28 pages 56 minutes read

Edgar Allan Poe

Berenice

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1835

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Character Analysis

Egæus

Egæus is the protagonist of the story and one of Poe’s only named narrators. His name is taken from Greek mythology, referencing the Athenian King Aegeus, who was the father of the hero Theseus. Notably, Aegeus died of grief due to a misunderstanding. He instructed his son Theseus to raise a white sail on his ship when he returned to Athens as a sign that he survived his battle with the minotaur, but Theseus forgot these instructions. As a result, Aegeus threw himself into the sea because of his grief. Like the classical hero, Poe’s Egæus also rashly assumes someone to be dead when they are not, to his own destruction.

Egæus claims that he is from an important and ancient family that seems to have some connection to the European aristocracy. His family mansion has frescoes, tapestries, and an armory with buttresses, all of which suggest that they were aristocrats during the medieval era, when Gothic architecture was prominent. He also claims that “our line has been called a race of visionaries” (333), associating his ancestors with the mystical and the divine but also potentially implying some form of hereditary disordered thinking.

Scholarship and mental pursuits seem to consume Egæus more than emotions.

Related Titles

By Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

A Dream Within a Dream

Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream Within a Dream

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

Hop-Frog

Edgar Allan Poe

Hop-Frog

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

Tamerlane

Edgar Allan Poe

Tamerlane

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Conqueror Worm

Edgar Allan Poe

The Conqueror Worm

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Edgar Allan Poe

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Edgar Allan Poe

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Gold Bug

Edgar Allan Poe

The Gold Bug

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Haunted Palace

Edgar Allan Poe

The Haunted Palace

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Imp of the Perverse

Edgar Allan Poe

The Imp of the Perverse

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Lake

Edgar Allan Poe

The Lake

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Man of the Crowd

Edgar Allan Poe

The Man of the Crowd

Edgar Allan Poe

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Oval Portrait

Edgar Allan Poe

The Oval Portrait

Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

logo

The Philosophy of Composition

Edgar Allan Poe

The Philosophy of Composition

Edgar Allan Poe