Grade 11: The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe - Questions and Answers

Understanding the text

Answer these questions.

a. Where did the narrator and his servant make a forcible entrance?

Ans: The narrator and his servant made a forcible entrance into a chateau in the Apennines. It was a deserted and desolate place with a dark, gloomy, and shabby environment. It had rich but tattered and antique decorations.

b. Which special picture did the narrator notice in the room?

Ans: The narrator noticed a portrait portraying a young girl just ripening into womanhood in the room. It had an oval frame that was richly gilded and decorated by an ornamental work of fine wire. It covered only the lady’s head and shoulders, blended in the background.

 

c. Describe the portrait that the narrator saw in the room.

Ans: The portrait the narrator saw was life-like, invoking delirium. It was an oval portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood. It just incorporated her head and shoulders in which the arms, the bosom, and the radiant hair were blended in the background in a vignette manner. It depicted the immortal beauty of the young girl’s face. 

d. What is the relationship between the portrait painter and its subject?

Ans: The portrait painter and his subject are spouses by relation. However, their marital life is not smooth and lively as the painter is obsessed only with his art, and his wife, a maiden of rarest beauty and playful as a young fawn, does not get his love and attention. 

Reference to the context

a. What is the central theme of the story? Who is the woman depicted in the oval portrait?

Ans: The destructive relationship between art and life is the central theme of this story. The story shows how an obsession of a painter with art eventually takes his wife's life. It also depicts that a piece of art can immortalize life and beauty by preserving them. As the painter wants to portray his young bride, he makes her sit in the dark turret for many weeks, and he gets lost in the reveries of his work, forgetting the notion of time. She eventually dies of bad health after growing dispirited and weak long before he notices her corpse. He creates a life-like masterpiece of art at the cost of his wife's life. In a nutshell, life and art are interrelated, as per the story, because life encompasses art, and art preserves life and beauty in it.  

(Thematically, the story also revolves around the obsession with art and love. It shows the painter's obsession with arts and his wife's obsession to win his love and attention for her.)

The woman depicted in the oval portrait is a young girl of rarest beauty who is the newly wedded wife of the painter. She is delightful and also playful like a young fawn who likes all things except art, thinking of it as her rival. 

b. "The Oval Portrait" is a short horror story by Edgar Allan Poe involving the disturbing circumstances surrounding a portrait in a chateau. Elaborate.

Ans: "The Oval Portrait" is a short horror story by Edgar Allan Poe involving the disturbing circumstances surrounding a portrait in a chateau. The story begins with the exposition where the narrator's valet ventures to make a forcible entrance to a temporarily and very recently abandoned chateau in the middle of the wild in the mountains of Apennines. The chateau is filled with rich but tattered and antique decorations within a dark and gloomy setting. This expository scene itself creates the disturbing circumstance followed by the discovery of a beautiful but mysterious oval portrait which causes delirium within the narrator, providing him with strange visions. Not only it amazes the narrator, but also it seizes, startles, and horrifies him through disturbing visions. Later, when the narrator further goes through the volume that discusses the paintings and their histories, it further terrifies him as he comes to know how a young maiden lost her life during the creation of that portrait. 

c. "The Oval Portrait" suggests that the woman's beauty condemns her to death. Discuss.

Ans: "The Oval Portrait" suggests that the woman's beauty condemns her to death. If she were not a maiden of rarest beauty, the painter would not have married her; if he had not married her, she would not have lost her life due to his obsession with paintings. She regarded the paintings as her rivals, just like the painter seemingly depicted his jealousy towards her beauty, creating a more beautiful artwork than it. Therefore, it looks like the root of all the disasters is the woman's beauty.

d. Discuss the story as a frame narrative (a story within a story).

Ans: A frame narrative is a literary technique that presents a story within a story, where the primary narrative sets the stage for one or more emphasized narratives. The Oval Portrait is indeed a frame narrative because it has a story within another story. The story's main plot, where the narrator ventures into a chateau and discovers an oval portrait, acts as a background for the second story, which tells the horrifying history of the oval portrait.

e. The story is told in a descriptive style, with plenty of imagery and symbolism. Which images and symbols do you find in the story?

The story is full of descriptions without a single dialogue or conversation. These descriptions include plenty of imagery, creating a vivid visualization within the readers, and symbolism, elevating the richness of meaning in the plot. Imagery is a figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work. The images used in this story are:

The chateau and its surrounding: The story begins with the expository scene of an abandoned chateau in the middle of the mountains, creating a horror scene.

