First Things First…
After being disappointed by a lot of Poe’s early catalog, maybe I’ve reached a breakthrough—either in his writing, or simply in my enjoyment of it. I liked his last two stories that I read and reviewed—“Shadow—A Parable” and “Silence—A Fable.”
I don’t know anything about “Berenice,” just like I didn’t know anything about either of those stories. But I’m hopeful this strong streak continues, because I still have a ways to go before I get to any of his most famous stories that I know I love.
2 Things I Like
2. Tedious Obsessions
“To muse for long unwearied hours with my attention riveted to some frivolous device on the margin, or in the typography of a book; to become absorbed, for the better part of a summer’s day in a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry, or upon the floor; to lose myself for an entire night in watching the steady flame of a lamp, or the embers of a fire; to dream away whole days over the perfume of a flower; to repeat monotonously some common word…”
Egaeus
Usually when someone is obsessed—a literary character or a real person—they’re obsessed with another person they’re in love with or whose attention they crave. Or maybe they’re obsessed with achieving a goal, or with their career.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone with an affliction that causes obsession with trivialities.
The narrator, Egaeus, calls what he suffers from a…
“… nervous intensity of interest… in the contemplation of even the most ordinary objects of the universe.”
It sounds like it’s boring as hell to suffer from. Egaeus even says these meditations are “never pleasurable.”
Yet I find this affliction fascinating to read about.
And of course, in true Poe fashion, it goes on to rear its ugly head in the most catastrophic way possible.
1. The Horrifying Reveal of the Bedside Box
As soon as Egaeus’ obsession turns toward Berenice—specifically to her teeth, which are the only part of her body that hasn’t deteriorated due to her disease—and he can’t stop fixating on them, it’s clear something terrible is on deck.
Sure enough, the fact that Berenice’s disease sometimes causes her to become catatonic leads to everyone thinking she’s dead, and a premature burial. (Just like obsession, this is another of Poe’s fascinations.)
But the slow reveal of Egaeus being roused from his trancelike state, unaware of what’s happened, only to hear a woman’s piercing scream, to find his clothes covered in dirt and blood, to find a spade in his room, and to see a little box on his bedside table, is thrilling.
Egaeus has the vague sense that he’s done something horrible, but he doesn’t know what because of the nature of his obsessive meditations. And his instincts warn him not to open that box.
Although the violent act itself isn’t described, this implies an act more violent than anything else I’ve read in Poe’s early stories so far.
And though horrible, I was filled with dread while waiting for this final reveal to confirm what I already knew was inside that box—32 sparkling white teeth, along with the instruments of dental surgery.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Berenice, We Hardly Knew You
“Berenice and I were cousins, and we grew up together in my paternal halls. Yet differently we grew—I ill of health and buried in gloom—she agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy—hers the ramble on the hill-side—mine the studies of the cloister—I living within my own heart, and addicted body and soul to the most intense and painful meditation—she roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours.”
Egaeus
This is Egaeus’ story. It’s about his obsessive nature, and the empty life it’s caused him to live.
Yet the titular Berenice, his cousin, is his total opposite. When he first mentions her, it seems we’re in store to find out more about this lovely, vivacious girl.
Instead, we learn in the very same paragraph in which she’s introduced that she’s been stricken with a soon-to-be fatal disease and is barely recognizable anymore in terms of her appearance or personality.
Again, this is his story… and seeing as he’s the narrator, and it’s largely about his obsessions, it makes sense that he’d focus almost entirely on himself and on those obsessions.
But it would’ve been nice to spend a little more time with Berenice, to find out more about her, and maybe even to understand why she wanted to marry Egaeus, who was a total drag even before the horrific violence he commits against her at the end.
Tim Matassa
