Ligeia

Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe was definitely an acid trip of a story. It opens up with him, the narrator, mumbling on in a romanticism voice about his long lost love Ligeia. This character as we know from relying on our not so reliable narrator, is a real person. As we read further in the story we being to learn about our narrator letting himself dwell into "Opium dreams." " In my excitement of my opium dreams (for I was habitually fettered in the shackles of the drug) I would call upon her name, during the silence of the night..." (Ligeia 9) This inadvertently enables the reader to draw the simple conclusion that the narrator was an opium addict at one point or another. This idea can then build upon itself in the mind of the reader. They will then begin to question the narrator and they will question the whole perspective of the story. Some may believe Ligiea is a beautiful dazzling women in an opium dream. Some people may believe that she was real. My opinion lies on the fine line in between. I think that she was a real person at one point with real feelings and emotions for the narrator. I also believe that they had a falling out and she disappeared from his life. " And then I peered into the eyes of Ligeia..." (Ligeia 2) This is evidence that things were getting a little weird. The narrator explains in great detail about Ligeia's eyes and how they are paranormal. This leads to to believe that Ligeia sort of evolved into a paranormal character during his opium dream, when really she left his life a long time ago. Ligeia was someone in his life. Not a major character, just someone. Then in an opium dream she evolves into a dynamic character. My verdict is that she was at one time an influence on the narrator but then disappeared and he thought she was still alive but really she was gone.