EXTEND – The Oval Portrait

Match each theme to the part of the story that best demonstrates it (1-5).
1 The painter ignores his wife and only treats her as a muse.   ________
2 The lady in the portrait seems almost alive.   ________
3 The narrator is fascinated with the portrait's mysterious beauty.   ________
4 The painter works day and night on the portrait.   ________
5 The wife poses in the turret's chamber.    ________

Read the passage then chose the correct alternative to complete the statements.

1 The Oval Portrait is structured as ________.
2 The narrator has taken shelter ________.
3 The narrator notices the portrait ________.
4 The narrator learns the story behind the painting ________.
5 The lady in the portrait was painted by ________.
6 According to the story, in the end, the lady depicted in the painting ________.

Read the text and decide if the statements are true or false. Then, use the prompts in brackets to write some extra reflections in your exercise book. You can use the final text as revision material for your test.

The Oval Portrait is a story in which the act of creating art seems to consume life itself. The beauty and vitality of the painter's wife are literally transferred onto the canvas as he applies colours and brushstrokes, so that the final work appears startlingly alive to the narrator. (Refer to STEP 2 and use the description of the portrait to explain why it seems so strangely lifelike.) This can be interpreted as a form of 'vampiric art': the artist feeds on the living energy of his subject to create something immortal. (Refer to STEP 4 and use the relevant themes to draw a connection to vampiric art.) However, the story's climax is deliberately ambiguous. (Refer to STEP 3 and think about how the embedded narrative mode further influences the ambiguity of the story.) When the painter cries out that the painting is 'Life itself,' it is unclear whether he refers to the painting's realism, to his own creative power, or to the actual life of his wife, which has been drained in the process. While he leaves these questions unresolved, Poe emphasises the tension between life and art, and urges readers to reflect on the potentially destructive power of artistic obsession (Refer to section 6.23 in your textbook, particularly to the box 'Settings and characters,' and discuss how the painter can well represent an example of Poe's memorable characters.)

Read the text and complete it with the words given.
The portrait shows only the head and shoulders of a young woman, painted in a vignette style that causes her form to ________ into the surrounding ________. The oval frame, richly gilded, seems designed to ________ the viewer's attention.
The image does not impress through artistic mastery alone: its true power lies in the woman's ________, which seems almost ________, as if it contains movement and breath.
But the longer the portrait is observed, the more ________ it becomes. Its beauty and absolute lifelikeness are almost unnatural, and they both captivate and ________ the viewer.