The poem within the story, "The Conqueror Worm", also leads to some questioning of Ligeia's alleged resurrection. The poem essentially shows an admission of her own inevitable mortality. The inclusion of the bitter poem may have been meant to be ironic or a parody of the convention at the time, both in literature and in life. In the mid-19th century it was common to emphasize the sacredness of death and the beauty of dying (consider Charles Dickens's Little Johnny character in "Our Mutual Friend" or the death of Helen Burns in Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre"). Instead, Ligeia speaks of fear personified in the "blood-red thing". Other interpretations have been suggested however.