Berenice: Why is It Obsessive

Edgar Allen Poe is, perhaps, the most popular Gothic author in American history. Many of his stories show the darker side of humanity and provoke a sense of eeriness in the reader. But what exactly makes his stories creepy or uncanny? To answer this question one can look upon Sigmund Freud’s, “The Uncanny”, wherein he states that “what is ‘uncanny’ is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar” (154). This helps to gain insight on what makes Poe’s works uncanny. In order to better understand Freud’s concepts, we will look upon Poe’s short story, “Berenice”, and apply the concepts of “The Uncanny”, which include: uncertainty, mental instability, and repression, in order to illustrate the methods Poe uses to create a creepy feeling in the reader.

Freud begins his argument by stating that the “essential factor in the production of the feeling of uncanniness [is] intellectual uncertainty” (154); a feeling that readers obtain through reading “Berenice” through Poe’s vagueness in the actions and character of the narrator, Egaeus. One questions the mental state of Egaeus in his quick and vague description of his mental disease and, ultimately, the narrator’s actions at the end of the story. This uncertainty however is not the sole reason that one could find “Berenice” as uncanny. Poe artfully includes other features that Freud addresses that arouse a sense of uncanniness in the reader.

One feature that Freud addresses is the state of the character’s mind. The fact that Egaeus has a mental disease cannot be overlooked, and causes the reader to feel unfamiliar with the mental state of the narrator. Freud states that the “uncanny effect…of manifestations of insanity…excite in the spectator the impression of automatic, mechanical processes at work behind the ordinary appearance of mental activity” (157). This can be directly applied to Egaeus’s illness of monomania. Egaeus’s obsession with one idea, Berenice’s teeth, causes his actions later in the story. This illness provides an uncanny effect because the narrator seems to acknowledge his disease, and speaks of it as a trivial matter. Upon reading further, the reader gains the insight that this illness causes Egaeus to not only obsess over Berenice’s teeth, but to physically extract them from her corpse and store them in a box. The reason for these actions are stated by the narrator when he says, “I felt that their possession could alone ever restore me to peace, in giving me back to reason” (Poe 146). This proves that the mental instability of the narrator is what causes him to enact the most frightful scene in the story.

Egaeus’s mental instability is essential to this story’s uncanniness. This monomania forces the narrator to become pathologically obsessed with one particular idea. His obsession becomes a reoccurring thought:

“The teeth!—the teeth!—they were here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me…Then came the full fury of my monomania…in the multiplied objects of the external world I had no thoughts but for the teeth. For these I longed with a frenzied desire" (Poe 145).

Freud speaks of reoccurring situations, things, faces, events, etc. as something that can invoke a sense of uncanniness. Although, he states that this “will perhaps not appeal to everyone as a source of uncanny feeling”, however this can change when it becomes, “an involuntary return to the same situation…result in the same feeling of helplessness and of something uncanny” (Freud 163). This “involuntary” return becomes uncanny because of the inability to control the thoughts. Thus Egaeus’s “involuntary” thoughts are uncanny due to his inability to control his obsession due to his illness.

This involuntary repetition of thoughts presents a danger to the narrator and uncanniness in the reader. Egaeus’s repetition of thoughts becomes a problem because he is unable to repress his desire to acquire the teeth for peace of mind. Freud states that, “it is only this factor of involuntary repetition which surrounds with an uncanny atmosphere what would otherwise be innocent enough” (164). Freud’s statement shows that Egaeus’s involuntary repetition of Berenice’s teeth in his thoughts, would have been innocent enough had he repressed his desire for them. The narrator, suffering from monomania, is unable to do this however, and thus he acts on his primitive urges and defiles Berenice. Ordinary people without mental disorders, i.e. the reader, find this to be uncanny because they have the ability and mental capacity to suppress their desires.

Had Egaeus been able to repress his thoughts and actions, Poe’s story would not have struck the reader as uncanny. Freud states that “every emotional affect…is transformed by repression into morbid anxiety…this class of morbid anxiety would then be no other than what is uncanny, irrespective of whether it originally aroused dread or some other affect” (Freud 166). In the case of Egaeus in “Berenice”, he is unable to turn his repression into anxiety for he was unable to repress his thoughts and actions. However, one can take Freud’s statement and still apply it to Egaeus by noting that despite his lack of repression, he did experience anxiety due to his monomania. The narrator states that, “[Berenice’s teeth]—they alone were present to the mental eye, and they, in their sole individuality, became the essence of my mental life” (Poe 145). One can see that Egaeus’s obsession clearly did not come from a sense of dread, but rather infatuation. His morbid anxiety arose from this infatuation, and one can see the uncanniness in his actions due to this anxiety.

Freud offers another insight into this repetition-compulsion best seen in “Berenice” when the narrator states that his “meditations were never pleasurable” (Poe 143). Egaeus does not find his repetitive thoughts about his cousin’s teeth pleasurable, for he is unable to get his mind off of them. Freud interprets this principle of repetition-compulsion as a “principle powerful enough to overrule the pleasure principle, lending to certain aspects of the mind their daemonic character” (Freud 164). This daemonic character is shown in the conclusion of the story when the reader finds that Egaeus has ripped the teeth out from Berenice. It is this same principle that “is responsible for a part of the course taken by the analyses of neurotic patients”, which he states, “reminds us of this inner repetition-compulsion is perceived as uncanny” (Freud 164). Freud’s statement shows that the pleasure principle one can achieve in thought is overruled by obsession and can lead to a debasement in moral character. Therefore, the obsession with Berenice’s teeth that Egaeus has ultimately leads him to act demonically and causes his frightful actions. Freud frequently mentions a characteristic of uncanny effect which can be seen in the end of “Berenice”. Freud states that a “favourable condition for awakening uncanny feelings is created when there is intellectual uncertainty whether an object is alive or not” (Freud 161). This characteristic is prevalent in multiple stories by Poe, including “Berenice”. The reader does not know what Egaeus has done until after a servant tells him, “of a violated grave—of a disfigured body enshrouded, yet still breathing, still palpitating, still alive!” (Poe 147). This produces an extreme sense of fright and uncanniness in the reader, especially when the evidence that Egaeus has disfigured the body is brought into light in the closing paragraph.

Often, Freud addresses the prospect that intellectual uncertainty can create a sense of uncanniness because the reader is left in unfamiliar territory and does not fully know what is happening. Poe utilizes that effect throughout his story which shocks the audience with the surprising ending. Poe’s short stories often are considered as frightful, suspenseful, and uncanny. By reading and applying Sigmund Freud’s, “The Uncanny”, to one of Poe’s short stories, “Berenice”, one can see the mechanisms Poe uses to create the aforementioned atmosphere. Freud’s characteristics of uncertainty, mental illness, and repression can be seen through “Berenice”, and allows a better understanding of what is considered “uncanny”.