"Alas! the destroyer came and went, and the victim —where was she, I knew her not —or knew her no longer as Berenice."
"Berenice" is a Gothic Horror Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1835.
It tells the story of Egaeus, the scion of a formerly distinguished family who lives in their decaying mansion with his lovely cousin Berenice. The monomaniac Egaeus dismayedly notes that Berenice is deteriorating from a mysterious illness and proposes marriage to her, waxing poetic about her smile. Unfortunately, Berenice has a seizure and dies before the wedding — so why can't the narrator stop thinking about her teeth?
Tropes in "Berenice":
- Buried Alive: Berenice is implied to still have been alive in the grave and and it's implied that her cousin, Egaeus buried her, due to his obsession with her.
- Delicate and Sickly: The formerly beautiful and joyous Berenice is tragically beset with an unnamed illness that causes her body to deteriorate.
- Kissing Cousins: Egaeus proposes marriage to his cousin Berenice, whom he is fixated on. Whether or not she reciprocates is ambiguous.
- Opposites Attract: The gloomy, mentally unwell protagonist is attracted to his beautiful, vivacious cousin.
- The Tooth Hurts: Egaeus rips out Berenice's teeth while she was still alive as a result of his monomaniacal fixation on them.
- That Was Not a Dream: “It seemed that I had newly awakened from a confused and exciting dream. … I had done a deed —what was it?"
