Wasting Woman:

Death and the Feminine Form in “Berenice”

Annotations by Emma Grause

“The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.”

-Edgar Allen Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”

This phrase has continued to echo in my mind as I engage with the creative works of Edgar Allen Poe. A statement of such magnitude and certainty demands further exploration and analysis. Poe’s personal life was marked by the persistent loss of women, an experience which he clearly brought into much of his work. Poe’s women are characterized in a static and sensationalized manner and are intrinsically connected to death and the unfathomable. But is this representation simply a means of female idealization and commodification? Or is it a way for Poe to feel in control of femininity and women, whose power makes him feel threatened and insecure? Why is it that absolute beauty can only exist at the moment where womanhood and death become one?

I will be focusing in on “Berenice,” picking apart the psyche that surrounds Poe’s representations of women both as physical presences and mental obstacles. My text is the 1835 publication from the Southern Literary Messenger, with the inclusion of the original paragraphs that were eventually excluded from later publications. I think the original text gives us the most to work with when it comes to analysis. In her introduction to “Berenice and the Constant Danger of Male Fantasy,” Sarah Inouye states that “[Berenice] is more on display in 1835,” and I agree. While my project focuses on the ways “Berenice” illuminates Poe’s own psychology, Sarah looks at “Berenice” in conversation with modern day representations and realities of misogyny.