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** spoiler alert ** Morella is one of Poe’s stories where an enigmatic woman dies of an unknown disease and “haunts�� the narrator. While Berenice and The Fall of the House of Usher are longer and have really horrific elements, Morella is shorter and less disturbing…at least on the surface.

The narrator likes Morella, but he doesn’t really love her per se. They do end up married and he is taken with her intelligence and her knowledge about mystical and philosophical topics. Morella starts to suffer from an illness, which bothers her husband a great deal. Maybe not because he loves her, maybe not because he doesn’t want to see her suffer, but probably because he wants her suffering to be done. He pretty much wishes her to die quickly. She senses this and tells him that it’s fine because she will live on. When she dies, she gives birth to a daughter. The baby grows quickly - too quickly - and looks and acts a great deal like her mother. The narrator loves his daughter but doesn’t have her baptized until she’s ten. The baptism only happens because he hopes to get rid of what possesses her (her mother). When the priest asks her name, the narrator says Morella’s name. In that instant, Morella answers the call and the child dies. When the narrator takes his daughter to the family tomb, he finds that the body of the original Morella is missing.

Such a strange story! The narrator is clearly intrigued by Morella but also perhaps afraid of her. Her love of philosophy, the theories of self-identity, and mystical elements are points of interest to him; however, her voice and physical touch upset him. He wishes her to die, but she knows that she will live on in her daughter. When the girl looks and acts too much like her mother, the narrator assumes she is possessed by evil. When he gives her the name of her mother during the baptism, it’s almost like he hopes she too will die, which is exactly what happens. The missing body is the slight interjection of horror. It’s pretty bad the narrator wishes his wife dead, but the fact that he did the same with his daughter, who he actually loved, is just awful. The horror here is more psychological and the icky feeling definitely sticks around awhile. Another great classic!