The oval portrait is about a painter who loved his wife, and loved painting over her. What happens when he decides to bring his two loves together, and paint his wife forms a telling narrative on humanity's eternal pursuit for immortality, and our focus on perfection. To read the story itself, click here. To read a brief summary and analysis of the different themes, read on.
Summary
The narrator, injured, is brought to spend the night at an abandoned Chateau by his Valet, Pedro. They force entry and get ready to spend the night in one of the building's smallest apartment. The apartment is richly decorated, with now-decaying tapestries, trophies and paintings. The narrator is keenly interested in the paintings, and finds a book that tells him the history of each of them. He has Pedro close the shutters, light a candelabrum, and open the bed curtains so he can study the paintings. He does so till midnight, at which point he decides to move the candelabrum to provide more light to the book he is reading.
This movement reveals a portrait that he had missed before, that of a girl on the cusp of womanhood. The narrator feels a sudden impulse to close his eyes, as though the painting was a real woman who's privacy he had disturbed. He takes a moment to calm himself, and opens his eyes to realise that his senses had momentarily deceived him.
The portrait is a vignette of the girl's head and shoulders - the details below the bust darken into the shadows in the background. The painting and the subject are both beautiful, but still only a painting - and the narrator continues to observe the painting to determine how he could have mistaken it for a living person, before returning the candelabrum to its original position. The narrator takes to the book to read it's story, which follows.
The subject is described as a 'maiden of rare beauty' who married a painter. The painter is passionate in his love for his wife, but also studious, and as much in love with his painting. And so,even though the wief is happy and loving of all things, she despises his art and tools, her main competition for her husband's time and affection. All this conflict finally comes to a head when the painter asks his wife to sit as his model for a portrait.
She doesn't like the idea, but as an obedient wife, agrees to sit in the dark tower where the only light comes from above her as a model for her husband's portrait. The painter is very passionate, and gets lost in his painting, not noticing as she wastes away in the dark. The wife doesn't complain, and continues to smile for his portrait.
The portrait is so life like that everyone who is lucky enough to see it finds it to be a combination of his skill and his love for his wife. As the project nears commpletion, the painter shuts himself and his subject away from visitors and places all his concentration at completing his work. He doesn't notice that his wife grows paler as the portrait grows more life-like. As he paints the last stroke, he stares in shock at his masterpiece: "This is indeed life itself!", before turning to look at his wife and realise in agony that she had died with that last stroke of his brush.
Analysis
Setting
Poe tries to set as close to a gothic romantic mood for his tale, while keeping the mystery of the situation intact. He never explains how the narrator got injured, or names any names, except that of Pedro, who is not even an active presence in the story.The abandoned, decaying chateau throws a gloomy background, as do the narrative's choice of apartments with "rich, but decaying" decorations. Even though nothing of consequence actually occurs that night, the mood is set as one of grief and loss to preface the story of the oval portrait.
Immortality
There is an inherent conflict between art and life. Life ends, it is not permanent, and art is fixed, not transient. Naturally art is one way many chose to chase immortality, to become one part in what will be remembered for generations, and live on, in one way or another. The painter too, tries to use his powers with art to create a permanent image of his wife, who is "full of life". However, both cannot coexist for long, and the conflict ensures one defeats the other. The narrator mirrors the painter to prove this point. He is deceived by his dreamy stupor and the sudden reveal of the painting to think the painting is life like. A second look reveals to him the illusion. Similarly, the painter realises the painting to be "life itself", only to realise he gave up his wife's life for an image that will never match up to the reality he just lost.
Decay
Poe's stories often depict the destruction of loved ones as a plot point. Here, the painter doesn't murder his wife out of hate or revenge. Instead his passion for his work pushes him to the point where he can no longer see his wife except through his work. The story shows how art and creativity spread rot and decay, and this is supported by the state of the art in the chateau, where "spirited modern paintings" are kept next to "rich, yet tattered and antique" decorations. Poe isn't completely against art, but warns against when art becomes unrestricted in its ambition, as with the painter.
Death
The progressive transfer of life is a very big motif used by Poe, where as the painting gets completed it becomes more and more life like, and at the same time its human subject gets more pale and sickly. As she dies and the painting is completed, the transfer of life is completed, and her portrait now captures her immortal beauty, before she can lose it all by growing old and rotting away.
Passive Nature of Women
Given that the story centers on the painting of a woman, one would expect the woman to play a more active role in the reading. Instead, the wife is a passive figure throughout the story, who is obedient, and so agrees to sit for a portrait, something she detests. On the other hand, her life, and the canvas of the painting are dominated by the painter, whose passion towards painting and determination to make his wife immortal makes him the active figure. Even the narrator, observing the painting and reading the story is more active to the narration than the wife, who is only observed, as a subject for a painting by her husband, and a portrait by the narrator. It can be argued that her fate is a criticism of the male domination in art or even of art in general that objectifies women, but her compliance or submission in her husband's endeavour prevent her from becoming more than a silent warning.
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