Poe 2-�Ligeia�

Unreliable narrator�makes you question what is �reality��objective or subjective basis?

Is there ultimately a �reliable� narrator? 

What was the difference in the narrator�s relationship with Ligeia and Rowena?

He worshipped Ligeia, shunned Rowena (problem with R was that she wasn�t L)

�It might have been midnight  . . . .� as a storyteller why say this?  Doesn�t add any objective information, but instead provides a window on the narrator�s subjective state  Subjective outweighs/overshadows the objective.

Subjective: relates to interpretation or re-creation (Romanticism) of external sensory perception within the mind�impressions differ for each individual in each different moment�MIND AS LAMP (Romanticism�late 1700s, early 1800s, mind transforms perception�Wordsworth��Tintern Abbey���what perceives/and half creates�)

Objective: relates to an externally provable world encountered by the senses; transpersonal�what�s true for me is true for you, etc.�MIND AS MIRROR  (Enlightenment�Locke; Bacon, More, Voltaire)�mind reflects external reality

Do his �visions of Ligeia� demonstrate the power of the mind to create reality (MIND AS LAMP)?

�mad disorder� �tumult unappeasable��what�s happening to the narrator�s senses, mind?   Rationality has broken (the MIND AS MIRROR is shattered)�his mind now creating reality (MIND AS LAMP)

Arthur Rimbaud�derangement of the senses in order to write poetry�to perceive a reality beyond the four-wall box that reason has constructed

Suspense�Poe skillfully builds to the unveiling of Ligeia�the hair, then the black hair, then the face, eyes, Ligeia

Why does Ligeia appear?  What�s going to happen next? Ultimately we can�t know�unreliable, subjective narrator

Poe doesn�t need to go any farther?  Why is this a good ending?  Why not go back to the Rhine with Ligeia and live happily ever after?  Lack of resolution, reader as co-creator, the reader is put in the position of being either MIND as MIRROR or MIND as LAMP�

From �Ligeia� to �The Tell-Tale Heart�

Literary style of �Ligeia��setting: Europe/Gothic/unreal landscape; word choice/diction: sophisticated�for literary elite audience; paragraph and sentence structure�long, periodic sentences that are almost chant-like or like prose-poetry�not much dialogue, per se�interior monologue; high culture/literature/elite�dragging out the narrative; reminiscent of the polyphonic prose of de Quincey (�Confessions of an English Opium-Eater�).

�The Tell-Tale Heart��narrative is crisp and moves quickly; still interior monologue; setting: in an ordinary room in boarding house in an American city (not an exotic location�not going after that Gothic effect of ancient ruins, decayed mansions, etc.); word choice: much more simple, to the point�for a general audience, not elite (newspaper audience, mass audience�written at 7^th grade level)�explosion of newspapers and new literate audience (not educated in elite fashion); even the fiction has to read like fact (like news stories)�concision, brevity; incorporate exposition and dialogue/scene skillfully.  Shortened simple sentences instead of periodic constructions. Active verbs.

Jules Dassin: �The Tell-Tale Heart� short film�made the old man mean�to make it reasonable for the murder to happen; justify�sympathize with murderer; this doesn�t get the audience out of the traditional rational pov�cause-and-effect world