A Night of Horror and Learning with

Southern Bicol CollegesCollege of Education

SPEECH AND STAGE ARTS CLASSpresents…

Experience the

Horror

The Tragic and Mysterious World of Edgar Allan Poe

1. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

2. The Cask of Amontillado: An Analysis

3. The Raven: An Analysis

4. Edgar Allan Poe’s Style

Overview

The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

“The story of Edgar Allan Poe is one of the great tragedies of literature.”

-David Sinclaire

A Life of Tragedy and Mystery

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe born in Boston on January 19, 1809Brother to Rosalie and William Henry

Son to Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe

After the death of his father, they moved from his home in Boston, Massachusetts to their new home in Richmond, Virginia where his mother worked for their living.

After the death of his mother, Poe being three years old at the time, was taken in by Frances and John Allan.

Poe then moved to England with his new family and attended school in Chelsea before returning to Virginia to attend university. But after his first term, he quarreled with John Allan and impulsively ran away. He enlisted in the Army. Approximately one year after is discharged from the army.

Then suddenly Poe received word from John Allan that his beloved foster mother had died.

1827: First book of Poetry published. Tamerlane and other Poems

Then in 1831 Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm. In 1833 some of his poetry was published in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor and won a contest with his poetry.

Soon after, 1835, Poe became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. This was where he was first recognized as a respected writer.

After beginning his career, Poe marries Virginia Clemm (in 1836) his fourteen year old cousin. They moved to New York together, where Poe continued writing poetry and short stories and in doing so broadened his fan base.

In 1847 Virginia died of an infectious disease also known as pulmonary tuberculosis. Poe became a wreck emotionally, physically, and mentally.

1849 Poe began a tour to promote his poetry and short stories with the hope of raising enough money to begin a magazine. Not soon after on October 7 of 1949 Edgar Allan Poe died. It was as mysterious as it was tragic. He was found semiconscious, wandering around a polling place in Baltimore. After four days in hospital where he never gained consciousness, he died. There are many theories explaining the caused of his death, but one thing is for certain, his death is a mystery for no one knows the true cause.

Edgar Allan Poe, a dark, spiritual and influential poet of the 1800’s

Poe’s poetry and stories were dark and enchanting. In his work he incorporated elements of horror and mystery to create intriguing and imaginative reading. Poe is said to have been the originator of detective stories and with dominant themes of mystery and despair his poetry was innovative and creative.

He influenced modern society by showing people the dark side of things and not being afraid to write about it. Instead of writing what people want to hear about themselves and the world around them, Poe wrote about the dark truth and possibly the things people didn’t want to come to realization with.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Born: January 19, 1809Died: October 7, 1849

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore

Fiction of Edgar

Allan Poe

“Poe has grotesque inventiveness” (Reckley)

Graphic descriptions and morbid wording fortify psychological effects

The theme prevalent in Poe’s Fiction is

DEATH

"Berenice"

Horror story about teeth

"There came a light tap at the library door, and pale as the tenant of a tomb, a menial entered upon tiptoe. His looks were wild with terror, and he spoke to me in a voice tremulous, husky, and very low..."

"Berenice"

"The Black Cat"

Horror story about a cat.

A drunk man kills his cat and it comes back to haunt him. In Poe's usual style, the narrator of the story is the killer and we see things through his eyes.

One day, descending into the cellar of the building with his wife, the narrator almost trips over the cat. Enraged, the narrator grabs an axe to attack the cat, but his wife defends the animal. Further angered by this interference, the narrator turns his rage at his wife and buries the axe in her head.

"The Black Cat"

"A Descent Into The

Maelström"Man vs. Nature, Adventure Story

Three fisherman are at sea, off the coast of Norway. They encounter a hurricane and must fight for their lives while trying to avoid the Maelström, a huge whirlpool that sucks down anything in its path. Can these men survive the hurricane and escape the force of the Maelström?

