"Ligeia"
is an early short
story by American
writer Edgar
Allan Poe, first
published in 1838.
The
unnamed narrator
describes the qualities
of Ligeia, a beautiful,
passionate and intellectual
woman, raven-haired
and dark-eyed, that
he thinks he remembers
meeting "in
some large, old
decaying city near
the Rhine."
He is unable to
recall anything
about the history
of Ligeia, including
her family's name,
but remembers her
beautiful appearance.
Her
beauty, however,
is not conventional.
He describes her
as emaciated, with
some "strangeness".
He describes her
face in detail,
from her "faultless"
forehead to the
"divine orbs"
of her eyes. They
marry, and Ligeia
impresses her husband
with her immense
knowledge of physical
and mathematical
science, and
her proficiency
in classical
languages. She
begins to show her
husband her knowledge
of metaphysical
and "forbidden"
wisdom.
Ligeia by Harry Clarke,1919
After
an unspecified length
of time, Ligeia
becomes ill,
struggles internally
with human mortality,
and ultimately
dies. The narrator,
grief-stricken,
buys and refurbishes
an abbey in England.
He soon enters into
a loveless marriage
with "the fair-haired
and blue-eyed Lady
Rowena Trevanion,
of Tremaine."
In
the second month
of the marriage,
Rowena begins to
suffer from worsening
fever and anxiety.
One night, when
she is about to
faint, the narrator
pours her a goblet
of wine. Drugged
with opium, he sees
(or thinks he sees)
drops of "a
brilliant and ruby
colored fluid"
fall into the goblet.
Her condition rapidly
worsens, and
a few days later
she dies and
her body is wrapped
for burial.
As
the narrator keeps
vigil overnight,
he notices a
brief return of
color to Rowena's
cheeks. She
repeatedly shows
signs of reviving,
before relapsing
into apparent death.
As he attempts resuscitation,
the revivals become
progressively stronger,
but the relapses
more final. As dawn
breaks, and the
narrator is sitting
emotionally exhausted
from the night's
struggle, the
shrouded body revives
once more, stands
and walks into the
middle of the room.
When he touches
the figure, its
head bandages fall
away to reveal masses
of raven hair and
dark eyes: Rowena
has transformed
into Ligeia.
The
story is supposed
to be the narrator's
opium-induced
hallucination and
there is debate
whether it was
a satire or
not. After the story's
first publication
in The American
Museum, it was
heavily revised
and reprinted throughout
Poe's life.
(Fonte:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligeia)
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