Morella (short story)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Morella" is a short story by 19th century American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe. "Morella" is the title of one segment of Roger Corman's 1962 film Tales of Terror. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. The film has two other segments named after "The Black Cat" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar."
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Plot summary
An unnamed narrator marries Morella, a woman who delves into "forbidden pages" of mysticism. As a result of her experimentations her soul can never die, but her physical form continues to deteriorate. She spends her time in bed and teaches her husband the black arts. Realizing her curse, her husband, the narrator, becomes frightened and wishes for his wife's death and eternal peace. She dies in childbirth but her soul passes into the new baby. As the daughter gets older the narrator notices she bears an uncanny resemblance to her mother, but he refuses to give the child a name. By her tenth birthday the resemblance to Morella is frightening. Her father decides to have her baptized to release any evil from her, but this event brings the mothers soul back into her daughter. At the ceremony, the priest asks the daughter's name, to which the narrator replies, "Morella." Immediately, the daughter replies, "I am here!" The story ends when the narrator takes his daughter to a sepulcher to expel her mother's spirit - the child dies, and he discovers that her mother's bones are gone from her grave.
Analysis
The narrator's decision to name his daughter Morella implies his subconscious desire for her death, just as he had for her mother. Morella's rebirth may be her becoming a vampire to wreak vengeance on the narrator.
Poe explores the idea of what happens to identity after death, suggesting that if identity survived death it could exist outside the human body and return to new bodies. He was influenced in part by the theories of identity by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, who he mentions in the story.
There are a number of possible origins for the name "Morella". It is the name of the Venerable Mother Julianna Morell (1595-1653), who was the fourth Grace and tenth Muse in a poem by poet Lope de Vega. "Morel" is the name of black nightshade, a poisonous weed related to one from which the drug belladonna is derived. It occurs in Presburg, a home of black magic.
Major themes
Poe features dead or dying wives in many of his tales (see also "Berenice," "Ligeia") and resurrection or communication from beyond the grave (see "Eleonora," "The Fall of the House of Usher")."
Publication history
"Morella" was first published in the April 1835 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger, and a revised version was re-printed in the November 1839 issue of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. The first publication included a 16-line poem of Poe's called "Hymn" sung by Morella, later published as a stand-alone poem "A Catholic Hymn."
