Ligeia Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

Ligeia Key Questions

Two good starting places for the discussion of "Ligeia" are the personality of the narrator and the explanation of what happened. Do readers feel that Ligeia came back to life? If so, by what agency, her own will or her husband's will? Or is the story a record of an opium dream?

Readers could fruitfully debate the evidences for both interpretations and maybe see how Poe writes the tale in a way that resists closure.

1. Is the story about a supernatural event or a psychological disturbance?

(This is another phrasing of the issue above.)

2. How would you describe the narrator? What are his specific traits? Too often readers may be satisfied at stamping the narrator as "crazy" and delve no further. What are the sources and manifestations of his mental problems? How does drug abuse factor into his character?