Topic: Gothic Elements in Poe’s Short Story.

Name : Solanki Binita M.

Subject : The American Literature.

Semester: M.A. ,3

Submitted to: Department of EnglishMaharaja KrishnakumarsinghBhavnagar University.

Gothic Literature

And the Works of Edgar Allan Poe

The Gothic Tradition

Began in EuropeFirst Gothic Work:

1765 The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole

Two Early Works:Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Gothic literature focuses on such concepts as deterioration, darkness, death and dying, alienation and isolation, restraint and imprisonment and inhumanity either in the behavior of one person toward another or within an individual's own selfhood

Gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe is death and the associated process of decay and this is one of the more prominent themes in Gothic novels or short stories

Master of the Short StoryAlong with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe perfected the modern short storyPoe stressed a single dominant effect in his short stories

Characteristics of Gothic Fiction

MysteryHorrorThe GrotesqueViolenceThe Supernatural

Gothic Architecture

The Gothic tradition was also reflected in

architecture: vaulted ceilings, arches, stained

glass windows, gargoyles

Notre Dame

Poe’s professional life was full of failure

His greatest success was “The Raven,” which brought him fame, but earned him only $14.00

Poe wrote many short stories simply for the money; ironically he is most famous for these stories

He saw himself as a poet, but could not make a living from writing poetry

Poe

Poe can be considered the father of the modern horror story, influencing writers such as Stephen King and Anne Rice

Work of E.A.Poe.

The Tell-Tale Heart.The Gold Bug.The Fall Of House.The Cask of Amontillado.The Raven.The Black Cat.

“The Raven”Written while Poe’s wife, Virginia, was dying from tuberculosisThe darkness of the poem–the feeling that he will be free from the pain of the memory of his “Lost Lenore” nevermore is reflective of the agony and desperation Poe felt in his own life

The Tell-Tale Heart

In the "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe presents deterioration in the mental deterioration of the antagonist/protagonist

He presents darkness in the literal darkness that the protagonist devises and works his evil plan in