EDGAR ALLAN POE AND FEMALE VICTIMIZATION
Thesis
Submitted to
The College of Arts and Sciences of the
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of
Master of Arts in English
By
Xi Li
Dayton, Ohio
December 2018
ii
EDGAR ALLAN POE AND FEMALE VICTIMIZATION
Name: Li, Xi
APPROVED BY:
Bryan. A. Bardine, Ph.D. David J. Fine, Ph.D.
Advisory Committee Chairman Committee Member
Associate Professor of English Assistant Professor
Department of English Department of English
Kara Getrost, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Lecture of English
Department of English
Tereza M. Szeghi, Ph.D. Andrew Slade, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Associate Professor and Chair
Director of Graduate Studies Academic Chair, UDayton Global
Department of English Department of English
iii
ABSTRACT
EDGAR ALLAN POE AND FEMALE VICTIMIZATION
Name: Li, Xi
University of Dayton
Advisor: Dr. Bryan A. Bardine
This is an essay about feminist theories and five of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic
stories: “Ligeia,” “Morella,” “Berenice,” “The Black Cat” and “The Oval Portrait.”
Different than many essays that have similar topics and criticize Poe’s patriarchal
thoughts, this essay examines the overlap between Poe’s gothic stories and feminist
theories and analyzes Poe’s feminist ideas and thoughts. This essay argues that there is a
feminist element in Poe’s stories, and describes the kind of feminist thought he holds.
This essay introduces some feminist theories that are relevant to victimization in
Poe’s stories. These theories are helpful to understand Poe’s five stories—mainly the
women in these stories, and their relationship with patriarchal power. With the
combination of these feminist theories, this essay analyses some different aspects of the
stories (the female characters’ appearances, sex, the position of females in their family
relationships, children, the dependence and independence females) and it tries to figure
out the overlap between Poe’s stories and feminist theories to determine the kinds of
feminist thought Poe holds. At the same time, this essay reviews previous essays about
Poe and his female characters from scholars who studied Poe and women—
iv
such as their exploration of the images in Poe’s stories, and their positive or negative
comments on Poe’s works. This essay tries to fill the research gap by using feminist
theories to analyze Poe’s feminist thoughts and have a better understanding of the five
stories and the female characters. This essay covers studies beyond the Western world
and introduces some Eastern voices.
Victimization regards women as victims of patriarchal power. With the help of
theories about female victims that Virginia Woolf mentions in Three Guineas and “A
Room of One’s Own,” Germaine Greer’s theory about victims in The Female Eunuch,
victim feminism that Diane Long Hoeveler examines in Gothic Feminism, Karen
Weekes’ opinions of the husband/inflictor and wife/victim in “Poe’s Feminine Ideal” and
so on, this essay determines that although Poe represents some traditional and domestic
women in his stories, he creates some independent females who pursue the agency of sex
and knowledge at the same time, such as Ligeia and Berenice. Poe praises their beauty,
charms or characteristics of all these women in his stories. Poe is aware of the pressure of
patriarchal power on women: no matter what kind of woman—traditional or
progressive—the women in Poe’s stories choose to be: they all suffer oppression from
their lovers or destiny; in other words, Poe shows them as victims in a patriarchal world.
Therefore, Poe did not ignore or loathe the progressive women in his stories and his
understanding of females was similar to victimization.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am very grateful for Dr. Bryan Bardine, my advisor, who helped me to finish
this thesis step by step and directed my work patiently. At the same time, I am
appreciative to Dr. David Fine and Dr. Kara Getrost, who read my work and gave me a
lot of kindly advice about the theory or arguments.
My thanks are also in order to my parents, who supported me and encouraged me
to finish the project, and Dr. Tereza Szeghi, who helped me to arrange my working
schedule.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii
DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................4
APPEARANCE ................................................................................................................18
INDEPENDENCE, DEPENDENCE AND INTELLIGENCE..........................................26
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................37
WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................40
1
INTRODUCTION
As one of the most famous American writers, Edgar Allan Poe created several
genres of literature: he is the pioneer of American Gothic literature, and the inventor of
detective fiction and science fiction. Poe had multiple identities, too: he is a literary critic,
a poet, an editor, and a novelist. However, though he made many contributions in
different areas of literature, Poe’s most famous works are his short gothic stories–such as
“The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” Among all
of his short stories, besides the horrific atmosphere, the most obvious element in Poe’s
stories might be women.
In his life, Poe had relationships with many women, and he lost many of them,
including his mother and his wife, Virginia. Like his life experience, his stories contain
many dead female characters. Because the female characters in his stories are so
prevalent, these “dead ladies” invoke many scholarly discussions. However, although the
keyword of the study of Poe’s stories is “female,” not many scholars use feminist theories
to analyze and understand Poe’s female characters. This becomes an empty gap that is
worth exploring. Besides reviewing the essays of scholars who study Poe and the female
characters in his stories, this paper will fill this gap and use a feminist theory to analyze
Poe’s works. Unlike many Western scholars who critique Poe’s thought as only
patriarchal, this paper will try to understand the female characters in Poe’s stories and
explore Poe’s feminist thought, too.
2
This paper selects five of Poe’s short stories— “Ligeia,” “The Black Cat,” “The
Oval Portrait,” “Morella” and “Berenice,” and analyzes the female characters and their
relationships with their husbands or lovers. Since all of the women in these stories died
because of a mysterious disease (such as Berenice’s disease) or their male lovers’
persecution, it is obvious that these women become victims. Therefore, this paper will
use feminist theory, which is relevant to victimization, to analyze and understand Poe’s
stories and his opinions about feminism.
Victimization has a long history among feminist theories. A kind of feminist
theory, victim feminism, believes that women’s power or agency is suppressed by males,
and they easily become victims in the patriarchal society or because of patriarchal power,
and this victimization of women is also shown in Poe’s stories. In other words,
victimization does not mean to blame women who become passive victims; it tries to let
people notice the patriarchy’s persecution of women. Poe does not mean women’s nature
is weak; the victimization of the female characters is because of the mistreatment by
patriarchy. This paper will separate the analysis of the female characters and
victimization into several parts, and it will explore whether females become victims by
analyzing several aspects, such as the female characters’ appearances, sexuality, the
position of the women in their family relationships, intelligence, and the dependence and
independence of the women.
Many feminists’ works contain the thought that females become victims because
of patriarchal power. The root of feminism was already developed in the 19th century, the
period that Poe lived, and some feminists, such as Mary Wollstonecraft (who died just 12
years before Poe’s birth), published her theory which argued that women become victims
3
in their families and are discriminated against by males. Thirty-three years after Poe’s
death, another famous feminist—Virginia Woolf was born, and Woolf’s essay, “A Room
of One’s Own,” explores how women become victims in academic or literary worlds.
Many contemporary feminists also analyze female victims in their works, such as
Germaine Greer, who explores how women become victims in sexual relationships, and
Diane Long Hoeveler, who explores the female victims in Gothic literature. All in all, in
order to have a better understanding of Poe and his thoughts of women, this paper will
explore how to use victimization to analyze his stories about women.
4
LITERATURE REVIEW
From East to West, between feminism and patriarchy, scholars’ opinions of Poe’s
short gothic stories and their female characters are varied and complex. This literature
review will introduce some previous studies about Poe and the female characters in his
stories, trying to tease out the scholars’ opinions on Poe’s thoughts on feminism and/or
patriarchy. This review utilizes not only the works of Western scholars (like Karen
Weekes and Debra Johanyak), but also the works of Eastern scholars (such as Qing Li
and Zongwei Song). At the same time, it contains introductions to feminist theories that
are relevant to victimization, which this capstone project will use in the analysis.
In the Western academic world, like many male authors in 19th-20th centuries,
Edgar Allan Poe is not regarded as a writer who supports feminism by many scholars.
