Short Story
Yonkers Cross County st J. Sgammato jsgammato@yahoo.com 1 paper 5­page Poe assignment st
Assignment Sheet ­­ 1 Paper 5 pages Due April 7
Select one or more of the favorite themes or motifs of Edgar Allan Poe in his short fictions. Then discuss examples of this (or these) themes in at least two (but more if you wish) of the tales. Choose from the following stories: The Black Cat
The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Gold Bug
The Imp of the Perverse
The Pit and The Pendulum
Ligeia
The Masque of the Red Death
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Roget
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Premature Burial
William Wilson
The Purloined Letter The Tell Tale Heart Some (but not all) examples of these motifs are:
● Gothic trappings (strange locations long ago and far away, gloomy settings, melancholy characters, castles, danger, etc) “Usher,” “Ligeia,” others
● Solitary, isolated individuals ­­ “Pit & Pendulum” and many stories
● Revenge ­­ “Amontillado,” “Tell­Tale Heart”
● Premature burial – burying a live person “Usher,” “Premature Burial”
● Perverse behavior – doing things despite knowing they are against your own best interest “The Black Cat,” “The Imp of the Perverse”
● Psychological suffering ­­ “Pit & Pendulum,” many others
● Ratiocination – using reasoning skills to figure out mysteries: the detective stories “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Mystery of Marie Roget,” “Gold
Bug,” “The Purloined Letter” Use examples from the texts of the stories liberally to prove your point. To illustrate, here is a paragraph taken from a book of criticism that wants to convince the reader that Poe used Gothic trappings in