The Oval Portrait Summary Class 11 (With Short Film)

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The Oval Portrait

Brief and Simple Summary:

"The Oval Portrait", a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe presents the mystifying relationship between art and life. It shows the destructive power or the obsession of art and love. Both art and love can lead anyone towards perfection whereas they can bring destruction in anyone’s life too. It also tries to reveal that excessive passion for anything always brings bad results.

The story opens with an unnamed injured narrator and his valet, Pedro seeking shelter in an abandoned chateau in the Apennines Mountains in Italy because the valet does not want his master to have to sleep outside. So, they make an forcible entrance into the chateau, and then they choose one of the rooms in the chateau. The room is rich, lavish but antique with tapestries, trophies and paintings. Although the paintings are decaying, they arouse the narrator's interest.  So, he tells Pedro to close the windows, light a candelabrum and open the bed curtains. At around midnight, he adjusts the candle in the room closer to the books. He immediately discovers previously unnoticed painting in an oval-shaped frame on the wall. It reveals the head and shoulders of a young girl. He is completely spellbound and charmed to the painting because that seems very lively. After this, he starts reading the book that he has found under the pillow.  The book contains an account of the portrait's painter and its subject. When he starts reading the book, he discovers that the woman depicted in it is the young bride of the artist, who cares more about his work rather than anything else in the world including his wife. On the other hand, the woman is the perfect wife in every respect, but she is jealous of her husband’s art. One day, on demand of her artist husband, he starts painting of his wife. While painting, he is so much obsessed with capturing her beauty. For supporting her husband's burning desire, his wife remains humble and obedient and keeps on giving the same pose patiently and smilingly. While plunging into his passion, he spends day and night working hard over the portrait, but he does not recognize her fading health and stops paying attention to her. Finally, when the portrait is about to complete, he stares at his portrait, but he does not notice his wife's plight. After looking at his portrait, he even realizes that his portrait is indeed life itself. At last, when he turns his portrait towards his wife being happy and goes near to her, he finds her dead posing on the chair.

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