<P> In "Berenice", Poe was following the popular traditions of Gothic fiction, a genre well - followed by American and British readers for several decades . Poe, however, made his Gothic stories more sophisticated, dramatizing terror by using more realistic images . This story is one of Poe's most violent . As the narrator looks at the box which he may subconsciously know contains his cousin's teeth, he asks himself, "Why...did the hairs of my head erect themselves on end, and the blood of my body become congealed within my veins?" Poe does not actually include the scene where the teeth are pulled out . The reader also knows that Egaeus was in a trance - like state at the time, incapable of responding to evidence that his cousin was still alive as he committed the gruesome act . Additionally, the story emphasizes that all 32 of her teeth were removed . </P> <P> The main theme lies in the question that Egaeus asks himself: "How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?" Poe also uses a character afflicted with monomania for the first time, a device he uses many times again . </P> <P> Teeth are used symbolically in many of Poe's stories to symbolize mortality . Other uses include the "sepulchral and disgusting" horse's teeth in "Metzengerstein", lips writhing about the teeth of the mesmerized man in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", and the sound of grating teeth in "Hop - Frog". </P> <P> Egaeus and Berenice are both representative characters . Egaeus, literally born in the library, represents intellectualism . He is a quiet, lonely man whose obsession only emphasizes his interest on thought and study . Berenice is a more physical character, described as "roaming carelessly through life" and "agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy ." She is, however, an oppressed woman, having "spoke no word" throughout the story . Her only purpose, as with many of Poe's female characters, is to be beautiful and to die . Egaeus loses his interest in the full person of Berenice as she gets sick; she becomes an object to analyze, not to admire . He dehumanizes her by describing "the" forehead of Berenice, rather than "her" forehead . </P>

What has apparently happened to berenice when she is found at the end of the story