I read a bit of the story, and I think it’s catchy, in the other short stories we call the narrator unreliable because he’s persecuted by guilt because he murdered someone, like in ‘The tell-tail heart’ where he murders a man, or ‘The Black Cat’ where he murders his wife and his cat Pluto. But in ‘Ligeia’, from what I understood in the first few pages he’s like going after the lost of his love or something like that, I’m looking forward in reading it.

Just an initial thought 🙂

In the Conqueror Worm, one important aspect (in my opinion) is the fact that the angels are watching the mimes being devoured by the Conqueror Worm. The angels are watching, just being spectators of the scene, at that instant. They do not do anything.

In Ligeia, The Conqueror Worm is told soon before she dies, when she is sick. What is interesting to see is that after the initial poem is told, Ligeia shrieks “O God! O Divine Father! -shall these things be undeviatingly so? -shall this Conqueror be not once conquered?”

Due to this, I personally believe that the actual Conqueror Worm represents Ligeia’s disease, which is ‘eating’ her away from life (which connects with the fact that the Conqueror Worm ate the mimes). The fact that she wants to ‘conquer the Conqueror’ implies that she wants to escape her disease and eventual death, and the poem represents her struggle. I think it also represents the fact that the narrator could not do anything to help Ligeia, but watch. Of course, the angels in The Conqueror Worm had a different reason to watch everything, but I keep my thoughts on that. The narrator has to watch Ligeia die, no matter what he does.

I believe that the conqueror worm written by Poe is an illustration of life and society. If we look at the poem before Poe wrote Ligeia, we can see that it might suggest society and how it works behind the scenes. Keeping in mind that Poe suffered from financial problems, we can relate this to the fact that one wealthy person without morals can “eat’ the whole society.” with mortal pangs  ,  The mimes become its food.” The word” Mortal” suggests that this worm is human and it can not be death, as death can be symbolized to be immortal because it is always there.

However, Poe might have placed this poem in Ligeia and said that it was written by her before her death to illustrate another meaning for this poem. Ligeia fought strongly against death, which might relate to Poe’s Greek mythology references that the angels were helping her against death. But when the “worm” came in, the angles stood terrified and they were helpless.

P.S: Ligeia herself might be the “Conqueror Worm.” 
  

Since Edgar Allan Poe lived in the 19th century, it is safe to assume that the Black Cat also takes place in the 19th century.

The first point I would like to point is the role of the wife in the story. Throughout most of The Black Cat, she is barely mentioned, nor described to the reader. She only has a significant role when she attempts to stop the narrator from killing the second cat with an axe, she results in her getting murdered, “without a groan”. Back in the 19th century, women still weren’t independent, or at least, a few attempted to do so (The New Woman). Due to the way the narrator behaved, treating her as if she was one of his pets, ignoring her, this implies that she probably lived in fear of her husband, which reminds me as a reader that one of the reasons why this woman married the narrator in the first place was because of society’s expectations (The Angel in the House). But there most likely was no love at all. The fact that she’s mentioned so little shows that ‘she’s a woman and therefore does not need to be present’ (which is obviously wrong). Adding with the fact that the only time she attempts to do something, she gets killed, shows that back then, women’s opinions were not considered.

Another interesting point is the superstitious nature of people back then. One superstition in particular which can be important is the one saying cats have nine lives. If Poe took inspiration from this, it is entirely possible that the second cat is actually Pluto’s second life, who came back to revenge, which for 19th century readers, would make the story a lot more creepy than it already is.

although it doesn’t look like it, the historical approach is quite applicable to “the black cat”, and my reasoning for this, is that during 19th century England folklore, myths and legends were still deeply ingrained within society at the time. This setting emphasizes why Poe described Pluto as being an all black cat in the first place,  which is to tap into the fear of the unknown within society during that time  and to turn that into a symbol of vengeance at the end of the story in order to outline certain points, such as concept of karma, and the eerie concept of revenge beyond the grave and various others which are too many to list in this post . the black cat is universally seen as a sign of bad luck, or the foreshadowing of something grim to come to those who behold it,  which is why i believe it is one of the main reasons that Poe has used a cat instead of some other animal.

p.s i also found out that poe’s  step father has left him nothing in his will when he died in 1834

Poe is able to show us his caring and affectionate side towards his pets especially Pluto. However, as the story proceeds his personality transforms to a very complex, violent, and abusive nature towards his pets and especially his wife. At the beginning, we could see his care and love towards animals. “We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.” However, Alcohol was a factor that affected his state of mind and psychology. It is clear that ego is a dominant trait in his personality and he does not accept being rejected or avoided. When  “Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish — even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper.” His actions are largely influenced by ego in which it made him hate Pluto just because he started avoiding him when the speaker is drunk.

A similar situation occurs with his wife when she tried to stop him from killing the Cat. He loved her “uncomplaining” nature just like he loved Pluto being his pet. But when he noticed a slight rejection on his actions he was driven by ego and anger to kill his wife. This reveals the psychological torture that the speaker was going through, “Egosyntonic and egodystonic symptoms”.

While I was reading through “The Black Cat”, I happened to notice that there were a lot of mythological and religious influences that played a significant role in the overall tone of the story (in the midst of being very shocked at certain developments). Poe’s inclusion of Greek mythology is very recurrent throughout his other works. Specifically in “The Black Cat”, in which he names the first cat Pluto. The name Pluto holds great significance in Greek mythology, because he was the ruler of the underworld. And in this story, how Poe describes the narrator to be ‘best friends’ and ‘playmates’ with Pluto, can also hold a subliminal meaning of ‘playing with the devil’. I think that Poe used this as a metaphor to display the narrator’s inner darkness or evil. This hellish imagery that is often used really puts across the narrator’s pure anger and ire.

I realised the frequency of the involvement of traditional beliefs and the occult in Edgar Allan Poe’s works. I don’t think I’ve ever come across another writer who overuses superstition and hinting at the supernatural as much as Poe does. We’ve seen this as a common trope in his works “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. However, the truth is that with the absence of these elements, his stories just wouldn’t feel the same. I quite like the mysterious sense that all his poems and stories have. I’ve come to appreciate Poe’s writing style quite a bit, which is why the next horror novel I read will have some high standards to meet.

If this story had a movie adaptation, I want this to be the promotional poster.