Indeed, Poe’s works are criticized by some feminist scholars since the female characters
in his stories often die and are quiet. As Lasse Bundgård argues in his essay, “Gender
Roles in Edgar Allan Poe,” the dying female characters “stand out to the gender-aware
reader, as women solely serving a role in death could be, and has been, interpreted as a
devaluation of women and a display of misogyny” (5). Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
are the “gender aware reader[s]” that Bundgård mentions in the essay. In their famous
feminist book, The Madwoman in the Attic, Gilbert and Gubar present Poe as a typical
sexist. They argue that the dead and quiet female characters mean that Poe holds serious
patriarchal thoughts that deprive women’s agency and ignores women’s will and rights
5
(Gilbert et. 33). As The Madwoman in the Attic is influential to feminist writers, Gilbert
and Gubar’s opinion represents many feminists’ opinions on Poe, and it can answer the
question why few people would like to use feminist literary theory to analyze Poe’s
works.
Another scholar with the interpretation that Poe is a misogynist is Jessica Akiona,
the author of “Edgar Allan Poe and His Refusal to Let Women Freely Indulge.” In this
article, Akiona explores Poe’s attitude towards the issue of alcohol by analyzing Poe’s
short stories “The Black Cat,” “The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether” and so on.
Then, the author draws a conclusion that in Poe’s opinion, men have the right to “drink
and act freely” while women should keep their purity, and female drinkers are “scorned,
dismantling their reputation” (7). In other words, the author points out that Poe stands on
the patriarchal side, as she argues that Poe is more tolerant to the male drinkers in his
stories and demands women follow morals more strictly. However, although the
descriptions of female and male drinkers are analyzed by the author, while criticizing
Poe’s patriarchal stance, she seems to not be aware that in Poe’s stories, the number of
male drinkers is much higher than the number of female drinkers. Akiona believes the
male drinkers imply Poe’s tolerance to males’ misbehavior; but on the other side, it also
can be understood as an implication of regarding alcohol as a bigger and broader issue of
men. After all, while Poe seems more inclined to write about male characters drinking,
the behavior of these male drinkers—such as the husband’s action in “The Black Cat”—
usually causes serious consequences that Poe might be criticizing. For example, in the
end of “The Black Cat,” Poe implies the husband will be punished by the police and law:
“The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of
6
the spectators,” which means the policemen already found out that the narrator had
murdered his wife (“The Black Cat”).
Similar to Akiona’s article, although using a more complex tone, Karen Weekes,
in her essay, “Poe’s Feminine Ideal,” points out that when the female characters in Poe’s
stories break out of the limitation of “stereotyped feminine role[s],” Poe tends to criticize
them rather than praise them (154). Weekes also argues that Eleonora, one of the female
characters in Poe’s story of the same name, shows that the types of women that Poe
prefers are “young, unlearned, impressionable, and completely dedicated to her love for
him” (154). After analyzing Poe’s stories, the words that Weekes uses to describe Poe’s
“ideal woman” in his stories and his life are “unlearned” and “young.” As “young”
women are considered beautiful and innocent, and “unlearned” women are less likely to
hold knowledge and wisdom. These descriptions show that the author believes that Poe
prefers women who do not have much independent thought. Being “dedicated” to males
also stresses Poe’s demand of letting women devote themselves to men and being men’s
subordinates. At the same time, by arguing Poe’s dislike of characters who are more
feminist and who break the traditional “stereotype[s]” of women, Weekes points out
Poe’s disagreement with feminism. In addition to essays like Akiona’s and Weekes’
articles, some essays do not focus on Poe’s feminist or patriarchal thought, but still
provide arguments that support Akiona or Weekes theory. This theory explains women
who do not conform to traditional “stereotype[s]” are not welcomed in Poe’s stories. For
instance, an essay, “The Influence of Place on Identity in Poe’s ‘Morella’ and ‘William
Wilson’” points out that the woman with agency—the woman who jumps out from the
domestic stereotype of female and has feminist characteristics—threatens and torments
7
the male narrator. By analyzing “Morella,” the author Whitney Shylee May admits that
Morella is a female character with “power,” and she argues that Morella becomes a
symbol of danger and is parallel to “cursed lands” (220-221). Therefore, whether arguing
Poe’s preference of the traditional domestic woman, or showing the dislike of female
characters with feminist features, many previous studies explore Poe’s patriarchal
thoughts in different ways.
As mentioned above, the dying female characters in Poe’s stories might be the
reason why only a few feminist scholars use feminist theory to analyze Poe’s works.
However, it must be admitted that there still are some essays using “feminism” to
examine Poe’s work, such as Debra Johanyak’s “Poesian Feminism: Triumph of
Tragedy.” Although this essay argues Poe’s opinion of feminist women and his
preference towards traditional women (in other words, this essay still views Poe as a
patriarchal man is negative), at least Johanyak chooses to use feminist theories and terms,
such as de-feminizing feminism (which means women contain male features instead of
feminine features), to analyze Poe’s stories like “Berenice” and “The Fall of the House of
Usher” (69). When Berenice and Madeline Usher pass their lovers’ library doors,
Johanyak believes these behaviors are de-feminizing as they imply that these two ladies
are challenging men’s intellectual advancements, as the libraries are the embodiments of
males’ traditional authority of intelligence that women are forbidden to touch. After this
challenge, they become “horrific things” instead of female victims, and this change
reflects Poe’s misogyny (69). As feminist theory is the theory that explores the
relationship between women and patriarchy and can help readers to understand Poe’s
opinion on genders, this method of combining feminist theory and the close-reading of
8
Poe’s stories is significant in order to understand the relationship between feminism and
Poe’s female characters.
Except those articles that deny Poe has feminist thoughts directly or implicitly,
konly a few Western articles imply Poe has the possibility of not being an enemy of
feminist thought. In her essay, “Hysteric Vocalizations of the Female Body in Edgar
Allan Poe’s ‘Berenice’,” Kristen Renzi points out that Berenice might become a victim—
as she probably has hysteria and has been mistreated according to the inaccurate
therapeutic method in the 19th century (602). Unlike Gilbert and Gubar’s opinion, Renzi
believes Berenice’s silence in the story does not mean her voice is suppressed by Poe (in
other words, he does not create Berenice as a silent and passive figure), as the record of
Berenice is her “bodily language” which shows her desire and rebellion—it is her way to
“address an uncomprehending male-dominated society,” and the things that the
patriarchal society have done to Berenice are “wrong” (619-632). Poe’s position is like an
objective observer who narrates things that he does not “presume to understand” (632).
Therefore, in Renzi’s view, the dying Berenice is not a sign of Poe’s misogyny, as an
objective observer may not add his like or dislike in the story: he only records the
situation he saw. She quotes D. H. Lawrence’s words in her essay, “Poe is rather a
scientist than an artist.” Renzi seems to regard Poe more like a student or experimenter,
and thus, he will not suppress Berenice’s agency intentionally, and his story can contain
this silent lady’s desire and power.
Being different from many Western studies, the Eastern studies about Poe and the
female characters in his stories point in another direction. Many articles, such as Qing
Li’s “The Female View in Allan Poe’s short stories (when translating to Chinese, Poe’s
9
name is often presented as ‘Allan Poe’ instead of ‘Edgar Allan Poe’),” point out that the
female characters’ characteristics vary, which implies Poe’s imagination and
understanding of different kinds of women. Poe praises the societal or traditional morals
of women of tolerance and kindness, while admitting women’s strong will power and
wisdom (81). As a result, Li’s attitude toward Poe is decisive: Poe shows his feminist
thought in his stories. However, although the topic of this essay is Poe’s feminist thought,
instead of feminist theory, Li uses the concept of the Post-Colonial theory— “self” and
“the other”—to analyze the stories. Li believes that women are “the other[s]” who
become victims because of the “sel[ves],” the men. Poe records their tragic situation and
shows the rebellion of feminist women in his stories, such as Ligeia (80). Similar to Qing
Li, another Chinese scholar, Jia Feng’s “The Analyzation of the Images of ‘The Black
Cat’” comes to a conclusion that females become victims of men’s crimes, and Poe’s
“The Black Cat” criticizes the dark side of human nature. Instead of feminist theory or
the Post-Colonial theory that Qing Li mentions, Feng chooses Freudian theory, and she
uses the concepts of ego, id, and superego to analyze that the second black cat and the
male narrator are the embodiments of evilness, and the fire disaster in the stories shows
Poe’s judgement and punishment of them (72). As a result, although using different
theories to analyze the same topic, both Li and Feng believe Poe stands on the women’s
sides. They do not regard the dying women in Poe’s stories as a showing of Poe’s
misogyny, as these women help Poe to reveal the society’s or the men’s mistreatments of
women. In their opinion, this can show Poe’s sympathy or appreciation to women.
