Emotions In American Gothic 'And Ligeia'

There are six basic emotions that a single person can feel in a single day. Six; anger, fear surprise, disgust, happiness and sadness. These six basic emotions tie into what is called empathy, and in simpler terms, empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings or rather, emotions. A person can look at something and immediately become sad or angry or happy. All it takes is just one look, one thought process, one memory. This look, and this memory can spark six different emotions, and these emotions can happen when doing just about anything, or more specifically art and literature. Looking at American Gothic and “Ligeia,” is there a true answer for art and literature being able to provoke emotion in an audience? American Gothic was

He starts listing off how he can’t remember when they met, or where she was from, not even her last name. But in spite of all the things about her that he can’t remember, he does know the passion that he feels for her and her character. According to the narrator, Ligeia “was tall, somewhat slender, and, in her latter days, even emaciated.” He continues on with telling how she was able to tread lightly, and how beautiful she was. The narrator makes sure to tell that she didn’t tread the ideals of beauty in a traditional sort of way, but rather a strange sort of beauty. He notes that her biggest distinctive feature as being her hair, in that it was raven-black and naturally curly. Along with this, he tells of her eyes, how her beautiful black eyes rival her black hair and how they show what great knowledge and understanding she has behind them. The narrator then begins to describe how even though he loved her beauty, he loved her mind more considering that it helped bring him through his own chaotic mind. However, after this, the mood of the story turns more somber. The narrator begins to tell how at the beginning she went through her life with such intensity, but then how it started to fade, and she fell ill and eventually left altogether. He goes on to describe on what life was equivalent to before Ligeia’s death. The night before she died, as he sat by her bedside, she

Although he marries her, he does not love her, or even likes her for that matter. Upon their marriage, he puts her in a separate room from him and begins taking opium to ease his pain of losing Ligeia. At the start of their second month of marriage, Lady Rowena starts to get ill, falls into a strange state, and begins to have hallucinations. Deciding to help Lady Rowena, the narrator brings her wine in an attempt to revive her, but as he’s doing this, a strange sensation comes over him. He thinks that there is a faint shadow on the carpet, but decides against it, thinking it might be just be the opium. Soon, he begins to hear footsteps and watches as red drops of liquid fall into Lady Rowena’s glass of wine. When she drinks it, she immediately gets sicker and soon after dies. Mind still fogged by opium, the narrator finds himself still thinking of Ligeia. Later that night, the narrator wakes to moans from Rowena’s bedroom, and discovers that color has returned to her face, and that she lives. Though this is brief, and after another set of shrieks, her body becomes cold once again. Thinking of Ligeia, the narrator, again watches as the Lady awakens again, only this time, moves from the bed into the middle of the apartment. He notices that the body has grown taller and that her hair has turned raven-black, and discovers that it