The Oval Portrait

The tale begins with an injured narrator (the story offers no further explanation of his impairment) seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion in the Apennines. The narrator spends his time admiring the paintings that decorate the strangely shaped room and reading through a reference book, found on a pillow, that describes them.

Upon moving the candle closer to the book, the narrator discovers a before-unnoticed painting depicting the head and shoulders of a young girl. The picture inexplicably enthralls the narrator "for an hour perhaps". After steady reflection, he realizes that the painting's "absolute life-likeliness" of expression is the captivating feature. The narrator eagerly consults the book for an explanation of the picture. The remainder of the story is a quote from this book – a story within a story.

The book describes a tragic story involving a young maiden of "the rarest beauty". She loved and wedded an eccentric painter who cared more about his work than anything else in the world, including his wife. The painter eventually asked his wife to sit for him, and she obediently consented, sitting "meekly for many weeks" in his turret chamber. The painter worked so diligently at his task that he did not recognize his wife's fading health, as she, being a loving wife, continually "smiled on and still on, uncomplainingly". As the painter neared the end of his work, he let no one enter the turret chamber and rarely took his eyes off the canvas, even to watch his wife. After many weeks had passed, he finally finished his work. As he looked at the completed image, however, he felt appalled, as he exclaimed, "This is indeed Life itself!" After this, he turned suddenly to regard his bride and discovered that she had died.

The story's central theme revolves around the perplexing tension between art and life. In "The Oval Portrait", art and the addiction to it led to the young bride's death. Within this framework, art is deadly, and 'art' and 'life' cannot peacefully coexist. This tension reflects Poe's theory that poetry as art is the rhythmical creation of beauty, and that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world (see "The Philosophy of Composition").^[1]

"The Oval Portrait" was first published as a longer version titled "Life in Death" in Graham's Magazine in 1842. "Life in Death" included a few introductory paragraphs explaining how the narrator had been wounded, and that he had eaten opium to relieve the pain. Poe might have excised this introduction because it was not particularly relevant, and it also gave the impression that the story was nothing more than a hallucination. The shorter version, renamed "The Oval Portrait", was published in the April 26, 1845 edition of the Broadway Journal.^[2]