the connections between Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia" and the Hollywood film Fight club were not easily noticed, they do exhist. Many of the similarities are found in the main male characters in both works. Connections can also be made between the women the men surrounded themselves with.
The narrators in both works were also the main male characters and both men possessed a duality that made them very similar. Although the narrators duality in "Ligeia" do not at all compare to that of the narrator in Fight Club. The narrators mental problems in "Ligeia" are caused by an over use of opium. A need for an escape to another personality is the cause of the main character's split personality. In the story the narrator remembers little about the time he spent with Ligeia but never forgets the beauty he believes she bears.
The Narrator
1848 Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe at 39, a yea...
English: Photo of Edgar Allan Poe's Monument/Grave...In the movie the narrator remembers everything he thinks he does with Brad Pitt's character but has no idea that he is really the same person. It almost seems as if both narrators have a selective memory that allows them to remember the things that they wish to remember.
The women characters in both works have many similarities. In the story Ligeia was the perfect woman for the narrator; he thought she was the most beautiful thing on Earth. In the movie the narrators character played by brad pitt found great things in the woman that lived with him. But Edward Norton's character saw nothing likeable about her. Just like the narrator in Ligeia found nothing in his second wife. These women all revolved around what the narrators character wanted.
When you look hard enough you can see many similarities and connections between "Ligeia" and the movie Fight Club. Many movies can be found to have small and large connections with old classic literary works.
Illustration by Édouard Manet for a French transl...
Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's story "Ligeia" ...
English: Byam Shaw's illustration for Poe's Ligeia...