1. Characteristics of Poe’s Writing

2. “Gothic” setting from name of architectural style of late Middle Ages) in literature, term applied to writings that reproduce mysterious atmosphere of medieval castles with dungeons and secret passages plus a bit of the bizarre and supernatural

3. Romanticism moved from real world to world of imagination—Poe’s was a focus on chaos and possibility of evil (not creative source of dreams/visions)

4. Single Effect (psychological effect)—must appreciate his use of ambiguity and atmosphere—he leaves tangible, rational world (sunlight) and searches for truth in ambiguous, irrational world within the human mind (darkness)

5. Motif —(repeated use of image or symbol)—death of a beautiful woman and premature burial

6. Point of View unreliable first-person narrator

7. Imagery images of horror, darkness to create atmosphere of gloom—mood of despair

8. Allegory/Symbolism narrative in which characters or objects symbolize something outside the narrative— yet Poe said, as a critic, he despised it because detracted from the “effect”

9. “The Masque of the Red Death”

10. MASQUE masked ball 14 th to 15 th c. Europe; mask that covers whole face

11. BLACK DEATH bubonic plague epidemic killed 50-75% of Europe’s population in 14 th c.—lasted 20+ years and was spread by fleas (on rats and humans)—problems about lack of sanitation (trash and chamber pots dumped in street)

12. Some critics claim the source of this story was a news article about a masked ball held in Paris in 1832—while the city was devastated by a cholera epidemic

13. ALLEGORY Poe’s story not intended to be realistic; imaginative atmosphere to be read as allegory (characters, objects, events symbolize ideas/qualities); the mysterious guest not a real person, but the embodiment of the Red Death

14. BIBLICAL ALLUSION Poe uses Biblical allusion—prophecy from 1 Thessalonians 5:2—“For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night”—reference to Judgment Day

15. “The Fall of the House of Usher” Usher twins—Madeline and Roderick— portrayed as sharing a single soul (two halves of one soul) with Madeline the physical and Roderick the mental

16. Characterization They share “sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature”—as we watch his mental disintegration and her physical decline—and they share the same fate at the end

17. “Unreliable” Narrator First-person narrator—seems a detached observer Tells us he “really knew little” of Usher Becomes fascinated with Usher’s declining mental state—in addition to viewing, he becomes a participant in the madness Also, like the readers, the narrator is fascinated by the turmoil of another person