The Oval Portrait

Pedro is the frame narrator’s servant, specifically, his valet, which means that Pedro’s job is to act as the frame narrator’s personal attendant, helping him dress, keeping his clothing and rooms tidy, and generally ensuring that his days run smoothly. Breaking into a chateau is beyond the usual scope of these duties, but significantly, the break-in is Pedro’s idea. Having assessed the seriousness of the frame narrator’s injuries, Pedro is concerned that a night exposed to the elements will be dangerous for his employer, and he acts decisively to prevent this further harm. He is clearly practical and loyal to the frame narrator, which positively characterizes both men.

The narrator does not offer any direct characterization of Pedro, and Pedro drops out of the story after performing his duties of lighting the candelabrum and opening the bed curtains. Every action Pedro is depicted performing is in service of the comfort of his wounded employer, making him more of an archetype—the faithful servant—than a fully-developed character. Pedro functions as a demonstration of the utility of relationships and lends some support to the idea that the frame narrator is a decent person whom the reader can trust, but he is otherwise granted little importance. His age, background, and personal characteristics are all unknown, making him a completely flat and static character.

Paradoxically, Pedro is the story’s only named character. Rather than indicating his importance, though, this authorial choice has the effect of setting Pedro apart from the other three characters and spotlighting the fact that none of the other three are named. This creates an air of mystery and almost mythic significance around the other three characters. “Pedro” is just Pedro, an ordinary servant, but the other three characters are figures lacking the boundaries of individual names.

The painter is the protagonist of the story-within-the-story, the narrative contained inside the small book and shared by the frame narrator in the final section of “The Oval Portrait.” Inside the world of Poe’s story, there is no clear rhetorical context for the frame narrator’s tale—it is not clear to whom the frame narrator is speaking, or under what circumstances. The story-within-the-story is presented as a deliberately crafted, written account, with its own, third-person narrator. The third-person narrator of this story is conscious of developing character for a reader, and so both the painter and his wife are more deliberately described.

The painter is a serious, “wild and moody” man, whose passion for art eclipses his love and concern for his own wife (483). His decision to ask his wife to sit for a portrait shows that he is either unaware of or does not care about her feelings regarding his devotion to painting—she is quite right in her belief that painting will always come first for him. The third-person narrator judges this quality harshly, referring to the first meeting of the painter and the woman who would become his wife as an “evil” hour and describing his interest in his art with pejorative diction such as “fervid and burning” (483).

The unnamed people who stop in to see the unfinished portrait clearly believe that the painter does love his wife. The narrator specifically mentions their comments to this effect, and the painter’s cry of anguish at the end of the story supports this idea. Still, what love he feels for her is subsumed by his love for painting, and he is so transfixed by his project that he does not notice until it is too late that the creation of the portrait is literally consuming the spark of his young wife’s life. The Relationship Between Art and Life is addressed in their relationship and character arcs. Because the painter is driven to create a lifelike piece at the expense of his wife’s wellness, her sense of self begins to expire until she ultimately dies. This imbalance between art and life is fatal because of The Dangers of Obsession displayed in the painter’s behaviors. Despite his intentions, he has sacrificed his wife in exchange for a seemingly perfect, lifelike painting.

This portrayal of the painter—as brooding, passionate, and utterly consumed by a personal vision—makes him an example of the archetype referred to as the “romantic hero” and incorporates the theme of The Nature of Romantic Relationships. This archetype is subverted, however, in that he loses his wife because of his own obsession and inability to empathize with her needs. This commentary on relationships again reiterates the need for balance and connection for a marriage to thrive.