# Cornelius Wyatt — Short Fiction character guide

> Cornelius Wyatt in Short Fiction by Edgar Allan Poe.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Cornelius Wyatt, Wyatt, Mr. Wyatt

**First appearance:** 0051-the-oblong-box

## Snapshot

A brooding artist who books passage with a mysterious oblong box, a vulgar wife, and two stiff sisters, turning a transatlantic voyage into a study in concealment.

## Who they are

Cornelius Wyatt is a painter of refined taste and misanthropic habit, traveling from the Continent to New York with his new wife, his two sisters, and a large oblong box addressed to his mother-in-law in Albany. He keeps the box in his own stateroom, refuses to explain it to his friend the narrator, and grows morose and withdrawn as the voyage proceeds. His marriage to a woman his friends find vulgar and uneducated puzzles everyone, and the box becomes the story's central mystery — a locked question about love, art, and what Wyatt is willing to carry.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_social_

Wyatt is a fellow passenger on a ship whom the narrator observes with curiosity and suspicion.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_social_

Wyatt is a fellow passenger on a ship whom the narrator observes with curiosity and suspicion.

## In the story

### [The Oblong Box](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/the-oblong-box)

A young artist of genius temperament, traveling with his wife and sisters; he secretly transports his wife's embalmed body in an oblong box.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/characters/cornelius_wyatt
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/characters