Ligeia

The abbey the narrator moves to with his new wife Rowena serves as a physical manifestation of the theme of mortality and decay that permeates the narrative. The abbey, with its decaying and ominous appearance, reflects the idea of death’s inescapable presence, and the narrator decides to literally live within its walls. The abbey is geographically isolated and has “lofty walls, gigantic in height—even unproportionably so” (149). The abbey is excessive and dramatic, reflecting the way death has come to be excessive and dramatic in the life of the narrator.

The abbey is also symbolic of the past and how the past haunts the present. The abbey is so isolated that it has not seen visitors or life in a long time. Its decaying structure symbolizes something long forgotten and neglected. Yet, this past weighs heavily. As the narrator describes the large tapestries that adorn the walls, he explains that as he “moved his station in the chamber, he saw himself surrounded by an endless succession of the ghastly forms which belong to the superstition of the Norman” (149). The narrator refers to the Normans of the medieval period and their beliefs, considered “superstitions” by the time of the story. Further, the narrator explains that “The phantasmagoric effect [of the room] was vastly heightened by the artificial introduction of a strong continual current of wind behind the draperies—giving a hideous and uneasy animation to the whole” (149). This description evokes a sense of foreboding and otherworldliness, reinforcing the juxtaposition of the past and the present, as something is perceived to exist in a location thought to be empty.

As the story unfolds, the abbey also becomes a significant setting for the narrator’s descent into “madness.” It is in this eerie and decaying environment that he becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of transcending death. Here he has created a sort of memorial to Ligeia in that “each of the angles of the chamber stood on end a gigantic sarcophagus of black granite, from the tombs of the kings” and decorates the rest of the apartment in the “richest cloth of gold” and “arabesque figures” (149) The abbey’s oppressive and funereal atmosphere contributes to the narrator’s deteriorating mental state, blurring the lines between reality and delusion.

Overall, the gothic abbey in “Ligeia” symbolizes the inescapable grip of death, the haunting power of the past, and the narrator’s descent into “madness.” It serves as a physical representation of the story’s central themes, reinforcing the idea that death and decay are ever-present forces that shape the characters’ fates.