The Oval Portrait

987 Words4 Pages
THE OVAL PORTRAIT

The short story, The Oval portrait, was written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1842. The main theme is life and death and how it is reflected in art. Art becomes an obsession of creating something perfect and flawless. Making the perfect image, drags something out of reality, kills reality and makes a better version of reality. Art is able to reach levels of beauty that reality can’t reach. Art has no limit and reality dies with it.

The story is build up as a story within a story. The setting is in an old Chateau, where an injured narrator and his valent are seeking shelter for the night. The Chateau’s walls are covered with tapestry and the room is decorated with antique furniture, paintings and beautiful old armorial trophies. The architecture of the chateau is unusual. And paintings are hanging in every corner of the strangely shaped room. The narrator asks his valent to close the shutters in the room and to light a candelabrum, so that he can see the paintings while lying in bed. He finds a book lying on his pillow describing every single picture. He reads for hours but is annoyed by the position of the light from the candelabrum and reaches for it to change its position. By accident he moves the light to an unnoticed part of the room, where an oval painting is hanging. The painting gets the narrators special attention. The painting is so life like, that he closes his eyes because the paintings beauty distracts him. He does this to gain time to think and every few seconds he then again gaze at the picture. The beauty of the painting is weakening his judgment. The painting represents a beautiful young girl. The narrator can’t stop looking at the painting and is trying to make sense of it. When he after a while can’t bear to look anymore he grabs the book to get answers. The book explains that the painting is portrait of the artist’s

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