The Oval Portrait

Pedro the valet brings the injured narrator to an abandoned chateau because he does not

want the narrator to have to sleep outside. The apartment has rich but decaying decorations,

including tapestries, trophies, and paintings.The narrator is semi-delirious from his wounds and

takes an intense interest in the paintings, so he has Pedro close the shutters, light a candelabrum,

and open the bed curtains so that the narrator can look at the paintings while reading a book he

has found on the pillow, which provides information about the paintings. The portrait displays a

vignette of the girl's head and shoulders in the style of Thomas Sully, an American

portraitist.The painting is beautiful, as is the subject, but the narrator had momentarily mistaken

it for a living person, although it is obviously a painting. He continues to observe the portrait to

determine how the painting had caused the effect before respectfully returning the candelabrum

to its previous position so that he cannot see the painting.

APPLIED SLO-Read:

The oval portrait indicates the tension between the impermanence of life. The portrait's

subject is full of life when she marries the painter. The history of the painting suggests that

although the metamorphosis from life to eternal art may create a masterful work of beauty that

simulates life, the narrator is only deceived by his "dreamy stupor" and by the sudden reveal of

the painting from the dark. A second, more intense look at the painting reveals the illusion, and

similarly, the painter of the story ends by giving up his wife for a mere image.