Edgar Allan Poe Ligeia Analysis

When hearing the name Edgar Allan Poe, many readers, according to “The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe” automatically tend to think of a “creepy chap” (Levine & Levine 15). Perceptions lead to differing views, and as Levine & Levine mention, these perceptions, can change once new information has been presented (Levine & Levine 15).The way that Poe lived was portrayed in the short story “Ligeia”, and for a recap, “Ligeia” mainly consisted of him telling a story in which he references his wife, her death, and him marrying someone else to counteract the feeling of loneliness only to realize that the first wife was suddenly alive before his eyes. In essence, the whole thing seemed to be a figment of his imagination. The short story “Ligeia” seemed …show more content…
At first sight, this may not seem like a relevant detail, but this actually brings up the question as to whether or not Edgar Allan Poe himself is a reliable narrator due to taking the drug and thus having common side effects associated with this. As stated in the article “Once upon a midnight dreary: The life and addictions of Edgar Allan Poe,” “opium brings on peaceful, dreamlike states”( Patterson 1). When first read, this makes sense, in reference to the short story “Ligeia”, because, in the story, it is stated by the narrator that “and again I sunk into visions of Ligeia” (Poe 17). As a reader, this showcases the fact that these visions, or possible hallucinations, could have been caused by him taking these drugs and, as readers, we know that drugs have a negative effect on our lives. Oftentimes, taking drugs leads people to have a distorted view of reality, and due to this type of effect, it is evident that the specifics mentioned by the narrator may not be one hundred percent accurate. He thought that everything that was happening was reality when it is clear to the reader, especially after reading the effects of taking opium, that all of the details he presented could have easily been just a part of a dream that he was having. Drugs tend to lead people to misperceive what is going on, and when reading a story such as this one without taking into effect what the writer is like, the reader may falsely believe that this actually happened when, in reality, it could have been just a figment of imagination. Edgar Allan Poe made many references to losing his beloved wife, and he did not seem to come to terms with this fact. This inability showed that drugs, in a sense, damaged his life and, in turn, made him think that these inevitable things were not going on when, in reality, they were. Edgar Allan Poe