Lijuan Tan’s “The Female Images in Allan Poe’s Horror Stories” focuses on the
dying women in another perspective. Tan believes that death is one of the most important
10
elements in Gothic fiction, and the deaths of women are a way that Poe shows his
understanding of the aesthetics of Gothic Literature. At the same time, the deaths of Poe’s
young wife and mother might be another reason that Poe creates the maidens (such as
Eleonora) and mature women who are full of wisdom (such as Ligeia). Therefore, Tan
implies that the deaths of women are not relevant to the discrimination of women; Poe
has other reasons to arrange their deaths in his stories. And the element of death,
according to Poe’s life experience and the Gothic aesthetic, is pure love. Tan believes that
the females’ deaths in Poe’s stories is his way to reappear and memorize the females’
deaths in his life, and they show Poe’s desire of reunion with the dead—like Ligeia’s
husband, who meets his wife again after her rebirth. Similarly, Zongwei Song and
Shirong Li’s “The Understanding of the Female Characters in Allan Poe’s Stories” agrees
that the idea of the deaths of women is an aesthetic of Gothic Literature. This article
argues that Poe “has the ability to transform his misery to his literary creation,” and an
independent woman such as Ligeia, shows Poe’s desire to improve women’s position
(102). However, although Zongwei Song and Shirong Li wrote an article that is relevant
to feminist literature theory, they do not use exact literary theory to analyze Poe’s stories,
which means in the body paragraphs, they make their argument without using feminist
terms (100). Therefore, as most Eastern and Western scholars do not use feminist theory
in their articles, applying feminist literary theory to the study of Poe and female
characters still is a blank area that waits to be filled.
In general, the scholars who criticize Poe’s patriarchal thought mainly believe that
the deaths of the women who have the feminist features (such as the independent Ligeia)
show Poe dislikes feminism, or the dead women mean that Poe deprives the agency or
11
voice of women. However, the first opinion cannot answer why the traditional and gentle
women died in Poe’s stories, too. The second opinion also is one-sided, as Renzi points
out, the silent women are not actually silent and lose their voices. Unlike the Western
scholars, many Eastern scholars praise Poe’s feminist ideas (such as being sympathetic to
women’s unequal situation); but most of them analyze this topic in a broad way—for
example, exploring the historical background and the environment of Gothic Literature,
while neglecting to use feminist theory to do close-readings. Nevertheless, directly or
implicitly, these articles argue that Poe puts female characters in the position of victims,
and this victimization of women deserves more exploration.
When the female characters in Poe’s stories become victims, the Western scholars
with feminist ideas do not regard it as a sign of feminism. However, victimization is an
element that appears in feminist and gothic literature frequently. The gender—the male
identity—of Poe is not the main reason that the female characters are victimized in his
stories; many gothic fictions represent women as victims of the patriarchal world no
matter whether the authors are women or men. For instance, in the earliest gothic novel,
Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, the three main female characters all suffer due
to Lord Manfred. In another famous novel with a gothic atmosphere, Wuthering Heights,
Emily Bronte, a female writer, also presents Isabella Linton as a poor victim in her
marriage. In her critical book which combines gothic fictions and feminist literature
theory—Gothic Feminism, Diane Long Hoeveler writes that “I would call…gothic
feminism—a version of ‘victim feminism’” (7).
The term “victim feminism” that Hoeveler mentions is a concept that belongs to
feminist theory. Victim feminism believes that women can lose their agency and easily
12
become victims of patriarchal power. In other words, this feminist theory is concerned
with the victimization of women both in social and family relationships (Lamb 275).
Although not all feminist scholars support the idea of victim feminism, the victimization
of women is broadly agreed upon and explored by many famous feminist authors. They
noticed that women become victims in many aspects of their lives—such as when women
are degraded in political or academic worlds, and they suffer abuse from their husbands,
lovers or patriarchal relatives. Although it would be tempting to read victimization as a
description of women’s passive images, reviewing how the social force (patriarchy)
throws women into victimization will invoke readers to think in a feminist way and
notice the negative influence of patriarchy.
Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest and most famous feminists, is mentioned
by Hoeveler in Gothic Feminism, and she believes that Wollstonecraft “creat[es] the
potent ideology that persists…the assumptions of what now goes under the name of
‘victim feminism’” (2). Although Wollstonecraft is English, the origins of English and
American culture are similar, which means that Wollstonecraft’s theory is also suitable
for American women. Wollstonecraft lived between 1759-1797, and Poe was born only
12 years after her death. This implies that they can be roughly considered as authors in
the period of 18th-19th century, and the women’s situations that Wollstonecraft presents in
her book can be similar to the situations that Poe saw around him. Wollstonecraft wrote
Gothic novels, too, which means she could consider the women in Gothic stories in her
feminist works. Therefore, using Wollstonecraft’s theory to understand Poe’s stories can
be sensible, and as the victimization of women becomes one of the most important parts
13
of Wollstonecraft’s theory, as it implies that the female victims in Poe’s stories are Poe’s
way to reflect the situation of women at that time.
In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft points out that women
become victims in many ways. With many famous feminists, Wollstonecraft is against
the male discrimination of females’ wisdom: “When the edu-cation has been the same,
where is the difference between the sexes? The only difference I can see comes from the
fact that soldiers are free to see more of life than women are…” (16). In Wollstonecraft’s
eyes the reason that men are more powerful than women in the academic field is not
because they are more intelligent or superior to women, but because women have less
opportunities to be educated. Even when some women accept education, their agencies
are still limited by men as they are not “free” to gain enough rights to participate in
similarly important roles in society. Therefore, as the women in Wollstonecraft’s analysis
are restricted by the patriarchal society, she implies that society should give women more
chances for education, and the chances to “see more”—such as to work, to run a business,
and to participate in politics.
Another famous feminist, Virginia Woolf, shows similar ideas in her essay, “A
Room of One’s Own.” The time period that Woolf lived in was 1882-1941, when women
still needed to fight for some basic rights that Wollstonecraft mentions in her articles—
such as the right to education. This also implies that compared to the 18th and early 19th
centuries, the situation of females in Woolf’s works may not have changed much. In her
essay, Woolf shows the tragedy of a female writer, Mary Carmichael: “You can't do this
and you shan't do that! Fellows and scholars only allowed on the grass! Ladies not ad-
mitted without alter of introduction!” (78). All the words that Woolf uses, “can’t”
14
“shan’t” and “not ad-mitted” reveal the same truth: when women try to step into the
academic field, they face a strong limitation, bias and control from men. Therefore, the
role that male power plays is an injurer, and women are victims who nearly cannot
succeed in the academic field. Like Wollstonecraft, Woolf affirms that the wisdom of
women is not less than men. An example of this is she points out that Mary can “be a
poet…in another hundred years' time” (79). This belief of female intelligence is not rare
in Poe’s works, as he wrote female characters who are cleverer than men, such as Ligeia
and Morella, and their wisdom even shocks their male partners. Instead of worshiping the
beauty or chastity as knights in courtly love, these male characters respect Ligeia and
Morella’s knowledge as students, and this relationship is beyond the limitation of
genders. Therefore, Poe cannot be one of the sexists who discriminates against women in
the academic field and is criticized by Wollstonecraft and Woolf.
