In chapter eight of González' "Cuba and the Tempest" (2006), the author takes an innovative look at Poe's Morella and extricates one of its hidden ideas, the More-of-Her complex. His founding wordplay based on the story's title to describe the theme may prove to be insufficient though, when weighed against other several potential interpretations of the title. Among these, we will make special consideration of the interpretation of the Morella name that links it to small shadows of death and the occult. González also brings up additional, larger themes encountered not only in Poe's Morella, but also in several literary and cinematic works:
[...] We will especially dwell on this commentary due to the way it meshes and resonates strongly with several of the previously-mentioned occult connotations of the name (i.e. black nightshade, blackness as death). Given this coincidence with other etymological theories, we should consider that this particular account helps us to triangulate a larger, death- oriented theme that not only relates to Morella on a semantic level, but also on a plot analysis level as well. Thus, we can construe the namesake protagonist as the personification of death. [...]
[...] However, just as Midge explains the enigmatic “doohickey” of the brazier to Scottie and thus ruins the tension and attraction that surrounds the female breast, Poe deconstructs Maelzel's Turk by revealing the trick of stuffing a small human chess-player into the Turk's chest. Multiple mysteries unfold before us in this way, “tainted by the sleight of hand” as Borges puts it, and we may find ourselves grasping at straws when trying to retain any serious interest in this form. Nevertheless, the Morella miniature death does not follow suit with the “magician's trick revealed” formula, instead leaving the mystery of afterlife wide open even at the text's end. [...]
[...] As Mabbott writes, The name of the heroine is that of a real lady of great learning, of whom Poe probably read in an article in The Lady's Book for September 1834, called “Women Celebrated in Spain for their Extraordinary Powers of Mind.” One of her famous contemporaries, Lope de Vega, was similarly admiring of her, writing of her in Laurel de Apolo "as the fourth of the Graces and the tenth Muse" and says "that she was an angel who publicly taught all the sciences from the professorial chairs and in schools." This is certainly a plausible explanation for Poe's choice of the Morella name, yet there is one other etymological reading that offers an even richer theme upon which to build. [...]
[...] In the case of Morella, the research results are simultaneously satisfying The human essence continues terrifying It continues on only to haunt me!') and mystifying what happened to my wife's Lastly, we can fold this soul-obsession and the “miniature death” nature of Morella's name into González' “Mammalian Chest Mystery” and examine several thematic consequences. For one, the “Mammalian Chest Mystery” seen in light of these other two themes helps us understand what Poe and countless European and US audiences were searching for in the chest of Maelzel's automaton. [...]
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