Nama : Muhammad Muammar

Npm : 2188203018

Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract

"Berenice" is a short horror story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the Southern
Literary Messenger in 1835. This story is told by Egaeus who is preparing to marry his cousin Berenice.
He tends to fall into periods of intense focus, during which he seems to cut himself off from the outside
world. Berenice's condition began to deteriorate due to an unnamed disease until only her teeth remained
healthy. Egaeus was obsessed with them. When Berenice was buried, he kept looking at her teeth. One
day, he woke up feeling uneasy from a trance and heard it. A servant reports that Berenice's grave has
been disturbed, and she is still alive. Beside Egaeus is a reservoir, a poem about "visiting my beloved's
grave", and a box containing 32 teeth.

Body

The setting of “Berenice” takes place within the main character’s, Egaeus, mansion’s library as shown
when he states, “in the very peculiar nature of the library's contents, there is more than sufficient
evidence to warrant the belief. The recollections of my earliest years are connected with that chamber,
and with its volumes --of which latter I will say no more” (1). The story physically takes place in the
library but Egaeus structures the story with his memories from his mind.
The conflict of the short story Berenice is that the protagonist Egaeus has a weird fixation, or obsessive
disorder that forces him to become fixated on the teeth of his dead cousin. He ends up going in a trance
like state and stealing her teeth from her grave. This in term is an internal conflict that the protagonist
has between himself and his mental disorder that seems to take over his mind.
The short story explores various themes through the narrator's contemplative state. Among them the
narrator explores his desolation and contrasts it with Berenice’s blissfulness while they grew up together
in the same household. As they grow Berenice is overcome with an illness which soon leads to the
mistaken belief of her death. As the speaker contemplates in a confined space he ponders upon
Berenice's teeth and whilst his monomania takes control, he asks himself whether having her teeth
would restore him to his peace.
The conflict of the short story “Berenice” by Edgar Allan Poe seems to be that the character Egaeus,
clashes between the balance of Berenice’s life as an energetic person before she is diagnosed with
epilepsy, and her life after death and seeing her body.
Egaeus is a wealthy man who came from a prestigious family line of visionaries. Egaeus was miserable
and gloomy growing up, but he indulged in reading books and focused by meditating. He had his life
planned and his passion for intellect was higher than love. Berenice was a cousin of Egaeus, and she
also lived with Egaeus in his father's mansion. She was very agile, graceful, beautiful, energetic, and
carefree. Berenice did not have her life planned, but died from a disease of epilepsy. “He” is also
mentioned representing death.
The conflict here is that Egaeus, is tormented with solitary depressive and compulsive judgement. He
seems consumed with mental illness which is described in the story . He had a very sad and conflicting
childhood that apparently affected him and caused him to have unusual thoughts and behavior.
Apparently he was obsessed with the physical appearance of Berenice after her deterioration. Explicitly,
he becomes fixated on her brilliantly white perfect teeth. Egaeus removes them when she is still alive
possibly when she is in a catatonic state and appears dead. This turns to be a bit disturbing due to this
characters abnormal psychogenic behavior.

Conclusion

Within the story, Berenice's health deteriorates causing Egaeus to focus solely on her teeth. When she
seems to die, she is buried, and Egaeus goes into a trance-like state. Only at the end of the story does
he discover that he dug up her grave and took her teeth all when she was still alive.