# Morella explained — Short Fiction > Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Edgar Allan Poe. ## What happens The narrator recounts his marriage to the learned and mystical Morella, whose intellectual pursuits in German philosophy and the concept of identity gradually fill him with dread. As his affection wanes, Morella falls ill, prophesies that she will live on through their child, and dies in childbirth. The daughter grows into an exact physical and intellectual replica of her mother, haunting the narrator. At her baptism, he impulsively names her 'Morella,' causing her to collapse and die. When he buries her in the family vault, he finds no trace of the first Morella's body, suggesting a terrifying cycle of identity and resurrection. ## Themes in this chapter ### Death and Mortality Morella's death and the subsequent death of her daughter dominate the narrative, with the narrator's longing for Morella's decease and the haunting return of the dead through the child. ### Duality and the Double The daughter is an exact double of Morella, both physically and intellectually, blurring the line between mother and child and suggesting a terrifying recurrence of identity. ### The Supernatural and the Gothic The story is steeped in Gothic atmosphere—the narrator's dread, the mystical studies, the prophecy of resurrection, and the final empty tomb all evoke supernatural horror. ## Character check-ins ### Unknown Narrator The narrator is the husband of Morella, whose initial fascination turns to horror and alienation as he becomes obsessed with her mystical studies and the uncanny resemblance of their daughter. ### Morella A profoundly erudite and mystical woman, Morella engages the narrator in discussions on identity and pantheism. She dies after childbirth, prophesying her own return through her daughter. ### Morella (daughter) The daughter of Morella and the narrator, who grows to be an exact replica of her mother in mind and body. She dies after the narrator names her 'Morella' at her baptism. ## Key lines > I longed with an earnest and consuming desire for the moment of Morella’s decease? I did; but the fragile spirit clung to its tenement of clay for many days—for many weeks and irksome months—until my tortured nerves obtained the mastery over my mind, and I grew furious through delay, and, with the heart of a fiend, cursed the days and the hours and the bitter moments, which seemed to lengthen and lengthen as her gentle life declined—like shadows in the dying of the day. The narrator admits he desperately wished for Morella's death, but she lingered for weeks and months, driving him to furious impatience as her life slowly faded. _Reveals the narrator's deep alienation and morbid desire for his wife's end._ > I am dying, yet shall I live... But within me is a pledge of that affection—ah, how little!—which thou didst feel for me, Morella. And when my spirit departs shall the child live—thy child and mine, Morella’s. Morella prophesies that although she is dying, she will live on through the child she bears, which is the only token of the narrator's scant affection. _Sets up the central supernatural premise of identity and resurrection._ > What demon urged me to breathe that sound, which in its very recollection was wont to make ebb the purple blood in torrents from the temples to the heart? What fiend spoke from the recesses of my soul, when amid those dim aisles, and in the silence of the night, I whispered within the ears of the holy man the syllables—Morella? The narrator questions what evil force compelled him to utter the name 'Morella' at his daughter's baptism, a name that had always caused him visceral horror. _Highlights the narrator's sense of demonic compulsion and the fatal power of naming._ > I laughed with a long and bitter laugh as I found no traces of the first in the charnel where I laid the second, Morella. After burying his daughter, the narrator laughs bitterly upon discovering that the first Morella's body is gone from the family vault. _Culminates the theme of identity and the uncanny, suggesting the mother has fully returned through the daughter._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/morella - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters