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Close Reading Notes: LIGEIA
by Edgar Allan Poe
1838
1 September 2003
Poe opens the tale of Ligeia with what appears to be an arcane, impenetrable metaphysical pronouncement:
And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. ... Life is the point of Ligeia!
The reader ultimately learns Ligeia is faithful and loyal, her will is not "feeble" and her mystical wisdom is "pervading". Ligeia consciously recognizes the fact that the "great will" of God " and Its "intentness" pervades "all things", including her "passion" for living. Ligeia does not simply return to life, she never "yielded [herself] to the angels, nor unto death utterly", rather she applied her understanding of the oneness of life and the neutrality of Gods will by focusing that will into her all pervading passion for living on the earth plane with her beloved, hence, suffusing the mind and body of Lady Rowena. It is interesting to note the adjective: liege, if one is dyslexic, can be mistaken for the correct spelling of Ligeia and is defined as “faithful, loyal( Merriam). ...
"I CANNOT, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. ...
Poe sets a dark tone immediately, for example, the narrator’s memory is made feeble “through much suffering…” He likens Ligeia and his marriage to something ominous, yet beautiful and pure, as evil often appears. ... "
Throughout the story, Ligeia is characterized as mystical or supernatural. ... html
Another clear and direct reference to Ligeia as supernatural: a goddess with special powers and access to wisdom generally hidden from mere humans: the sisters were turned to "doves" to escape a dilemma.
Poe idolizes and worships Ligeia--- character whom symbolizes his ideal and yearned for woman--- his anima? Although, Poe worships Ligeia, he colours her "dark" and evil--- funny, a woman with immense power, knowledge, will and the ability to bend the "intentness" and "vigor" of the will of God is categorically deemed evil, vampire-like; a dark goddess… humph! ... Further, showing the vast wisdom of Ligeia and himself by comparing his protagonist to atomic theory/laughing Greek philosopher and a half-goddess who has the personal attention of Zeus in swan form: symbol of transformation, purity and divinity all rolled into one! ...
The passage below is "penitent", ahhha, so lovely and subtly sensuous a description of loving a woman and her mind… notice all the sexual symbols:
"that delicious vista by slow degrees expanding before me, [like swelling lips, labia and areola] down whose long, gorgeous, and all untrodden path, [like "down" long legs… Ligeia was tall, like "going down", like the "untrodden path" of a virgins vagina] I might at length pass onward to the goal of a wisdom too divinely precious not to be forbidden! ... Yet although the external abbey, with its verdant decay hanging about it, suffered but little alteration,"
Enter deep, dark, attic "chamber" and fair, young maiden (Ligeia and her consciousness is the locked secret):
"Let me speak only of that one chamber, ever accursed, whither in a moment of mental alienation, I led from the altar as my bride --as the successor of the unforgotten Ligeia --the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine.
Approximate Word count = 2323
Approximate Pages = 9.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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