# Morella — Short Fiction character guide

> Morella in Short Fiction by Edgar Allan Poe.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0012-morella

## Snapshot

A scholar of forbidden German mysticism whose cold hand and gigantic intellect bind her husband in a marriage of dread rather than desire.

## Who they are

Morella shuns society and attaches herself to her husband alone, drawing him into the mystical writings she studied in Presburg. Her erudition is profound, and he becomes her pupil, lingering hour after hour by her side as strange words burn into his memory. What begins as intellectual surrender curdles into something he cannot name, and the identity of their child becomes the question that will not let him go.

## Relationships

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

_romantic_

Morella is the narrator's wife, whose intense intellectual and metaphysical bond with him becomes a source of dread and obsession.

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

_romantic_

Morella is the narrator's wife, whose intense intellectual and metaphysical bond with him becomes a source of dread and obsession.

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

_romantic_

Morella is the narrator's wife, whose intense intellectual and metaphysical bond with him becomes a source of dread and obsession.

## In the story

### [Morella](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/morella)

A profoundly erudite and mystical woman, Morella engages the narrator in discussions on identity and pantheism. She dies after childbirth, prophesying her own return through her daughter.

### [Morella](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/morella)

The daughter of Morella and the narrator, who grows to be an exact replica of her mother in mind and body. She dies after the narrator names her 'Morella' at her baptism.

### [Eleonora](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/eleonora)

Mentioned as the narrator's mother's sister and Eleonora's mother, though she is not a central figure in this chapter.

## Links

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