Topic: Gothic Elements in Poe's Short Stories
Name : Pandya Dharmishtha D.
Paper No. : 10 (The American Literature)
Class : M.A Sem- 3
Banch : 2015-17
Roll No.: 22
Email Id: [email protected]
Submitted by : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English M.K.
Bhavnagar University
Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor and literary
critic.
Poe's professional life was full of failure.
He saw himself as a poet, but could not make aliving from
writing poetry.
Poe can be considered the father of the modern horror story,
influecing writers such as Stephen King and Anne Rice.
Work of E.A.Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart (1943)
The Black Cat (1843)
The Gold Bug
The Fall Of House of Usher (1839)
The Cask of Amontillado (1846)
What is the meaning of Gothic in literature?
Gothic elements work together to create a setting showing a
fallen world, one where traditional elements, such as a castle that
would, evoke thoughts of power and success, are used to demonstrate
the opposite and appear in a form of decasy or ruin.
An unlikely hero
A sinister villain and isolation
Characteristics of Gothic Fiction
Horror
The supernatural
Death
Madness
Hereditary curses
Medieval-like settings
violence
Gothic Element in 'The Fall Of House of Usher '
These stories represent the highest achievements in the literary
genre of the gothic horror story.
It is masterpiece of American Gothic Fiction.
Gothic Fiction : Dark, strange and melodramatic stories which
lead to something evil.
Narrator, Roderick Usher, Madeline represents gothic
elements.
Parallel between experience of narrator and reader.
Scene of the scandal
One lady (Madeline) wear white clothes.
Painting- tears of blood in Madeline's eyes
Darkness, storms and lighting
House: horror and terror feeling
Gothic Element in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'
It is the story of the Old man's eye
Insane narrator hatred old man's eye
Eye- vulture, pale blue eye
Death, decasy and gloominess
He presents darkness in the literal darkness that the
protagonist devises and works his evil plan in.
Decasy :
Comperarison of old man's failing body and house
House- manifestations of inanimate objects
Image of decasy : the description of the film- covered eye
Death : Murder of the Old man
Sanity of narrator
Gothic Element in 'The Cask of Amontillado'
Supernatural occurrence or agent in the story
Fortuna to doesn't know, this but he is descending a stairway to
hall rather than to simple a rare wine.
Perfect gothic setting for a tale in which nothing goods is
going to occur.
Mystery and suspense pervades the story.
Another example of gothic literature
