Poe's Deathbed Scenes in ＂Ligeia＂: Metamorphosis, Necromancy, and Resurrection

愛倫坡「麗姬亞」的死亡場景：變形、招魂術、復活

10.6271/fd.2015.24.2.01

高淑婷(Shu-Ting Kao)

死亡場景 ； 變形 ； 招魂術 ； 復活 ； deathbed scene ； metamorphosis ； necromancy ； resurrection

小說與戲劇

24卷2期（2015 / 06 / 01）

1 - 19

英文

愛倫坡揭示真正的死亡過程，「麗姬亞」的死亡場景不同於維多利亞文化、藝術和文學的臨終場景。「麗姬亞」沒有任何宗教救贖，故事敍述者在超自然的世界神格化和魔化麗姬亞，但愛倫坡質疑敍述者的臆想。愛倫坡的建築呈現真實死亡的恐怖和焦慮；具埃及和異文化色彩的哥德建築隠喻人面對死亡的掙扎，以及死亡的勝利。哥德式修道院可看作是子宮或黑暗的內部空間，故事主角為麗姬亞進行復活儀式，但整個建築結構卻反映心靈黑暗和神祕的毀滅和死亡。我在此篇文章討論愛倫坡「麗姬亞」的死亡場景，使用建築因素呈現有關麗姬亞的復活神話，並且詮釋存在恐怖空間的死亡，包含黑暗意識裡的祕密和毁滅。

The deathbed scene in Poe's ＂Ligeia＂ reveals the actual processes that occur before and after death, a topic generally avoided in Victorian culture, art, and literature. ＂Ligeia＂ ends in death alone, without any hint of religious redemption. Moreover, Poe's deathbed scene demystifies the illusion and calls into question the narrator's metaphysical assumptions that might either idealize or demonize Ligeia in a supernatural realm. In showing the actual deathbed scene and the horror and anxiety it stirs, Poe paradoxically uses architecture both as a metaphor for human efforts or desires to struggle against death, as well as to represent the final triumph of death. The deathbed scenes of Ligeia and Rowena take place in a Gothic abbey, which can be seen as a dark and womblike interior space. Although the gloomy chamber in the abbey, decorated with an Egyptian sarcophagus, is transformed into a supernatural realm when the protagonist practices a resurrection ritual, it is structured in a way that reflects the darkness of the psyche and its relation to the mysteries of destruction and death. In this paper I discuss the deathbed scene in Edgar Allan's ＂Ligeia,＂ using architectural elements to present a world of myth that allows Ligeia to go beyond the physical world; this illustrates the natural force of death in a haunted place that contains the secret of dark unconsciousness and destruction.

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