Power and Love in Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee"
In Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert reminisces about his childhood love, Annabel Leigh, expressing that " [they] were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other". This is a clear allusion to the female character in Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee", which stands for true and pure love. However, in both works, Annabel becomes an object of extreme, but unfulfilled desire, because of obstacles that render the male lover powerless. This essay will analyse how the theme of obsession is portrayed, in the poem, in relation to both love and power. The persona is obsessed with Annabel as he not only dehumanizes her, but also romanticizes their toxic love. The poem begins in the fashion of a fairytale, as "it was many and many a year ago, [i]n a kingdom by the sea" that it takes place. This genre is famous for its depiction of false or dream like reality, which appeals to the speaker's imagination as he identifies as a "child". In...