Morella by Edgar Allan Poe

This is a tale of horror and suspense by the acclaimed writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1835. Download here a copy of Morella in PDF format.

In this horror story, the author explores the theme of the soul’s immortality. To do so, he uses a married couple in which the wife has strange beliefs and behaviors.

As always, Poe delivers a story with an atmosphere of intrigue and mystery that leaves the reader with the expectation of what will happen after the outcome.

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Summary of Morella

The narrator-protagonist tells the story of his marriage to a strange woman named Morella. She devotes herself to reading about mysticism, behavior that, from the beginning, arouses unfamiliar emotions in her husband.

This was not a love marriage, at least not on the part of the narrator. So he is not united with her by a feeling of admiration or infatuation.

Morella does not limit herself to reading and reflecting on the mystical, but carries out practices related to this experience that goes beyond the earthly. This is how she achieves the immortality of her soul.

However, there is a price to pay. Her physical deterioration is evident. With each passing day, her body decays. As a consequence, she falls into bed.

Her husband often accompanies her and she teaches him the secrets of the dark arts she practices. This does not create a bond of love with his wife, but quite the opposite.

He becomes increasingly fearful of her (although he tries hard to hide it). He even wishes her death.

Morella had become pregnant, and she finally died at the time of delivery. But not completely. Her soul manages to transfer to the body of her newborn daughter.

Shortly before dying, Morella confesses to her husband her knowledge about his lack of true love for her. She also told him that after she died, he would finally love her with pure love (perhaps the love a father feels for a daughter).

As the years progressed, the child became more and more like her mother. When she turned 10, her father decided to baptize her to eliminate any demonic presence in her.

As he had not given her a name until that moment, when the priest asked him what the girl’s name was, he said “Morella”. At that moment something astonishing happened that produced the denouement of the story.

What would happen to the new Morella?

FAQ about Morella

What is the theme of the story Morella?

This story develops the theme of the immortality of the soul, an objective that Morella, the protagonist’s wife, sets herself.

She will achieve her purpose after practicing the dark arts when upon her physical death, her soul is incubated in the body of her daughter.

Who are the characters in Morella?

The protagonist is at the same time the narrator of the story. The two secondary characters are Morella, his wife, and the daughter they later have who comes to have the same name as her mother.

What happened to Morella’s daughter?

At birth, Morella’s soul passes into that of her daughter. The girl, as she grows up, has a great resemblance to her mother, which arouses her father’s fear, since Morella had been a being that frightened him.

When she is baptized, she is called after her mother and at that moment she falls to the ground, dead.

What happened to Morella’s body?

When he went to bury the daughter’s body in the same grave as her mother’s, the father realized that the mother’s body was no longer buried there. Thus ends the story of Morella by Edgar Allan Poe.