"To Sick to be True: Questioning Reality in Edgar Allen Poe's Berenice"

Misery is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of the arch, as distinct too, yet as intimately blended. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow! How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness? from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.


“BereniceEby Edgar Allen Poe is a story typical of the author for its ability to leave readers with a feeling of discomfort. Its impact is achieved at the tale’s gruesome end when Egæus realizes that he has committed a savage act of disgust. The act is revealed to us at the same moment, allowing us to experience the narrator’s horror. The story begins with an introduction that is satura...