Although revealing women’s intelligence, unlike some feminists in the
contemporary era (such as Linda Hirshman, who encourages women to have less children
and a “small family”), Woolf and Wollstonecraft do not demand women to fully give up
their traditional roles or characteristics and totally act like men (Warner, “Are You In, or
Out?”). Wollstonecraft agrees that women can keep their traditional roles—looking after
and educating their children—as long as their husbands take on family responsibilities
(90). One of the core thoughts in Woolf’s Three Guineas is that because women’s nature
is gentler and less aggressive than men, they can use this good nature to stop war and
help people focus on their peaceful lives. Therefore, when women are put in unequal
gender situations and become victims, for Wollstonecraft and Woolf, it is not the women
who prefer to be gentle that needs to be blamed; it is the social bias and system that needs
15
to change. Readers can find a similar scene in Poe’s stories, such as “The Black Cat.”
The gentle wife is innocent and never degenerates in the story; it is her husband’s
degeneration that causes the tragedy.
Besides education and female nature, Wollstonecraft notices women’s unequal
situation as a wife or lover too. For instance, she points out that men are treating women
like sexual toys—the “sweet companion” for relaxing and pleasing men (17). “Sweet” is
a delightful taste literally, but the extended meaning of this word contains an implication
of delightful love and sex. For instance, Shakespeare uses the phrase, “sweet love,” in his
sonnets (Shakespeare, “Sonnet 56”). It reveals that, for men, women do not have their
independent identities, and they are only the “companion[s]”— the appendices of men, as
the function of women is to “relax,” to provide services to men. Here, Wollstonecraft
quotes Rousseau in her essay, and because Rousseau is a famous and influential
ideologist, his ideas can be widely learned and agreed upon by many men at that time. It
is clear that the sexual relationship that Wollstonecraft mentions is totally male-centered;
women’s voices are limited, willingness is ignored, and identities are degraded, and they
become victims—lesser partners—in marriage and sexual relationships.
This victimization in sexual relationships still exists and is argued by feminists
today. Germaine Greer, a contemporary feminist writer, explores this issue in another
way. In her book, The Female Eunuch, Greer mentions that people are concerned about
men’s penises, while discriminating against women’s sexual desire and wombs (57).
Wombs are considered as the origin of “wicked[ness],” for example, the origin of
female’s hysteria, and for this reason, wombs were removed by the doctors for centuries
(56). When a sexual organ is hurt or lost, it is not only damaging to the body, but also can
16
cause an emotional trauma. Therefore, women become sexual victims both physically
and psychologically. Also, as mentioned above, this suppression of women’s sex organs
is pointed out by Renzi’s essay, and she implies that Poe’s “Berenice” is a work that
shows this problematic treatment of females’ hysteria. Besides the sexual organ, Greer
also focuses on men’s interest in women’s appearances—especially the appearances that
have sexual implication, such as big breasts (39). Greer quotes A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman in her book several times, and similarly to Wollstonecraft’s opinion on
how Rousseau’s view makes women become sexual victims, Greer regards men’s
extreme affection of females’ sexual appearance as a “limitation” to females (Greer 41).
Karen Weekes’ essay also contains the argument about the relationship between women’s
appearances and sex. Therefore, the description of the appearances of the female
characters in Poe’s stories can be an important standard to examine whether Poe has
feminist or patriarchal thought. The idea of “love” is combined with “sex” by Greer, too.
When men describe their objects of fantasy, in Greer’s analysis, sex becomes the most
important part of these fantasies (242). As Weekes’ essay’s title (“Poe’s Feminine Ideal”)
shows us, the female characters imply Poe’s ideal image of women. In this logic, whether
and how Poe’s stories describe sexual women becomes one of the most important issues
that this capstone project will examine.
In general, from the political field to the academic field, and from family
relationships to sexual relationships, women have the possibility of becoming victims,
and the theory of this victimization can become a useful method to measure Poe’s
perspective of women and feminism. Combining with the theory of victimization, the rest
17
of this essay will analyze the female characters in Poe’s “The Black Cat,” “The Oval
Portrait,” “Berenice,” “Morella” and “Ligeia.”
18
APPEARANCE
As mentioned above, whether the female characters in Poe’s short Gothic stories
are described like sexual objects is an important standard to infer Poe’s opinion on
feminism or patriarchy. Therefore, this section will explore the descriptions of the female
characters’ appearances—mainly by using Germaine Greer’s and Mary Wollstonecraft’s
standards.
Some authors, such as Karen Weekes, argue that Poe prefers traditional
“stereotype[s]” of women (154). In other words, the male characters in Poe’s stories are
presented as the side with agency, and women are in their domestic roles and serve men.
This traditional relationship between couples is similar to the “sweet companion” that
Wollstonecraft mentions, which stresses the “sweet[ness],” the sexual values of women
and their ability of serving men (17). As the stories like “The Oval Portrait,” contain
characters who are traditional housewives, the descriptions of the wives in these stories
can be worthwhile to explore.
Although portraits (that can bring beauty to mortality) are connected tightly with
beauty, the description of the portrait of the wife in the first story does not guide readers
to put their focus on the beauty of her appearance. When the male narrator describes it, he
says: “But it could have been neither the execution of the work, nor the immortal beauty
19
of the countenance, which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me… I had found
the spell of the picture in an absolute life-likeliness of expression” (“The Oval Portrait”).
“Beauty” is a word that is based on physical appearance, and as it is a male narrator who
is observing the woman in the portrait, “beauty” also implies the charm between opposite
sexes. As the narrator is only an observer in the plot of this story, his descriptions may
reflect how Poe wants his “readers”— “observers” to appreciate this portrait. Literally,
“expression” does not have a direct connection with sexual beauty. Although this is a
word to indicate the image of a character, it stresses the character’s feelings and thoughts,
which shows the concern of his or her will. “Life-likeliness” strengthens the feeling of
regarding the lady in the portrait as an independent personality. The power of the portrait,
the “spell” is the “expression” instead of “beauty,” this is an implication of the value of
the woman’s image: the importance is her feelings and soul, not her sexual and physical
beauty.
Another description of this portrait contains a similar thought: besides the lady’s
face, her curves are asexual, too. The narrator says, “it was a mere head and shoulders,
done in what is technically termed a vignette manner” (“The Oval Portrait”). In Germaine
Greer’s The Female Eunuch, Greer points out the connection between patriarchy and
female’s “curves:”
The notion of a curve is so closely connected to sexual semantics that some
people cannot resist sniggering at road signs…The most popular image of the
female…is all boobs and buttocks, a hallucinating sequence of parabolae and
bulges… Whenever we treat women’s bodies as aesthetic objects without function
20
we deform them and their owners….They are deformations of the dynamic,
individual body, and limitations of the possibilities of being female. (38, 42)
In her opinion, as the “boobs and buttocks” are body parts that contain sexual organs,
they become the “curves” with sexual semantics. The stress of the curves will invoke
some men’s “sniggering,” which can be considered as a lewd mocking to women’s
bodies. When women become sexual “aesthetic objects” for men because of the curves of
their bodies—when men only use these curves to judge women, women will face
“limitation” and “deformations,” which means they need to suffer men’s demands or
judgements. Both of these two words imply the harm of a woman’s sexual identity of
“being [a] female,” as their identities are demanded and judged by men according to their
curves; it also hurts her socially and emotionally when she is being mocked. Therefore,
patriarchal men’s obsessions with female “curves” are the reason that women become
sexual and social victims. However, the lady’s body curves in the portrait are not stressed
by the story at all. Here, “vignette” is a way that focuses on the center of the portrait (the
head) and blurs the edges. It shows that her sexual organs and features are not present;
what is concerned is her “head and shoulder”—combining with formal descriptions, her
“expression.” Therefore, the lady in the portrait does not become a sexual “object.” No
matter what happens between the lady and her husband, the lady is presented by the
narrator and the author in a very respectful way. Poe does not use sexual descriptions to
attract male readers, and he does not belong to the group of men who are “sniggering” at
women’s curves.
