives Rowena when
she is ill. After Rowena’s death, he is awed by
the rising of her corpse, which he recognizes not
as that of Rowena but of his lost Ligeia.

6. 2- Legeia : she’s the first wife of the Narrator And
she had a Raven naturally colored hair with large
beautiful black eyes, with long and jetty lashes and
slightly irregular black brows, she falls mysteriously
ill and dies but eventually she Returns from the
grave And Haunts her husband and his new bride.
3- Lady Rowena :The narrator's second wife. Rowena
lives in dread of he narrator's temper, and he, in turn,
despises her. Around the second month of their
marriage, she becomes very ill, and after seeing many
frightening visions and hearing unexplained sounds
that are dismissed as a symptom of fever, she dies,
only to live again as the Lady Ligeia.

7. Themes:
• Mortality
• In "Ligeia," death is never the end. Right fromthe start we're forced to consider
that, though dying is probably the end, there's a small possibilitythat people can
overcome it and return to life
• Appearance
• Appearance. When it comes to Ligeia, our narrator's obsessedwith it. He can
remember every line and every curve of his beloved wife's body. And yet, even
then, he can't really describe her. There's a certain something that simply can't be
captured in words, that liesoutside – or maybe inside – of her looks, that'shidden
in her expression. It's a strange situation: there's so much description, and yet
there's so little to it. Like the narrator'sbizarre bridal chamber, appearance may
seem to be a simple thing to describe, but if you look at it froma different
perspective, it's all too easy to get lost in the details.
• Versions of Reality
• Poe offers us a single perspective in "Ligeia," and it's definitely not a
straightforwardone. Our narrator is an opium addict and he's stuck living in the
past. He's a man who hallucinatesand even induces hallucinations in his wife by
way of a cruel hall of mirrors. The longer we read "Ligeia," the more questionable
our narrator becomes. By the time Ligeia finally risesfromthe dead, we really have
to wonder if we can believe what the narrator is telling us.

8. • Drugs and Alcohol
• Opium is a drug that was legal back in Poe's day. It can
cloud the memory, induce visions, and blur the line
between dreams and reality. In "Ligeia," it does all that –
to our narrator. As such, we're forced to share in his
habit, to see the world through drug-clouded lenses. His
addiction is a sign of his suffering – you'd like to imagine
he wouldn't be using the opium if Ligeia hadn't died –
and it affects the very fabric of the story he's sharing.
When he tells us that his hallucinations (the shadow on
the carpet and the red drops in the goblet) might be the
consequence of his opium high, we have to question
everything he has been saying all along.

9. Symbols:
1- The way Ligeia is described points to two things: unreal, and almost vampiric. Many
attribute this to the narrator’s love for his wife,and how the humanmind and heart turn
blind and glorify those we love. Others focus more on the vampiric descriptions and
supernatural ending,claiming Ligeia hassucked the happiness and sense of reality from the
narrator
2- The narrator’s use of Opium is well-notedin the story,and it is said that what he sees in
the end is a mere hallucination.
3- Ligeia is describedas knowing all about “forbidden” wisdom,the metaphysical, etc.
While some argue saying that thisis symbolic for everything one learns from a partner, and
everything you pick up on and contemplate whenyou’re in love,othersargue that it’sa
metaphor for everything that could be in a person, everything too good to be true, and ends
tragically
4- The narrator callsLigeia’s eyes the twin starsof Leda, referring to the twin sons she had
after being seducedby Zeus, whom we commonly refer to as the zodiac sign Gemini. This
meansLigeia could be a Gemini,but what is commonly acceptedis that Poe was making the
point that her eyes are worthy of being compared to celestial beings. Her eyesare beyond
what could be expected from a mere human, even if it is only in the narrator’s mind.

10. Conflict :
• Edgar Allan Poe's “Ligeia” revolves around the classic
mental conflict between good and evil. In the short story, Poe uses
careful diction, historical allusions, and metaphors to subtly hint
that Ligeia does not exist literally, but rather serves as a metaphor for
the narrator's evil attributes.
Gothic Fiction
Poe's ability to look at something as terrifying as Ligeia's resurrection
romantically, through the eyes of her former lover, is what makes the
tale more than a simple horror story. It's that strange mixture of love and
death, all set in a spooky old abbey that makes it super Gothic.
Style :

11. ~ Setting :
When the narrator is married to Ligeia, they live "near the Rhine,"
indicating a residence in Germany. After her death, much of the action
moves to England - specifically, to a bridal chamber in the narrator's new
home, a chamber he shares with his second wife Rowena...
• Point of View :The narrator of Ligeia is not unreliable in the
sense that he is criminally-minded or insane, but he is
somewhat obsessed with his beloved Ligeia, which puts
much of what he says into question. He also admits, after
her death, that he was often high on opium, which also
lends his voice an air of unreliability. Unlike in other tales,
however, this narrator’s reliability is not so much an issue as
the tale that Poe is telling is more about the love between
the narrator and Ligeia, and the effects of that love, than on
the actual action.