Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia”: An Object-Relational Interpretation

This paper argues that Poe’s short story “Ligeia,” in which the narrator experiences the death of his adored first wife (Ligeia), a second marriage to the despised Rowena, and ultimately the death ofRowena and the revivification of Ligeia, is not a supernatural tale, but rather a psychological one. According to this reading, the poisoning of Rowena and the revivification of Ligeia are hallucinated by the narrator in the course of an opium-induced psychotic break. The antecedents to this break are explored in light of object relations theory, with particular emphasis placed on the way in which the two women function as part objects. Ligeia represents the narrator’s romantic and spiritual side and is associated with the good mother, while Rowena, who represents his more mundane and materialistic side, is associated with the rejecting mother. It is argued that the narrator, functioning primarily in the schizoid position and employing such defense mechanisms as splitting and projection—which already require a high degree of fantasy—is not an unlikely candidate fo r such a break.