Poe's Ligeia

             Poe's development of the narrator is extremely interesting to me. It is obvious that the narrator cannot handle that his wife is not only beautiful, but also intelligent. It's like he is fascinated that a woman can we beautiful and intelligent. In the past and even in today's society, many men cannot handle when the woman dominates in the relationship. The "old view" of the male being the dominant one in the household with the woman being his subordinate is how the narrator feels about Ligeia. The narrator seems to be a bit of a loser to me. He marries Ligeia and takes all the credit for the work she does for him. At one point in the story, the narrator realizes that he cannot live without Ligeia which is frustrating for him because this is the total opposite of the gender norm back in those days. Why Poe portrayed Liegia in this way I do not know. Maybe he was attempting to "break away" from the traditional way women were viewed as being back then. .
             With these views, the narrator was the cause of Ligeia's death. Ligeia does all the work for the narrator because he is such a lazy ass which results in her getting sick which eventually leads to her death. As she is lying on her deathbed, the narrator makes her read him a poem!! What the heck is that all about? The narrator is the cause of his second's wife death as well. First of all, his second wife didn't even like him. It said that his wife dreaded the fierce moodiness of his temper, shunned him, and loved him little. When Rowena was on her deathbed, the narrator visions a "spirit" in the chamber where she was. This "spirit" put something into Rowena's drink, but really I think it was the narrator hallucinating off the opium and he poisoned her himself. The has no remorse or understanding of what he has done. All he can think about is Ligeia. By trying to shut down the natural abilities of his wives, the narrator doomed himself.