The Oval Portrait

by

Edgar Allan Poe

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The Artist’s Wife Character Analysis

The artist’s wife appears in the flesh only in the inner story, but her image—an “immortalized” painted portrait of her mortal self, remarkable in its lifelikeness—startles and appalls the narrator in the narrative’s outer story. The guide book that the narrator reads describes her as vivacious and full of love for everything but the painter’s vocation, which she regards as a rival for his affections. Her dominant character traits are meekness and submissiveness. Although she intensely dislikes the being painted—a process with deteriorates her physically and psychologically—she never protests about it because she loves the artist and doesn’t want to stand in the way of the pleasure he takes in his work. In the end, this unconditional love results in her demise, as she dies while the artist is completing her portrait. The artist is subtly portrayed as a sort of metaphorical vampire in the way that he sucks the youth and health out of his wife in order in order to immortalize her, although her immortalization is, of course, a figurative one on canvas. Poe uses the wife’s character to critique the subjection of women in the patriarchal society of his day, and also to emphasize the potentially dehumanizing effects of the male gaze. Her character is somewhat of a two-dimensional one, and this may be a deliberate ploy on the part of the Poe, as an attempt to represent the way women were often perceived in his day.

The Artist’s Wife Quotes in The Oval Portrait

The The Oval Portrait quotes below are all either spoken by The Artist’s Wife or refer to The Artist’s Wife . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Life vs. Art Theme Icon
).
The Oval Portrait Quotes

The portrait, I have already said, was that of a young girl. It was a mere head and shoulders, done in what is technically termed a vignette manner; much in the style of the favorite heads of Sully.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Artist’s Wife
Related Symbols: Frames
Page Number: 569
Explanation and Analysis:

I had found the spell of the picture in an absolute life-likeliness of expression, which, at first startling, finally confounded, subdued, and appalled me.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Artist, The Artist’s Wife
Page Number: 569
Explanation and Analysis:

She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee. And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He, passionate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his Art; she a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee; all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn; loving and cherishing all things; hating only the Art which was her rival; dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even his young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark, high turret-chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead.

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife , The Narrator
Page Number: 569-570
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] [T]he painter had grown wild with the ardor of his work, and turned his eyes from the canvas rarely, even to regard the countenance of his wife. And he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sat beside him

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife
Page Number: 570
Explanation and Analysis:

And then the brush was given, and then the tint was placed; and, for one moment, the painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought; but in the next, while he yet gazed, he grew tremulous and very pallid, and aghast, and crying with a loud voice, 'This is indeed Life itself!' turned suddenly to regard his beloved: She was dead!

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife , The Narrator
Related Symbols: Frames
Page Number: 570
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Oval Portrait PDF

The Artist’s Wife Quotes in The Oval Portrait

The The Oval Portrait quotes below are all either spoken by The Artist’s Wife or refer to The Artist’s Wife . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Life vs. Art Theme Icon
).
The Oval Portrait Quotes

The portrait, I have already said, was that of a young girl. It was a mere head and shoulders, done in what is technically termed a vignette manner; much in the style of the favorite heads of Sully.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Artist’s Wife
Related Symbols: Frames
Page Number: 569
Explanation and Analysis:

I had found the spell of the picture in an absolute life-likeliness of expression, which, at first startling, finally confounded, subdued, and appalled me.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Artist, The Artist’s Wife
Page Number: 569
Explanation and Analysis:

She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee. And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He, passionate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his Art; she a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee; all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn; loving and cherishing all things; hating only the Art which was her rival; dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even his young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark, high turret-chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead.

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife , The Narrator
Page Number: 569-570
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] [T]he painter had grown wild with the ardor of his work, and turned his eyes from the canvas rarely, even to regard the countenance of his wife. And he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sat beside him

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife
Page Number: 570
Explanation and Analysis:

And then the brush was given, and then the tint was placed; and, for one moment, the painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought; but in the next, while he yet gazed, he grew tremulous and very pallid, and aghast, and crying with a loud voice, 'This is indeed Life itself!' turned suddenly to regard his beloved: She was dead!

Related Characters: The Artist, The Artist’s Wife , The Narrator
Related Symbols: Frames
Page Number: 570
Explanation and Analysis: