The “Brooding” Romantics American Gothics

Gothic elements a setting in a castle, ancestral family home, vault or crypt. a vendetta or vengeance perpetrated against the protagonist and/or his/her family by the antagonist.

supernatural beings - monsters, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and such. a damsel (or 2, or 3!) in distress.

unexplainable events. an unrequited love, or illicit love affair or romance.

an ancient prophecy foretelling the doom of the protagonist and/or his/her family. an exotic locale, often in a country other than that of the story's origin.

an atmosphere of suspense and/or terror. women threatened by tyrannical male/patriarchal figures.

Edgar Allan Poe Used first-person narrators who were sometimes insane Plots involved extreme situations –Murder –Live burials –Physical and mental torture –Retribution from beyond the grave

Edgar Allan Poe Stories The Fall of the House of Usher The Tell-Tale Heart The Raven The Cask of Amontillado The Masque of the Red Death

Personal Poe He was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13- year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication.

On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. Some sources say Poe's final words were "Lord help my poor soul.“ All medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for deaths from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery; from as early as 1872, cooping was commonly believed to have been the cause, and speculation has included delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningeal inflammation, cholera and rabies. Death of Poe

Nathanial Hawthorne Examined the darker facets of the human soul –Psychological effects sin and guilt may have on human life

Hawthorne Stories The Scarlet Letter The House of the Seven Gables Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

Herman Melville Early works were mostly adventure stories set in the South Pacific. Uses themes of man's blind ambition, cruelty, and defiance of God, his themes of madness, mystery and the triumph of evil over good

Melville Stories Moby Dick-a ship’s captain’s obsessive quest for the whale that took his leg. –Explored madness and the conflict of good and evil. Redburn: His First Voyage-Redburn is a semi- autobiographical novel concerning the sufferings of a refined youth among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool.Liverpool