Falling Action

The falling action of “Ligeia” focuses mainly on the message of the Joseph Glanvill quote and how the two characters Ligeia and Rowena represent different parts of the quote. “And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will, with its vigor? For God is but a great will pervading all things by nature of its intentness. Man doth not yieid himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only throught weakness of his feeble will” (Joseph Glanvill). Ligeia’s connection to the Glanvill quote is Poe’s emphasis on Ligeia’s will to defy the inevitable to live beyond death and to not let man’s weakness of his feeble will overcome her. Glanvill states that because of nature, death is inevitable and since mortals aren’t angels, death will occur to every human. Despite the order of nature, God’s will, Ligeia persisted to avoid weakness of a feeble will that will lead one to death. Even after her death, her soul never crossed over into the afterworld. Her soul still lingered on in the real world; she appeared in the narrator’s hallucinations. Ligeia became a figment of the narrator’s imagination, a figment that ultimately let to a figment of reality when she rebirths. This gap that Ligeia lived in represented her strong will to live and how she refused to fully cross over into the afterworld and become permanently dead; she represented the opposite of the type of man Joseph Glanvill described. Unlike Ligeia, Rowena’s will to live was not strong, which eventually led to her death at the end of “Ligeia”. Rowena represented the type of man that exists, “Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will.” The poison that led Rowena to permanent death was caused by her weakness of her feeble will. What also contributed to her death was the lack of affection the narrator had of Rowena; this was the example of a feeble will. Perhaps the reason why Ligeia’s will to live was so strong was because it was combined with the narrator’s love for her and Rowena’s feeble will was because she had no lover to live for. Edgar Allen Poe used a major Romantic theme in his “Ligeia”; he stressed the supernatural and how the main character, the narrator became confused between the supernatural and reality. The theme of the supernatural versus the reality completely overpowers the reader causing the reader to also doubt whether or not the narrator and Ligeia are reunited. The falling action of “Ligeia” is especially important because it ties the overall theme of Romanticism with the characters and the plot.

Climax

"Her illnesses were, after this epoch, of alarming character, and of more alarming recurrence, defying alike the knowledge and the great exertions of her physicians." Here, Rowena is weakened and so is her will to live. At the same moment, the narrator experienced hallucinations which caused the spirit of Ligeia to strengthen and Ligeia's will to live and to overcome death became achievable. As if the two were related, Ligeia came to life as Rowena left hers, "...have been but the suggestion of a vivid imagination, rendered morbidly active by the terror of the lady, by the opium, and by the hour." the narrator witnessed Rowena's death without comment as he watched her drink from her goblet of wine in which appeared almost invisibly, "three or four large drops of a brilliant and ruby colored fluid. If this I saw - not so Rowena." The narrator watched Rowena's death and then suddenly felt, "Wild visions, opium-engendered, flitted, shadow-like," spirits before him, "Then rushed upon me a thousand memories of Ligeia - and then came back upon my heart, with the turbulent violence of a flood, the whole of that unutterable who with which I had regarded her thus enchrouded." It wasn't until Rowena left the narrators life completely that Ligeia had the chance to come back to the narrator's heart as a complete person with even more godly features, "And the chine, with it's dimples, as in health, might it not be hers? - but had then she then grown taller since her malady?" Since Ligeia already met her fate of death, she could not come back to life until someone else, such as Rowena mey their fate of death. Ligeia's spirit caused Rowena's death by placing the "three or four large drops of a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" into Rowena's wine goblet. The will to live, whch Ligeia possessed, overcame Rowena's life, since he did not possess the determination to beat the inevitable future of her death. The more opium the narrator used, the stronger the image if Ligeia's spirit and will to live became and the weaker Rowena became. It was the combination of the narrator's hallucinations and Rowena's weakening will to live that caused Ligeia's rebirth. The climax to this short story "Ligeia" is the death of Rowena because it signalled the rebirth of Ligeia, the character to the narrator's hallucinations, illusions that were part of the rising action of "Ligeia".

Resolution

The ending of "Ligeia" depicts an intense and shocking scene where Lady Rowena transforms into Ligeia. The tone of the Narrator in the last scene is anxious and confused. He witnesses the entire transformation; when Rowena's face is lively again, "the cheeks-- there were the roses as in her noon life" and "the chin, with its dimples, as in health." However, the Narrator feels suspicion towards his once living wife, he questioned, could this be "the fair-haired, the blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine?" He noticed the subtle changes; "has she then grown taller since her malady?" Suddenly, with complete shock, the Narrator notices "the huge masses of long and dishevelled hair; it was blacker than the raven wings of the midnight!" Also, "the eyes of the figure," the haunting and unforgetable eyes that he had cherished for so long when Ligeia was alive. "Those eyes! those large, those shining, those divine orbs!" In his suprise, he screams out ""Here then, at least," I shreiked aloud, "can I never--can I never be mistaken--these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes--of my lost love--of the lady--of the LADY LIGEIA.""
The reader never fully knows if Ligeia has indeed come back to life through Rowena's body because of the little distinction between the supernatural and reality in the Narrator's life. This scene could just be a hallucination from one of his opium dreams. However, it could be the real ghost of Ligeia coming back to finish her life. In the short story, the Narrator has a romantically theme based life where the supernatural plays a huge role, where everything could be reality or perhaps, an uncontrollable dream.

