A Dead Wife. A set of teeth. A painter. A man of uneasiness. These four details tie two of Edgar Allan Poe's stories to elements of madness, isolation, and obsession. In one of these stories a man finds himself in a tower and through a portrait discovers the disturbing events of a worried painter and the death of his wife. Separately, the second story is a personal narrative of the fictional character Egaeus, who due to his mental illness and close attention to small details becomes obsessed with his cousin Berenice's teeth. His astonishing actions are unforgettable, to everyone except himself. However, despite the major differences in the plots of these stories, the two characters are tied together by their mental illness, similar in their detailed focus on particular objects, which leads to their connection in several Gothic elements of Poe's works. The Painter, a character in Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Oval Portrait,” and Egaeus, a character in Poe's short story “Berenice,” both demonstrate aspects of the Gothic style such as obsession, isolation and madness. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first Gothic aspect represented in these two Poe stories is obsession, as Poe introduces the characters in both "The Oval Portrait" and "Berenice" as having troubling elements in their personalities, causing them to develop increasing obsessions. Robert Giordano summarizes Poe's short story “The Oval Portrait” on his website Poe Stories: An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe, published by Design215 Inc., helping to emphasize this theme: “A painter is so obsessed with painting the perfect portrait of his beautiful wife, who does nothing else until it's finished. Giordano directly connects the plot of the story with the element of obsession, saying that the painter becomes distracted by his wife's painting, which keeps him completely absorbed in his work until it is finished, making him pay the ultimate price. For example, in “The Oval Portrait” Poe writes, “But he, the painter, derived glory from his work, which went on from hour to hour and from day to day.” This indicates the painter's obsession with his painting because of how much time he spends working on it, never stopping to enjoy time with his wife or even see the world around him, because if he had, it could have prevented the premature death of his wife. Furthermore, his wife herself participated in her own death by complying with her husband's wishes, as she is also depicted as having an obsession, an obsession with satisfying her husband's obsession. Just as the painter struggles with a deep obsession, Egeo in “Berenice” also experiences one. Egeo becomes intensely focused on small details due to his mental illness and begins to develop a growing obsession with his cousin Berenice's teeth. . Poe writes directly: “In the multiplied objects of the external world I had no other thought than teeth… --ah therefore I craved them so madly! I felt that only their possession could restore my peace, giving me back my reason” (Poe, “Berenice”). As shown by Poe, Egaeus stops thinking about everything and focuses only on trying to take possession of Berenice's teeth. In fact, Poe uses the literary element of punctuation through an exclamation to further represent this obsession. As Egaeus and the painter develop these obsessions, they lead to subsequent isolation. The element of isolation is another one that Poe often writes about in his stories,however isolation is portrayed differently in both stories. To express the effects of the painter's obsession, Poe details how the painter begins to exclude people from his life. “But at last, when the work neared its conclusion, no one was admitted into the turret; for the painter was mad with the ardor of his work, and only looked away from the canvas to look upon the face of his wife” (Poe , “The oval portrait”). Through this quote Poe demonstrates the severe isolation the painter experiences due to his obsession. He cannot stop working on his painting, which leads him to despise everything around him, isolating himself from everything and everyone, whether by keeping everyone out of the tower or ignoring his wife. Unlike the painter, Egeo's isolation is caused by the loss of a loved one. “I found myself sitting in the library, and sitting alone again. It felt like I had just woken up from a confusing and emotional dream. I knew it was now midnight, and I was well aware that by the setting sun Berenice had been buried” (Poe, “Berenice”). The immense isolation that Egeus feels is shown through Poe's imagery. When he wakes up from sleep in the library, he realizes that he is alone, as his cousin Berenice has just died and has probably already been buried. This leaves a void in Egaeus, creating an immense feeling of isolation as one of the people closest to him had died. Thus, Poe is able to create isolation through obsession by linking these gothic elements together in his stories. The third Gothic aspect of his stories is madness, which is shown by both the painter and Egaeus. For example, Poe imitates the painter's utter madness in “The Oval Portrait” in the last lines: “…but soon after, as he still looked, he became trembling, and very pale, and horrified, and wept bitterly. a loud voice: "This is truly Life itself!" he suddenly turned to look at his beloved: -- She was dead! This depicts madness because as the painter shouts about his newly finished painting, describing it as very lively and real, he then turns to look at his sitter, his wife, and she is dead, which shows his madness in terms of greater care for his inanimate painting than for the life of his wife. Poe uses irony to demonstrate this madness by juxtaposing the painting of the woman as “Life Itself” with the real woman, who is lifeless. An example of the madness by which Egeo is consumed is when it is discovered that he has knocked out Berenice's teeth: With a cry I sprang to the table and seized the box that lay upon it... and from it, with a rattling sound, rolled some dental surgery instruments, mixed with thirty-two small white and ivory-looking substances that were scattered here and there on the floor. From Egeo's description of the contents of the box it is clear that they are teeth, which indicates that he has succumbed to his obsession with Berenice's teeth. However, he is especially angry because he doesn't even realize he took out her teeth until a servant comes in and points out all the evidence to him, which scares Egaeus, causing him to grab the box to see what was inside only to leave it . fall and see the teeth come out. In both stories Poe uses the obsessive compulsion of the characters to bring out their pure madness, as the painter does not realize that his wife is dead and Egaeus does not remember having removed Berenice's teeth. Please note: this is just an example. Get a paper habit now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay Overall, Poe represents the ideas of obsession, isolation, and madness throughout his stories and by tying all three aspects together he is able to create amazing plots that make his stories so popular. In an article.