"A singular change, too, had come over the heavens. Around in every direction it was still as black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular rift of clear sky — as clear as I ever saw — and of a deep bright blue — and through it there blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that I never before knew her to wear. She lit up every thing about us with the greatest distinctness — but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up !"

"A Descent Into The Maelström"

"Eleonora"

A love story

A beautiful love story.

"Eleonora"

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"

Talking with a dead man

A man dying from tuberculosis asks his friend, the narrator of the story, to hypnotize him just before death. The event is witnessed by two doctors and a medical student. The results are interesting to say the least.

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

An old house and its secrets

One of the most widely read of Poe's stories. The narrator receives a desperate letter from a "boyhood friend" requesting that he come to see him. The friend, a mister Roderick Usher, lives in a very old mansion out near a swamp. Once inside, the narrator finds more than he expected. A classic story of a creepy guy living in a haunted house.

"The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within."

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

The Gold Bug"

A search for pirate treasure.

In this story, two friends and a servant go on a hunt for the fabled buried treasure of Captain Kidd. Through his character named William Legrand, Poe explains how to decode an encrypted message. With Poe's technique, you could actually hack certain encrypyed messages! Besides being a great "Sherlock Holmes" type adventure story, it gives an insight into Poe's intelligence.

The Gold Bug"

"Hop-Frog"

A midget seeks revenge.

Are you looking for a short story about a crippled midget who seeks revenge on those who mistreat him and make fun of him? Well, this is that story.

"Hop-Frog"

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

A murderer's guilt

The narrator of this story tells you his "perfect" plan to kill an old man, then takes you through the process of doing it. He might get away with it too except he starts hearing things... 

"I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed listening; — just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall."

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

"The Premature Burial"

About being buried alive

It's definitely a scary story. Poe makes you feel like you are there. Read this story carefully because there is also an important lesson to be learned.

"It may be asserted, without hesitation, that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire the oppression of the lungs- the stifsupremeness of bodily and of mental distress, as is burial before death. The unendurable ling fumes from the damp earth–the clinging to the death garments–the rigid embrace of the narrow house–the blackness of the absolute Night–the silence like a sea that overwhelms..."

"The Premature Burial"

"The Pit and the

Pendulum"A torture chamber

Another of Poe's more popular works. It's the story of a man's attempt to survive in a torture chamber during the Spanish Inquisition, one of the most deadly inquisitions in history. This isn't really a horror story. It's more of a suspenseful thriller. If you had been sentenced to death in a torture chamber, what would you do? and what's in the Pit?

"The Pit and the

Pendulum"

"The Murders in

the Rue Morgue"

A detective story

Poe invented the detective story with this tale. The main character is C. Auguste Dupin, a sleuth that solves crimes by deduction. Two women have been brutally murdered and it appears that there was no way in or out of the room where the murders took place. How does Dupin figure it out? Who killed the women? (They didn't kill each other)

A reporter asked Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1894 if he had been influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The creator of Sherlock Holmes replied, "Oh, immensely! His detective is the best detective in fiction."

"The Murders in the Rue

Morgue"

"The Masque of the Red Death"

The horror of the plague

The "Red Death" is a plague which has killed off half of the population. Prince Prospero gathers a thousand people from the knights and royalty. They seal themselves off from the rest of the world in an extensive castle, in an attempt to separate themselves from the horrible conditions on the outside. But, can they escape the Red Death?

"The Masque of the Red Death"

"Mesmeric Revelation"

Conversation with a hypnotized dying man.

After hypnotizing a dying patient, a doctor has a remarkable conversation with him about the nature of the universe, spirits, and God.

"Ligeia"A haunting supernatural tale

The narrator of the story describes his beautiful wife, Ligeia. She was tall and slender with pale skin and long black hair. She dies and he is heartbroken. Some time later he decides to move on with his life and he remarries. Strange things start to happen as the narrator thinks more and more about his first love, Ligeia...

"Ligeia"