Rising Action

"And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will, with its vigor? For God is but a great will prevading all things by nature of its intentness. Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble way."- Joseph Glanvill
To the Narrator, Ligeia was "the character of his beloved, her rare learning, her singular yet placid cast of beauty, and the thrilling and enthralling eloquence of her low musical language." He loved her with all of this heart and cared for her all of her life. Ligeia soon became deathly ill. Her perfect body and statue turned "pale" and "grave." Her "wild desire for life" made her "wrestle with the Shadow." The Narrator notices Ligeia's strong will against death and how much she wants to live! Her "eager vehemence of desire for life" expressed her feelings and strength; it was unexplainable, the Narrator thought, her need for life was so intense that it foreshadowed the future as she "came and departed as a shadow." The Narrator then reads Ligeia's poem which describes the struggles between life and death. Death is portrayed as a "blood-red thing that writhes from out the scenic solitude!" It is described to be the "Conquerer Worm" and the "tragedy,"Man"." Ligeia's poem shows that death will conquer man no matter how strong their will is. When the poem is finished Ligeia jumps up and exclaims "O God! O Divine Father!-- shall these thingss be undevaitlingly so?--shall this Conquerer be not once conquered?" Again this suspense foreshadows the near future in the short story. The Narrator sees how Ligeia feels towards death and her goal and faith that someone will conquer the "Conquerer" and go against the all natural things. She then says her final words that "Man doth not yeild him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through his feeble will." Ligeia shows that she has a strong will and only those with "feeble will" will fail and be conquered, but she is not one of those people.
After Ligeia's death the Narrator is in complete "lonely desolation" and reminded of Ligeia too much in the "decaying city by the Rhine." Thus, he moves to a quiet portion of England. The Narrator then chooses to marry "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena", the "successor of the unforgotten Ligeia." He wants to replace the lonely hole where Ligeia used to be and tries to forget her by marrying Rowena. However, the Narrator feels hatred and no affection toward Rowena. Through the Narrator's suffering and sadness, he turns back to his addiction, opium. Whenever he is in one of his opium dreams his memory flies back to Ligeia, "her purity, of her wisdom, of her lofty, her eternal nature." The Narrator feels that he must forget Ligia but he turns to opium and is forced to remember her once again, all of faultless attributes and "idolatrous love." When he is hallucinating he believes that he could restore her to the pathway she had abandoned upon the earth." Although he did love and miss Ligeia, we never know forsure if this was Ligeia's doings or his own.

Exposition

"Ligeia" takes place in the early 19th century in England in the Narrator's second home which was very luxurious. The main characters in this short story are the Narrator, who we think is Edgar Allen Poe, Ligeia and Rowena. We believe that the writer of "Ligeia", Edgar Allen Poe is the central character in this story. The Narrator is a widower; the death of his first wife, Ligeia caused him to start a new life so he could forget about his loss. He married another woman, Rowena and together they lived in the Narrator's second home. Throughout the story, the Narrator doesn't show any love towards his second wife, or nearly as much affection as he did to his first wife. Still hung over on the death of his first love, Ligeia, the Narrator begins to use opium which causes hallucinations. These hallucinations helped the Narrator see the spirit of Ligeia as though she was still alive. Ligeia is described by the Narrator as a "majesty so divine!--the skin rivaling the purest ivory, the commanding extent and repose, the gentle prominence of the regions above the temple; and then the raven black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses, setting forth the full force of the Homeric epithet, "hyacinthine!"" Her skin was flawless and her statue was strong. Her hair was beautifully black and had perfect curls. She is compared to Hyacinthine or Hyacinth, the divine hero from Greek mythology who was admired of his beauty that ultimately caused jealousy and suffering when he died. However, in Greek mythology he was reborn as a flower. This relates to Ligeia because in the end she resurrects as a divine being, even more godly and heavenly then when the Narrator knew her. The narrator uses Ligeia as a symbol of death and femininity, with both feminine mortality and immortality. To get over his grief and “lonely desolation” the Narrator remarries to the “fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena.” Rowena's beauty never attracted the Narrators attention like Ligeia had. In fact, "he loathed her with a hatred belonging more to a demon than to man." In the end, Rowena dies from drinking "three or four large drops of a brilliant and ruby colored fluid." The overall theme to "Ligeia" is that death is "only through the weakness of his feeble will." Ligeia represents a strong will to live, Rowena represents the feeble will. Due to Ligeia's will to live she is able to take overcome the barrier of death through Rowena's body. There is also hints of Romanticism throughout the story; there is an emphasis on the supernatural and nature.