Analysis
Many biographers consider "Eleonora" an autobiographical story written for Poe to alleviate his own feelings of guilt for considering other women for love. At the time of the publication of this very short tale, his wife Virginia had just begun to show signs of illness, though she would not die for another five years. The narrator, then, is Poe himself, living with his young cousin (soon-to-be wife) and his aunt.
The abrupt ending, with the narrator's new love only named in the third to last paragraph, is somewhat unconvincing if this is Poe's attempt at justifying his own feelings. Poe considered the tale "not ended so well as it might be." Perhaps, it is in the vagueness of the reason which will only be revealed in Heaven for permission to break his vow. Even so, compared to the endings of other Poe tales where the dead lover returns from beyond the grave, this is a "happy" ending, free of antagonism, guilt, or resentment. In "Morella," for example, the dead wife reincarnates as her own daughter, only to die. In "Ligeia" the first wife returns from the dead and destroys the narrator's new love. Ultimately, the message in "Eleonora" is that a man is allowed to wed without guilt after the death of his first love.
The narrator readily admits madness in the beginning of the story, though he believes it has not been determined if madness is actually the loftiest form of intelligence. This may be meant facetiously, but it also may explain the excessively paradise-like description of the valley and how it changes with their love and, later, with Eleonora's death. His admission of madness, however, excuses him from introducing such fantastic elements.
It is unclear why the trio lived in isolation in the valley.
There are also sexual themes in the story. The narrator's name, Pyros, implies fire and passion. As he and Eleonora grow, their innocent relationship turns to love with descriptions of the changing landscape being erotic or sexual - animal life and plant life sprouting forth and multiplying. Eleonora's death serves as a symbolic end to ideal romantic love which is soon replaced with the less passionate married love for Ermengarde. Eleonora embodies many typical traits in Poe's female character: she is young, passive, and completely devoted to her love.
The term "Valley of the Many-Colored Grass" was inspired by "Adonaïs" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Read more about this topic: Eleonora (short Story)
Famous quotes containing the word analysis:
“Ask anyone committed to Marxist analysis how many angels on the head of a pin, and you will be asked in return to never mind the angels, tell me who controls the production of pins.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1934)
“Whatever else American thinkers do, they psychologize, often brilliantly. The trouble is that psychology only takes us so far. The new interest in families has its merits, but it will have done us all a disservice if it turns us away from public issues to private matters. A vision of things that has no room for the inner life is bankrupt, but a psychology without social analysis or politics is both powerless and very lonely.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)