Edited - Franco Hernandez Presti - Literature: Ligeia (video)

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Ligeia​. From my perspective, there are a lot of differences between the book and the short film, mostly to “clear” any idea or thoughts that we had the first time reading the book. However, i think it was for the worst. First of all, in the movie we had a different introduction, that shows an unknown “writer” (later revealed as Poe) making his way to meet a “famous” writer so he can get certain ideas or tips for writing, that is when the famous writer begin telling a story of his wife named “Ligeia”. During his storytelling, it mostly stays the same as the book, he doesn’t remember when he met her or how and they got married just like in the book. However, there is a very critical part that completely changed the original story, we find out that Ligeia was very “interested” in studying Cult, meaning witchcraft and magic spells. Keep in mind this last part did not show up in the book. Later on the famous writer says that Ligeia got sick, just like in the book, and he was so desperate to heal her. So in one scene he goes to a Drug Store to buy medication, that is when he meets Lady Rowena and she seems to fall in love with him, which this was not mentioned in the book at all. Unfortunately Ligeia died and the writer tried to find a spell that could bring her back. Keep in mind that the narrator in the book didn’t mention anything about magic spell or anything like that. Later on, Lady Rowena tries to make the “famous” writer feel better and forget about Ligeia. That is when the famous writer states that he really loved Ligeia and could not forget about her in any way possible. That is when he resumes researching a spell and he found a “ritual” that consists of making a sacrifice to change bodies. At this point he poisons the drink he gave to Rowena and she dies, and he begins the ritual. Of course this is completely different from the book, in the original format, the narrator did not search for a spell nor poisoned the glass Rowena drank, she just “felt” sick and she died from it. When he finished the ritual, he waited and that is when the body covered in a sheet began to wake up and move weirdly directly to him. Most of this stays the same as the book except the part that the body began to walk to the narrator in a weird and creepy way. And also, we don’t get to see Ligeia in that scene rather when she lets her sheets fall out, we can see a few Raven feathers which is completely different. In the end, we must not forget that the “famous” writer gave Poe a drink where he felt very dizzy in the beginning, but after finishing the story, we find out it was the same poison that supposedly gave to Rowena a long time ago, and as we expected, Poe fell to the ground and saw a flashing image of Ligeia, making us theorize about the “famous” writer real wife, because it seems he wanted to make the ritual again so he can see Ligeia again, and that is when he find a piece of paper that Poe wrote to him stating that Ligeia is his real wife and not the wife of the so called “famous” writer. Obviously this was very different from the book, because the original format ended when the body woke up and started to walk to the centre of the room and it was revealed that it was Ligeia and not the body or Rowena. This last scene was just an added scene to give more context i believe.