The plot of “The Oval Portrait” itself is about an injured traveler and his valet, Pedro, breaking into a chateau in search of shelter and a place to rest and recuperate. Once inside, they make their way to a chamber with a bed and wall coated in tapestries, trophies, and paintings. The traveler then sees a book laying on the pillow on the bed and signals for Pedro to get it for him. He then asks Pedro the light a candelabrum so that he may read the text within the book. He finds that it contains descriptions about each of the paintings within the room. After hours of pouring over the text, he notices a painting he had yet to lay his eyes on. The painting was so astonishingly realistic that he was taken aback and had to close his eyes to process what he had seen. The painting was an oval shaped portrait of a beautiful girl, although it was just her shoulders and head. The injured traveler flipped through the text until he located the description of this specific painting. The description was of a painter and his wife. Their tragic tale began with the painter beginning to paint a portrait of his wife. Weeks went by, and her health declined. This decline went unnoticed by the painter. So engrossed in the tedium of his work, the painter never removed his eyes from his masterpiece. He finished the painting, and stunned by how realistic his creation was, he exclaimed, “This is indeed life itself!” The story concludes with a whiplash, surprise ending. When the painter finally proceeded to take his first glance at his wife in weeks, to his horror, he found that his wife had died during his obsessive painting.