The decorations in the turret: The description of the turret creates an image of a room with old and torn-out decorations of tapestry and modern paintings.

The oval portrait: The oval portrait evokes a mental image of a painting with a beautiful maiden provoking delirium within the narrator.

The painter creating the artwork:  The description of the second narrative makes the readers imagine the scene where the painter makes her wife sit in the turret for many weeks to create an artwork out of her beauty that eventually snatches her life out of her. 

Symbolism in literature is a tool of figurative language where an image, object, idea, or symbol is used to represent something other than its literal meaning. The major symbols used in this story are:

The desolate chateau: It is the symbol of a gothic setting.

The frames or the oval portrait: It is the symbol of a metaphorical prison that has imprisoned the beauty and life of the maiden.

The time: The passing of time during which the painter creates his artwork symbolizes the outcome of obsession or the insanity he possesses.

The painter, his subject, and the painting: The painter and his subject symbolize the mortality of life, and the painting suggests the immortality of art.

f. What does the expression "She was dead!" mean?

Ans: The exclamation mark at the end of the expression "she was dead!" denotes the sudden shock or alarm aroused in the painter after he found out that his wife was no longer alive. It also means that his wife was dead long ago before he actually noticed her to be, as he was lost in reveries during the creation of the artwork. 

Reference beyond the text

a. Do you think there is life in art?

Ans: Yes, I think there is life in art because art imitates life. It is a testimony of the human condition. It encompasses all of our hardships, emotions, questions, decisions, perceptions, love, hatred, life, and death. Every artwork encompasses a history and a long story to tell. Therefore, art has life not in a literal but in a metaphorical sense. 

b. As a thing of art nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself. Explain.

Ans: A painting is a graphic representation of artwork on a sheet of paper. It can depict an entire story within a frame which no other form of art can scarcely do. Anybody can understand the meaning that is portrayed by a painting despite the language barrier. It preserves life and beauty for eternity. It has several other advantages, such as:

>Paintings help us to understand other people's cultures.

>Paintings help people learn history.

>Paintings provide people with aesthetic pleasure.

>Paintings help us communicate emotions.

>Paintings are assumed to be good for mental health.

Therefore, as a thing of art nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself.

c. A more intense look at the painting reveals the illusion. Have you noticed any such painting?

Ans: Yes, once I felt the same way while looking at the painting of Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Although the painting was the digital version of the original one, I found it revealed different illusions. As I watched it more intensely, I traced a change in emotions in the subject's countenance. At one moment, I felt like she seemed happy, another time sad, and yet another time angry. 

Glossary

Venture: Attempt a risky or daring action

Commingled: mixed

Gloom: A state of depression

Sumptuously: An expensive and impressive manner

Tapestry: A handwoven fabric with pictures

Bedecked: Decorated

Manifold: Various

Multiform: Several types

Arabesque: Ornamental designs

Candelabrum: Branched candlesticks

Incipient: Beginning to happen

Delirium: Illusions

Contemplation: The action of looking thoughtful at something for a long time

Perusal: Reading

Purported: Accuse or claim

Devoutly: Showing deep religious feeling of commitment

Hitherto: Until now

Unanticipated: Not expected or predicted

Niche: Ideal position

Ripening: Becoming matured

Deceived: Deliberately cause (someone) to believe something that is not true

Subdue: Bring under control

Dissipate: Cause to disappear

Stupor: A state of reduced consciousness

Startle: Sudden shock or alarm

Vignette: Which fades into its background without a definite border

Imperceptibly: Gradually

Gilded: Covered thinly with gold paint

Filigreed: Ornamental work of fine wire

Moresque: The design developed by Muslims of Sicily and Malta

Countenance: A person's face or facial expression

Vehemently: In a forceful, passionate, or intense manner

Peculiarities: A strange or unusual feature or habit

Dispelled: Made disappear

Reclining: Leaning back

Riveted: Fixed

Confounded: Emphasized to express anger

Appalled: Horrified

Reverent: Feeling or showing deep respect

Awe: A feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder

Agitation: A state of anxiety or nervous excitement

Vague: Unclear

Quaint: Old fashioned

Studious: Spending a lot of time studying or reading

Austere: Strict in manner

Frolicsome: Lively and playful

Dreading: Anticipate with fear

Untoward: Unexpected and inconvenient

Meekly: Gently

Reveries: A state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts

Pined: Suffered a mental and physical decline

Fervid: Passionate

Wrought: Worked so hard to shape

Dispirited: Lost enthusiasm

Tints: Shades or variety of colors

Tremulous: Shaky

Pallid: Pale

Aghast: Horror or shock