“Ligeia” is another story that contains the detailed descriptions of women’s
appearances. Poe uses a whole paragraph to describe Ligeia’s eyes, and “expressions” is
21
mentioned again: “The expression of the eyes of Ligeia! How for long hours have I
pondered upon it! How have I, through the whole of a midsummer night, struggled to
fathom it! What was it --that something more profound than the well of Democritus --
which lay far within the pupils of my beloved?” (“Ligeia”). As the saying says, “The eyes
are the window of the mind.” Ligeia’s eyes are not (or at least not only) show her
physical beauty, but show her “mind,” which means her intelligence, characteristics, and
willpower. Instead of the “aesthetic objects,” she is presented as a woman with a strong
personality or characteristics. Besides, “Democritus” is the name of a Greek philosopher,
who gives readers an impression of the high intelligence of her mind—wisdom. The well
of Democritus is “bottomless,” which implies that the wisdom of Ligeia is extremely
“profound” (“Ligeia”). In Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she
shows her disagreement of letting women become sexual “companion[s],” and she
believes that women’s intelligence is equal to men; as mentioned before, Woolf also
shows her appreciation to women’s intelligence (Wollstonecraft 17). Therefore, as an
embodiment of wisdom, the attraction of Ligeia is similar to some feminists’ ideal
perspective of woman.
This kind of description—focusing on women’s minds or wills rather than their
sexual appearances—of Ligeia and the wife in “The Oval Portrait” is the most frequent
way that Poe used to present the appearances of women. Another example from his short
gothic stories that contain female characters is “The Fall of the House Usher.” Although
Madeline Usher is a young fair lady, instead of commenting on her feminine features, her
similarity with her brother as a twin is stressed in the story: “A striking similitude
between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher…murmured
22
that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely
intelligible nature had always existed between them” (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).
Here, a woman’s appearance is connected to her characteristics (such as her sympathies)
directly, and the similarity of the characteristics of the sister and brother stresses the
equality of the woman’s and man’s minds; they are not presented differently because of
their genders. In other stories, such as “Morella” and “The Black Cat,” women’s
appearances are not mentioned much. Most of the time, Poe only makes comments of
their characteristics or personalities, such as their cleverness or benevolence. The only
exception might be Poe’s “Berenice.”
Certain parts of the human body can contain sexual implications. In “Berenice,”
the heroine’s appearance is closely linked with sex. Instead of stressing Berenice’s eyes
or expressions like Ligeia and the wife in “The Oval Portrait,” Berenice’s teeth become
an important part in the story:
Not a speck on their surface --not a shade on their enamel --not an indenture in
their edges --but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my
memory...even when unassisted by the lips, a capability of moral expression...of
Berenice I more seriously believed que toutes ses dents etaient des idees.
(“Berenice”)
Although Berenice is ill, the appearance of her teeth are perfect: they do not contain
“shade” nor an “indenture in [their] edges,” and it implies that the teeth are white and
strong—beautiful and charming in a sexual way (for example, many female stars in
movie posters have red lips and white teeth). However, the phrase, “moral expression,”
indicates that this organ does not only have sexual meaning; it contains a strong sense of
23
Berenice’s “idees[ideas].” In “Poe’s Feminine Ideal,” Weekes points out that “showing
one’s teeth in a smile can indicate sexual interest, and the…meaning of Berenice’s grin is
of carnal desire” (156). Therefore, the “ideas” in Berenice’s teeth is sexual desire, and the
“expression” here is Berenice’s expression of her sexual lust. When describing her sexual
appearances, the important thing is not the sex, but the characters’ opinions on sex. In
other words, Poe still does not treat Berenice as a sexual object; he views her as an
independent soul as he wants to explore her idea of sex—such as her sexual desire.
This might be the reason why the conflict between Berenice and her fiancé,
Egaeus’ are mainly based on her teeth. Egaeus pulls out Berenice’s teeth in a crazy
mental state:
He [the tenant] took me gently by the hand; --it was indented with the impress of
human nails. He directed my attention to some object against the wall; --I looked
at it for some minutes; --it was a spade. With a shriek I bounded to the table, and
grasped the box that lay upon it. But I could not force it open; and in my tremor it
slipped from my hands…there rolled out some instruments of dental surgery,
intermingled with thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances that were
scattered to and fro about the floor. (“Berenice”)
In Weekes’ opinion, the exchange of Berenice’s “innocence for sexuality… [is a]
prospect” that would terrify her…fiancé” (156). Many traditional stories such as
Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece, encourage women to maintain their innocence and
chastity; Greer using “The Female Eunuch” as the title of her book also implies that
women are castrated and are not allowed to have their desire and agency of sex. The teeth
represent Berenice’s sexual desire, and teeth are the organ that people used to help to
24
speak words and they contain Berenice’s “ideas.” In this logic, pulling out her teeth
implies a deprivation of the organ that she uses to speak out her desire—a deprivation of
Berenice’s agency and voice of sex. In Freud’s theory, “the teeth [are] suitable for
purposes of representation under the pressure of sexual repression,” and the dream of
teeth falling also contains the meaning of castration (Munch, “Freud's Sexual Dilemma”).
Literally, Egaeus extracts Berenice’s teeth; however, this behavior can be considered as a
“sexual repression,” as a castration of Berenice, and the “impress of human nails” on
Egaeus’ body points out Berenice’s unwillingness to this castration. In this way, Berenice
becomes a victim who is castrated by her fiancé.
As Weekes points out, she is castrated because her sexual desire evokes Egaeus’
fear. However, Egaeus is not only afraid of Berenice, but he also fears his brutal
castration of Berenice. Egaeus is a man who is told that he has a disease referred to as the
“monomaniac character,” which implies that he is paranoid and insane. Words such as
“shriek” and “tremor” describe Egaeus as an insane criminal who is threatened when he
notices his sin, and the tenant’s behaviors—inspecting Egaeus’ hand and pointing out his
tool that he used to dig Berenice’s tomb—also imply the sensible and well-balanced
people’s intervention or revelation of Egaeus’ crime to his fiancée. Though the castration
of a woman is presented in this story, it is unreasonable, and it is not justified or
encouraged by the narration of this story. In other words, readers are encouraged to go
against this mistreatment. All in all, Poe’s description of the female characters’
appearances can be understood in the context of feminist theories about sex and
victimization. In “The Orval Portrait” and “Ligeia,” Poe refuses to review women as
sexual objects, but it does not mean that Poe discriminates or rejects women’s sexual
25
desire. In “Berenice,” Poe uses the unreasonable castration to reveal how women become
sexual victims because of male power.
26
INDEPENDENCE, DEPENDENCE AND INTELLIGENCE
In her tragic destiny, Berenice’s teeth may not be the only organ that is being hurt
or deprived by men. In “Hysteric Vocalizations of the Female Body in Edgar Allan Poe’s
‘Berenice’,” Kristen Renzi points out the similarity of Berenice’s disease and hysteria,
and she argues that the hysteria is Berenice’s silent voice to express her will, and she is
mistreated by the patriarchal society (602). As Greer mentions in The Female Eunuch,
wombs are considered as the origins of hysteria (56). The roots of the words—
“hysterectomy” and “hysteria”—are the same, which suggest the connection between
womb and hysteria, and the womb can be moved out or abused as a treatment to cure
female’s hysteria (Mankiller 26). Therefore, although Berenice tries to express her voice,
her body and will are still being ignored and abused by her fiancé and doctors—by men.
As wombs are the most important sexual organs of women, Berenice’s womb—her
female identity—becomes the original reason of being hurt by male power (as she is
mistreated by the doctor and her lover). In other words, she would not suffer the medical
mistreatment and her sexual desire would not be suppressed if she was not a woman. All
the silent voice and rebellion she expresses cannot prevent her from becoming a victim.
