The Dissection of Berenice

Berenice is a story of a woman’s suppression, mutilation, and decay. It’s widely regarded as one of Poe’s most frightening stories, to an extent that goes beyond his other works focused on death and decay. Yet what is it that makes Berenice more spine-chilling in places where other Poe classics like “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Raven,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” fail?

All of those stories have sort of risen to a level of literary infamy that their success has been repeated over and over. They are enjoyable to reference and read about as the audience fundamentally knows that they are meant to be viewed as purely fiction that is just exciting enough to frighten, while also leaning into the unreal in order to be entertaining. To an extent Berenice also does with the unreliable narration of Egaeus and the lightly implied paranormal obsession with her too-clean teeth.

However, there’s something more sinister to Egaeus’s violation of Berenice within the story, that gives ‘Berenice’ an effect that few other of Poe’s stories do. The sense of disgust and disdain that the narrator impresses upon Berenice is something that still feels very contemporary in modern times, of women subject to violent tendencies of men that are mentally ill, who only have a wake-up call when the repercussions become too big for them to handle. Within this publication I would like to analyze the ways that ‘Berenice’ is a representation of violence and suppression of women in society, especially within the context of the Victorian era.

My source text is:

Poe, Edgar Allan. Berenice. The Southern Literary Messenger, 1835. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore – Works – Tales – Berenice (Text-02b). https://eapoe.org/works/tales/bernicea.htm

This edition is accompanied with illustrations that are drawn by me to drive in the effect of reading and comprehending Berenice as a person beyond the vague, specter-like image that Poe provides.

Considering this analysis is part of a collection, I would be remiss not to include another chapter that I highly suggest taking a look at. I am not the only one to take a critical look at ‘Berenice,’  and Emi O’Brochta’s “Berenice” ; The Virginian Gentleman’s Review provides an interesting alternative approach.