1. Everyone Loves a Horror Story
English 11/11 Honors

2. Masters of Horror
Stephen King is often compared to the 18th century weaver of horror tales, Edgar Allan Poe

3. Poe’s Life Best known for poetry and short fiction pieces
Life span:
Created detective story and refined psychological thriller
World-wide influence on literature

4. Poe’s Childhood Parents: David Poe Elizabeth Atkins
Parents died before Poe was 3
Adopted by John Allan
Poe was baptized Edgar Allan Poe

5. Poe’s Young Adult Years
Poe quarreled with John Allan
Attended University of Virginia
Incurred gambling debts and left UV
Enlisted in US Army

6. Trouble Follows Poe After Allan died, Poe was discharged from Army
Poe was expelled from West Point
Throughout his troubles, Poe continued to write

7. Poe’s Romance Lived with Aunt, Maria Clemm, and cousin Virginia
Dated Virginia and married her
Began writing for newspapers/magazines
Moved to Philadelphia

8. Poe’s Masterpieces Written
Poe published some of best known works:
The Raven
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Black Cat
The Bells

9. Death in Poe’s Life Lost mother to “coughing sickness”/tuberculosis
Lost Virginia to “coughing sickness”/tuberculosis

10. Mystery of Poe’s Death Found delirious in Baltimore on October 3
Found in someone else's clothing
Found on Election Day
Died October 7

11. Literary Elements in Poe’s Work
There are several literary devices that Poe uses to create dark moods, intense feeling, suspense, and fear.
Imagery- visually descriptive language
Allegory-a device in which characters, settings, and events in a story or image represent ideas or concepts. The Masque of the Red Death is a great example of Poe using allegory
Symbolism- something that stands or represents ideas/thoughts/qualities
Metaphors- comparing two unlike objects
The two biggest literary devices we will look at while reading Poe’s works is allegory and symbolism, both of which are prevalent in The Masque of the Red Death.

12. Gothic Elements
Supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the action
High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror
Use of words indicating fear, mystery: apparition, devil, ghost, haunted, terror, fright, fainting