Ligeia and Annabel Lee

"Ligeia" and "Annabel Lee"

Through his short stories and poetry, Edgar Allan Poe was one of the forefathers of Gothic literature in the United States. Through his unique writing style, and his interest in the macabre, Poe established a literary canon that had the capacity to intrigue and terrify his audiences at the same time. A recurring theme among Poe's short stories and poetry is the death of a beautiful woman, the eternal connection that the narrator of each respective work had with the deceased woman, and the supernatural. Both "Ligeia," a short story published in 1838, and "Annabel Lee," a poem published posthumously in 1849, integrate these elements into their narratives.

In "Ligeia," Poe writes about the death of not one, but two women. In the short story, the narrator experiences the loss of two of his wives, Ligeia and Rowena Trevanion. It is clear...
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