A Dead Wife. A set of teeth. A painter. A man of ill-being. These four details connect two of Edgar Allan Poe's stories with elements of madness, isolation, and obsession. In one of these short tales, a man stays in a tower and discovers the tragic events of a preoccupied painter and the death of his wife through the work of a portrait. Furthermore, the second story is a personal account of the fictional character Egaeus, who, with his mental illness and his great focus on small details, becomes obsessed with the teeth of his cousin Berenice. His surprising actions are unforgettable, for everyone except himself. However, despite the vast differences in the plots of these stories, both characters are linked by their mental illness, similar in their detailed focus on particular objects, which leads to their connection in several Gothic elements of Poe's works. . The Painter, a character from Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Oval Portrait", and Egaeus, a character from Poe's story "Berenice", both demonstrate aspects of the Gothic style such as obsession, isolation and madness. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first Gothic aspect represented in these two Poe stories is obsession, as Poe introduces the characters in "The Oval Portrait" and "Berenice." as having worrying elements in their personality, leading them to develop increasing obsessions. Robert Giordano summarizes on his site Poe Stories: An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe, published by Design215 Inc., Poe's short story "The Oval Portrait" helping to emphasize this theme: "A painter is so obsessed with the idea to paint the perfect portrait of his beautiful wife, that he does nothing else until it is finished. Giordano directly connects the plot of the story to the element of obsession, saying that the painter is distracted by his wife's painting, which keeps him completely engulfed in his work until he is finished , making him pay the ultimate price. For example, in “The Oval Portrait,” Poe writes: “But he, the painter, was proud of his work, which continued from hour to hour and day to day. » This indicates the painter's obsession with his painting due to the time he spends working on it, never stopping to enjoy time with his wife or even seeing the world around him, because if he Had he done so, he could have prevented his wife's premature death. Furthermore, his wife herself participated in her own death by complying with her husband's wishes, since she is described as also having an obsession, the obsession with fulfilling her husband's obsession. Just as the painter struggles with a deep obsession, so too does Egaeus of “Berenice.” Egaeus, due to his mental illness, focuses quite intensely on small details and begins to develop an increasing obsession with his cousin Berenice's teeth. . Poe writes directly: "In the multiplied objects of the external world, I had no other thoughts than for the teeth... --ah that is why I coveted them so madly! I felt that their possession alone could bring me back to peace, by restoring me to reason” (Poe, “Berenice”). As Poe shows, Egaeus stops thinking about everything and focuses only on possessing Berenice's teeth. In fact, Poe uses the literary element of punctuation through an exclamation to further represent this obsession. As Egaeus and the painter develop these obsessions, they then drive themselves into isolation. The element of isolation is another element that Poe writesfrequently in his short stories, but isolation is depicted differently in the two stories. In order to express the effects of the painter's obsession, Poe details how the painter begins to exclude people from his life. “But at last, as the work approached its conclusion, no one was admitted into the turret; for the painter had become mad with the ardor of his work and simply turned his eyes from the canvas, even to look at the face of his wife” (Poe, “The Oval Portrait”). Through this quote, Poe demonstrates the serious isolation the painter experiences due to his obsession. He can't stop working on his painting, which leads him to ignore everything around him, to isolate himself from everything and everyone, both by keeping everyone out of the tower and by ignoring his wife. Unlike the painter, Egaeus's isolation is caused by the loss of a loved one. “I found myself sitting in the library, and once again sitting alone. It seemed to me that I had just woken up from a confusing and exciting dream. I knew that it was now midnight, and I knew well that since sunset Berenice had been buried” (Poe, “Berenice”). The immense isolation felt by Egaeus is illustrated through Poe's images. Waking up from his sleep in the library, he realizes that he is alone, because his cousin Bérénice has just died and has probably already been buried. This leaves a hole in Egaeus, creating an immense sense of isolation as one of his closest people has died. Thus, Poe is able to create isolation through obsession, by connecting these gothic elements in his stories. The third Gothic aspect of his stories is madness, which is shown by both the painter and Egaeus. For example, Poe imitates the painter's utter madness in "The Oval Portrait" in the last lines: "...but in the next, while he still looked, he became trembling and very pale, and dismayed, and weeping with a voice strong: “It is indeed Life itself! turned abruptly towards his beloved: – She was dead! This represents madness because, as the painter screams about his newly completed painting, describing it as very vivid and real, he then turns to his model, his wife, and she is dead, which shows his madness in terms to have more care. for his non-living painting than for the life of his wife. Poe uses irony to demonstrate this madness by juxtaposing the painting of the woman as "life itself" with the real woman, who is lifeless. An example of the madness by which Egaeus is consumed is when it is revealed that he pulled out Berenice's teeth: With a cry, I leapt towards the table and seized the box that rested on it... and there, with a clicking noise, I rolled away some dental surgery instruments, mixed with thirty-two small white and ivory-looking substances which were scattered here and there on the floor. From the description of the contents of Egaeus's box, it is clear that they are teeth, indicating that he has succumbed to his obsession with Berenice's teeth. However, it's particularly crazy because he doesn't even realize he's removed his teeth until a servant comes in and points out all the evidence, which scares Egaeus, causing him to grab the box to see what was inside only to leave it. fall and see the teeth come out. In both stories, Poe uses the characters' obsessive compulsion to bring out their sheer madness, as the painter does not realize that his wife has died and Egaeus does not remember pulling out Berenice's teeth. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom article now from our expert writers. Get a custom essay In all, Poe represents the ideas of obsession, isolation, and madness through his.