Women’s voices represent their desire of agency, and agency is connected tightly
to feminist spirit. Other female characters, such as Ligeia and Morella, are also women
who try to express their voice but still die. Their desires for agency and power are even
stronger than Berenice, which makes them look like the typical woman with feminist
27
features: independent and intelligent. In “Ligeia”, the praise of Ligeia’s wisdom and will
are not less than the praise of her appearance:
I have spoken of the learning of Ligeia: it was immense...her knowledge was such
as I have never known in woman—but where breathes the man who has traversed,
and successfully, all the wide areas of moral, physical, and mathematical science?
…yet I was sufficiently aware of her infinite supremacy to resign myself, with a
child-like confidence, to her guidance through the chaotic world. (“Ligeia”)
As mentioned before, both Wollstonecraft and Woolf claim women’s rights of learning
and playing a role in the academic world. In Woolf’s works, such as To the Lighthouse
and “A Room of Their Own,” she points out the stereotypes of sexist men who do not
treat women equally: “I have referred to Professor X and given prominence to his
statement that women are intellectually, morally and physically inferior to men” (“A
Room of One’s Own,” 93). Woolf also gives an example of Shakespeare’s sister, who
becomes a sharp contrast of Shakespeare because as a woman, she cannot be educated
and write like her brother—therefore, Shakespeare becomes the giant of writers, while
she only can be a domestic housewife (94). If the situation that Woolf and Wollstonecraft
desire is men stopping discrimination against women as “inferior intellectually [and]
morally,” Poe’s Ligeia creates a stronger version of this situation, as her ability—her
knowledge of “moral, physical, and mathematical science” is even more superior than
any man. Therefore, Poe challenges the sexist discrimination that Woolf and
Wollstonecraft mention: the knowledge that is innately “known in woman” is weaker
than men. Besides, he even puts Ligeia in a higher position by letting her become
intellectually superior. Ligeia’s teacher-like identity also lets her become superior
28
morally, as she is acting like a guide and protector for her “child-like” husband and
prevents him from falling into the dangerous “chaotic world.”
Ligeia is not the only intelligent woman in Poe’s stories. Another female
character, Morella, is as clever as Ligeia: “Morella’s erudition was profound. As I hope
to live, her talents were of no common order—her powers of mind were gigantic. I felt
this, and, in many matters, because [I became] her pupil” (“Morella”). The word “pupil”
shows that similar to Ligeia’s husband, the narrator’s intelligence is lower than his wife,
and he benefits from Morella’s teaching and protection as a student, and she brings the
narrator the “happiness to dream” (“Morella”). However, the happiness is short-lived as
the narrator soon loses his fondness to Morella:
In all this, if I err not, my reason had little to do…indeed, the time had now
arrived when the mystery of my wife’s manner oppressed me as a spell. I could no
longer bear the touch of her wan fingers, nor the low tone of her musical
language, nor the lustre of her melancholy eyes. And she knew all this, but did not
upbraid; she seemed conscious of my weakness or my folly, and, smiling, called it
Fate… “ah, how little! — which thou didst feel for me.” (“Morella”)
“No longer” implies that although the narrator cannot bear his wife now, in the
beginning, he is the one who chooses to “linger by her side, and dwell upon the music of
her voice” (“Morella”). In the block quote, Morella’s “music[al] voice” is described as
“low tone…music language.” The similar description, “music,” implies that Morella does
not change her “manner—” her musical tone is constant from the beginning to the end. It
is the change of the narrator’s heart or feeling for Morella which causes his dislike to
Morella’s manner. As the narrator says that his “reason has a little to do,” it implies that
29
his change is unreasonable, which due to the narrator’s own “weakness or…folly.”
Morella’s words, “how little” the husband loves her, indicates that she is in pain because
his love is gone. However, Morella’s response to him is “smiling,” which shows her
tolerance and love to her lover. Morella calls this change as “fate” and implies that no
matter how sweet the past was or how unreasonable the husband’s change is, when a
woman is disliked by her husband, the break of their relationship is undeniable and
destined. Morella notices that she has no power to repair this situation and she will
become a victim of this love relationship. All in all, Poe uses the independent characters
in “Ligeia” and “Morella” to break the stereotype of unintelligent women. However,
although both Ligeia and Morella are stronger and more independent than most women at
that time, these kinds of women still can be hurt by men and become victims emotionally:
for instance, “Morella” shows us the tragic fate of a woman who is abandoned or detested
by her husband.
The narrators’ “fear” also become a topic that worth exploring. Some scholars
such as Weekes and Debra Johanyak regard men’s fear of the women who have
independent feminist features—such as Berenice who desires her agency of sex, and
Ligeia who challenges men’s position in the intellectual world—are the reasons why the
male characters commit their crimes. They believe that it is a reflection of Poe’s own fear
of these women and his execution to women with agency (Johanyak 70). This situation is
not rare in some male gothic stories; such as in Dracula, when female vampires who
express their agency and sexual desire (such as Lucy, who had put her power upon her
fiancé and seduces him), they are killed by the author because “a woman is better stilled
than mobile, better dead than sexual” (Craft 122). However, it is worth mentioning that
30
the situations in Poe’s stories can be different than Dracula, as the male characters who
hurt women are presented as villains as compare to Dracula. Besides, the traditional,
domestic, and dependent women also become victims because of men: both the female
characters in “The Black Cat” and “The Oval Portrait” are dead because of their
husbands.
In “The Black Cat,” Poe presents a perfect traditional woman: “[The cat] also had
been deprived of one of its eyes. This circumstance, however, only endeared it to my
wife, who…possessed, in a high degree, that humanity of feeling which had once been
my distinguishing trait, and the source of many of my simplest and purest pleasures”
(“The Black Cat”). A black cat that lost one eye looks horrific. Nevertheless, the word
“endeared” implies that the wife is not terrified by its appearance, and she even is
sympathetic to it, which indicates she has a kind and innocent heart. The story stresses
the wife’s “humanity,” while using “once been” to reveal the degeneration of the
husband. These descriptions of this couple are similar to the plot in “Morella,” while the
wives keep their merit of constancy, their husbands have some negative changes. “The
Black Cat” mentions several times that the husband indulges in alcohol:
When I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch -- I experienced a sentiment
half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it
was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I
again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed…
ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself, my
uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.
(“The Black Cat”)
31
The husband blames the black cat for luring him to do the atrocities, however, by using
the words “untouched,” Poe also points out that it is the narrator who ignored the crime
that he had done to the cats, and he “debauches” and “abandon[s]” himself to commit the
crime (“The Black Cat”). His wife, as she is “uncomplaining,” is presented as a domestic
and traditional woman who suffers her husband’s unreasonable anger. The only time that
she works against her husband is when she tries to stop her husband’s atrocities—trying
to stop him gently by using her “arms,” and then is killed by her husband cruelly by the
“axe” (“The Black Cat”). The traditional wife is presented as a positive (kind-hearted,
innocent and gentle) but powerless figure, and the husband is presented as a negative
(untouched, debauched and cruel) but powerful figure. It is not hard to find out that
although this story is about a mysterious and gothic crime, it contains the typical
elements of domestic violence: the wife is an innocent victim and the husband is a
criminal or violent injurer. The husband’s abuse of power—the patriarchal domestic
violence is not supported by Poe, as he let the husband’s crime be revealed by police and
then the husband will be punished. This encouraged readers do not be tolerant of
domestic violence.
