Ligeia Narrator:

First Person (Central Narrator)

"Ligeia," like many of Poe's tales, is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator. This strategy gives Poe a lot of freedom when it comes to the storytelling: he can create a distinct voice and manipulate information in a way that he might not be able to with your usual impartial third-person narrator. In the case of "Ligeia," Poe has a lot of fun: his narrator has a bad memory, is addicted to opium, and is totally obsessed with his dead wife. He's a classic "unreliable narrator" (check out "Characters" for more on that). So Poe can do more than simply tell the story, he can get himself – and us – all wrapped up in its messy particulars, in the haze of opium and obsession. We're stuck right in the middle of the action and, despite having a front row seat or perhaps because we have one, we have a hard time separating fact from fiction, reality from dream.