The Oval Portrait Themes

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” is a frame story (essentially, a story within a story), which centers around life and art. The outer story follows the unnamed narrator as he spends the night in an abandoned chateau in the mountains. While there, he admires the impressive paintings that adorn the walls and becomes particularly taken with a portrait of a beautiful young woman, which is encased in an oval frame. The inner story…

 “The Oval Portrait” relies on—and, arguably, critiques—the traditional pairing of male artist and female model, where masculinity tends to be associated with inspired creativity, activity, and seeing, and femininity with creative inspiration, passivity, and being seen. The early 19th century, when Poe was writing, was a largely patriarchal era during which time male-produced literature and art tended to underplay or even ignore female agency. At first glance, this seems true of “The Oval Portrait,” too…