The wife in “The Oval Portrait” is also presented as a victim in her family
relationship. Her husband does not use physical violence (the violence contains physical
violent action) to her. But he uses emotional violence (the violence causes spiritual hurt)
unconsciously:
Evil was the hour when she…loved…[and] wedded the painter. He...having
already a bride in his Art; she...loving and cherishing all things; hating only the
Art which was her rival; dreading only [art]...which deprived her of the
32
countenance of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the
painter…to pourtray even his young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and
sat meekly for many weeks in the dark, high turret-chamber...But he...took glory
in his work...[did] not see that the light which fell so ghastly in that lone turret
withered the health and the spirits of his bride, who pined visibly to all but him.
(“The Oval Portrait”)
Scholars like Gubar and Gilbert argue that Poe is a sexist because the female characters
in his stories are often silent and passive. However, although the wife in this story looks
like a stereotype of domestic silent ladies, her silence in the story does not mean Poe
refuses to show her voice to the reader. The lady’s desire is obvious in the story. At first,
the story points out her characteristics and enthusiasm of life by mentioning she
“love[s]…all things,” which helps readers to focus on the abnormal situation—the only
thing that she dislikes: art. The reason of her dislike of art is because art becomes her
husbands’ “bride,” which indicates that her basic rights as a married person—being loved
and cared by the spouse—are deprived. The words “hate” and “dread” reveal what kind
of dislike she holds: she is not only resenting it, but also is threatened by this situation,
which implies she is afraid as she can do nothing to change it. In this way, the wife’s
strong emotion and psychology can be felt by readers. This story uses three words to
stress and describe the wife’s behavior: “humble,” “obedient” and “meekly.” This
conforms to the images of the traditional and subordinate women who are described by
Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This kind of woman, as
Wollstonecraft analyzes, is the product of males’ wishes—the product of the patriarchal
society. However, as the wife’s strong emotion is presented, this story shows the readers
33
that the lady in the portrait does not desire to be a domestic and humble woman. Poe
points out that it goes against her will and torments her emotionally, and even torments
her body, and it is the patriarchal power that creates her tragic destiny.
There is an implication in the environment, too. The place where this couple stay
could be their home, but the description of this “turret-chamber” is “dark, high” with
“ghastly” light. Besides, while the husband is painting, as his model, the wife cannot
move around most of the time—which implies her physical freedom is restricted. All
these elements make the chamber similar to a prison. Therefore, the wife is not only hurt
in a spiritual way, but also in a physical way, as her “health” is “withered,” too. Her
husband, who is supposed to love her, ignores the wife completely as he is only
concerned about his “glory” and “work.” This can be considered as a kind of unconscious
emotional violence in a family relationship, though he does not use force, his attitudes
and behaviors are selfish and can cause damage to his wife. In conclusion, from “The
Black Cat” to “The Oval Portrait,” Poe presents two kinds of domestic violence—
physical and emotional violence—that make wives become victims because of their
husbands. In “The Oval Portrait,” Poe reveals a woman’s marginal situation in their
marriage: she has her voice, but tragically, it is suppressed by patriarchal power and
thoughts. In addition, although “all” of the people notice that she is suffering in her
marriage relationship, the wife in “The Oval Portrait” still dies helplessly, which thrills
and invokes readers to introspect the indifferences of the patriarchal society, or the
irresistibility of male power—the difficulty for people to stop the husbands’ domestic
violence.
34
Another wife who belongs to the same trope is Rowena Tremaine, the second
wife of the husband in “Ligeia.” Although she is only a supporting role in the story, she
can be a typical victim in marriage relationships:
My bride --as the successor of the unforgotten Ligeia --the fair-haired and blue-
eyed Lady Rowena…Tremaine…Where were the souls of the haughty family of
the bride, when, through thirst of gold, they permitted to pass the threshold of an
apartment so bedecked, a maiden and a daughter so beloved? …with Tremaine,
the unhallowed hours…passed with…disquietude. That my wife dreaded the
fierce moodiness of my temper --that she shunned me and loved me but…it gave
me rather pleasure…I loathed her with a hatred belonging more to demon than to
man. (“Ligeia”)
This story indicates that this marriage is problematic for Rowena. Similar to the wife in
“The Oval Portrait,” the husband already had a wife, and he cannot “forg[et]” Ligeia after
her death. This implies that Rowena cannot gain her basic rights in a healthy marriage: to
be loved and respected. The description of Rowena implies innocence and harmlessness,
too. She is “fair-haired and blue-eyed,” which means her appearance is a stereotype of the
beautiful but powerless women in Western culture, just like the fair-haired princesses
who await their princes to save them in most fairy tales (such as “Rapunzel” and
“Cinderella”). Rowena’s “disquietude” and “dread” also show that she is suffering from
domestic violence and being hurt. A “demon,” as a creature that comes from hell, is
considered as an evil, dangerous and harmful existence to human beings. By using this
word, it means that even the husband, the narrator, realizes that his “loath[ing]” of
Rowena is unjust and unreasonable, which can let her become a victim of evil violence.
35
In addition, Rowena’s tragic situation is combined with the family economics or
finance. The husband is not the only man who abuses Rowena evilly. The motive of
Rowena’s family of marrying her to the narrator is “thirst of gold,” and it points out that
her family is selling her for money. The description of this family is “haughty,” and it
implies their arrogance, authority and arbitrariness for Rowena, which forces her to
accept being sold, although she does not “love” her husband at all. In Three Guineas,
Woolf implies the essence of this situation is that women do not have their “influence;”
which means the power to go against their patriarchal family: “She need no longer use
her charm to procure money from her father and or brother. Since it is beyond the power
of her family to punish her financially, she can express her own opinions” (21). In this
logic, Rowena’s opinion is that she does not “love” the narrator, but she does not express
this opinion, or it is ignored by her patriarchal family—the “father and brother” that
Woolf mentions. The reason that Rowena is powerless in their marriage can be her fear of
being “punish[ed]” financially and she does not have the ability to live by herself. In
Woolf’s view, economic independence is the reason that makes women submit to their
family (21). All in all, similar to the situation that Woolf criticized in her feminist works,
Poe shows the readers how the patriarchal powers—the power of the husband and
family—make women lose their voice and become victims who are trapped by miserable
situation, such as the abuse from their husbands. This is an unusual perspective for a male
author in 19th century. All the words such as “demon” and the loss of “souls” are Poe’s
stress of the injustice of the abuses that Rowena suffers.
In Three Guineas, Woolf gives the readers the solution of women’s suffering:
being independent spiritually and financially. It means women should have the right to
36
education and then they can “earn a living” (120). The wives in “The Black Cat” and
“The Oval Portrait” and Rowena are the kind of traditional women who become domestic
victims. Ligeia and Morella (and even Madeline Usher, who has similar characteristics to
her male twin and passes his library—as mentioned above, this is the way she challenges
his intellectual authority) are the kind of women who are similar to Woolf’s standards:
well-educated and have independent spirits. Although they also die in the stories, these
independent women gain a chance of rebirth: Morella comes back by using the identity of
her daughter, Ligeia raises herself by using Rowena’s dead body, and Madeline climbs
out from her coffin and seeks revenge on her brother. In their rebirth, these women’s
willpower is stressed to some degree. For example, Ligeia is so independent that she even
dares to challenge the death by saying “Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto
death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will,” and after that, Poe really
lets her overcome the death (“Ligeia”). Ligeia also refuses to submit to the patriarchal
power, as she “shr[un]k” back in order to refuse her husbands’ touch after he married
another woman. In this way, Ligeia and Morella’s rebirths and Madeline’s successful
revenge can be considered as the rewards of their independent and fighting souls, or as
the achievements that are caused by their strong wills and desires. Unlike Weekes (who
believes Poe prefers domestic women such as Eleonora), this essay argues that although
Poe shows his sympathy towards and takes his pity on traditional domestic women, at the
same time, Poe also appreciates the intellectual and independent women with feminist
features. In these stories, all kinds of women can become victims in the patriarchal world,
but the independent women can strive for other chances, come back and achieve their
goals—such as the goals of rebirth or revenge.
37
CONCLUSION
The BBC’s documentary, “Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death and Women,” says that
“Poe was a man, but he was surrounded by a coterie of women who exerted powerful
influences in his story telling” (BBC, “Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death and Women”).
Although the stories and the biography of the author can be considered as two different
things, it is undeniable that the women around Poe and their death influenced Poe’s
works. Many women who Poe loved died, and the personal experiences often gave an
author the materials for writing. In addition, the female characters’ deaths were a way to
show Poe’s gothic aesthetics—as the saying goes, “tragedy is to destroy all the pretty
things for people to see,” and the women’s deaths can be considered a way to create the
romantic and melancholy atmosphere in order to move the readers (Xun Lu, “The
Collapse of the Leifeng Tower,” Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”). As in the
documentary, the scholar Joanne Harries argues that “Poe’s object is less frightening
people, than getting the fear out of himself and somewhere else” (BBC, “Edgar Allan
Poe: Love, Death and Women”). His female character’s death also became Poe’s way to
get rid of his fear of the death around him. Therefore, although Poe did not act like a
feminist in his life, the deaths of women do not equal misogyny.
The scholars like Weekes believe that Poe prefers women like Eleonora or
Annabel Lee. However, as Poe’s wife, Virginia, is a young and gentle woman like
Annabel Lee, instead of suggesting that Poe prefers the domestic women and hates
38
independent women, it can be more accurate to say Poe’s appreciation of these young
and gentle female characters can be considered as a way to show his love to his wife.
Indeed, Poe respected intellectual and independent women not only in his stories, but also
in his personal life. Poe did not belong to the same group of men—such as the “Professor
X” whom Woolf mentions—that discriminate against women’s intelligence. Poe
appreciated his female friend’s (Francis Sargent Osgood, a “glittering socialite and poet”)
literacy talent, and the woman to whom Poe proposed marriage after Virginia’s death:
Sarah Helen Whitman, an intellectual female poet (BBC, “Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death
and Women”). At the same time, when the Bible encouraged people to be “fruitful and
multiply,” unlike male authors such as Oscar Wilde (who insisted on having a son even
though he was gay), Poe did not force his wife or find a lover in order to have a child.
Poe’s creation of the teacher-like women (such as Ligeia and Morella) is a rebellion of
this religious, traditional and patriarchal thought, and the only child of the heroines in
Poe’s stories is a daughter, not a son, and she even becomes the embodiment of the
mother—Morella herself.
In this way, Poe gets rid of many patriarchal ideas in his short gothic stories, and
even in his personal life. He did not hold the sexist discrimination of women’s
intelligence, and he did not have the bias about having children and the prejudice for
male children. Poe praises the merits of traditional female characters (such as their
innocence and gentleness), while appreciating the feminist characters’ independence and
intelligence. The appearances and destinies of these female characters are similar to the
victimization in many feminists’ (such as Woolf, Wollstonecraft and Greer) theories.
They can be considered as a way to reveal the unequal position of females, and a way to
39
evoke people’s introspection and sympathy for women. Although as a gentleman in 19th
century, Poe could not totally get rid of the traditional patriarchal ethos and become a
proto-feminist, he is not the sexist and misogynist that many Western scholars argued.
Indeed, the victimization in Poe’s short gothic stories lets his works contain the elements
of proto-feminism.
40
WORKS CITED
Akiona, Jessica. “Edgar Allan Poe and His Refusal to Let Women Freely Indulge.”
HOHONU Vol. 13. University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. 2015, pp. 5-8.
Bundgård, Lasse. “Gender Roles in Edgar Allan Poe - A study of oracles in ‘Ligeia’ and
‘Berenice’.” 2013. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16199616.pdf.
Craft, Christopher. "Kiss Me with those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram
Stoker's Dracula. Representations, No. 8 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 107-133.
“Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death and Women.” Directed and produced by Louise
Lockwood, BBC, 2013.
Engel, Leonard W. “Obsession, Madness, and Enclosure in Poe's ‘Ligeia’ and ‘Morella’.”
College Literature, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring, 1982), pp. 140-146.
Feng, Jia. “The Analyzation of the Images of ‘The Black Cat’.”
The Newspaper of Shaanxi Normal University, Vol 41, 2014, pp. 70-72.
Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch. Harper Collins e-books.
https://seminariolecturasfeministas.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/germaine-greer-
the-female-eunuch.pdf.
Gubar, Sandra and Susan Gilbert. The Madwoman in the Attic.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5441df7ee4b02f59465d2869/t/588e92b7440
243895c4f972f/1485738680115/Sandra+Gilbert+and+Susan+Gubar+from+The+
Madwoman+in+the+Attic.pdf.
41
Hoeveler, Diane Long. Gothic Feminism. The Pennsylvania State University. 1998.
Johanyak, Debra. “Poesian Feminism: Triumph of Tragedy.” CLA Journal, Vol. 39, No.1
(September 1995), pp. 62-70.
Lamb, Sharon. “Critical Examination of Victim-Feminism.” New Versions of Victims:
Feminists Struggle with the Con- cepts, New York University Press, 1999, pp.
275-276.
Li, Qing. “The Female View in Allan Poe’s short stories.” Writer Magazine. 2012, No. 3,
pp. 80-81.
Lu, Xun. “The Collapse of the Leifeng Tower.”
https://www.wenjiwu.com/doc/tcbfni.html. Accessed 1 October 2018.
Mankiller, Wilma P. (1998). The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Boston,
MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. p. 26. ISBN 0-6180-0182-4.
May, Whitney Shylee. “The Influence of Place on Identity in Poe’s ‘Morella’ and
‘William Wilson’.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2017, The
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, pp 218-233.
Munch, Edvard. “Freud's Sexual Dilemma.”
http://www.tnnweb.com/mds/freudsdilemma.html. Accessed 1 October 2018.
Online Bible. http://www.o-bible.com/gb/. Accessed 1 October 2018.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Berenice.” https://poestories.com/read/berenice. Accessed 1 October
2018.
---. “Ligeia.” https://poestories.com/read/ligeia. Accessed 1 October 2018.
---. “Morella.” https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/mrllah.htm. Accessed 1 October 2018.
---. “The Black Cat.” https://poestories.com/read/blackcat. Accessed 1 October 2018.
42
---. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” https://poestories.com/read/houseofusher.
Accessed 1 October 2018.
---. “The Oval Portrait.” https://poestories.com/read/ovalportrait. Accessed 1 October
2018.
---. “The Philosophy of Composition.”
https://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/philcomp.htm. Accessed 1 October 2018.
Renzi, Kristen. “Hysteric Vocalizations of the Female Body in Edgar Allan Poe’s
‘Berenice’.” ESQ, Vol. 58, 4th Quarter, 2012, pp 601-640.
Schroeter, James. “A Misreading of Poe's ‘Ligeia’.” PMLA, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Sep., 1961),
pp. 397-406.
Shakespeare, William. “The Rape of Lucrece.”
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/Poetry/RapeOfLucrece.html.
---. “Sonnet 56.” http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/56.html.
Song, Zongwei and Shirong Li, “The Understanding of the Female Characters in Allan
Poe’s Stories.” Journal of Chongqing University of Education, Vol.27, No.12014,
pp. 100-102.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Norton Critical Editions, 1997.
Tan, Lijuan. “The Female Images in Allan Poe’s Horror Stories.” Literature Education,
2009, pp. 86-88.
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Oxford, 1996.
Warner, Judith. “Are You In, or Out?” The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2016,
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/are-you-in-or-out/.
Weekes, Karen. “Poe’s feminine ideal.” The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe.
43
Edited by Kevin J. Hayes, University of Central Oklahoma, Cambridge
University Press, 2006, pp 148-162.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. “To M. Talleyrand-Périgord former Bishop of Autun.” A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral
Subjects. Jonathan Bennett, 2017.
Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One's Own.” http://gutenberg.org, pp 4-95.
---. Three Guineas. Harcourt, 2006.
---. To the Lighthouse. Harcourt, 2005.
Top Related