Gothic Romanticism

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Gothic Romanticism Edgar Allan Poe

• Elements of Gothic Writing
• Emphasis on setting
• Exterior landscape
• Interior houses
• Castle-like architecture
• Characters are brooding, secretive
• Buried family secrets
• Long history of family tied to place

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Theme

• the general idea or insight about life that a
  writer wishes to express.
• Themes are the fundamental and often universal
  ideas explored in a literary work.
• A simple theme can often be stated in a single
  sentence.

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Examples of themes in The Crucible

• The Crucible illustrates the role that hysteria
  can play in tearing apart a community.
• In an environment where reputation plays such an
  important role, the fear of guilt by association
  becomes particularly insidious.

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Motif

• recurring structure, contrast, or literary device
  that helps to develop and inform the texts major
  themes

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• Eyes are considered to be window to the soul
• One of Poes most common motifs

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Heart

• As consistent with the Romantics (literary
  movement), Poe places greater emphasis on the
  HEART (representing emotion and experience) than
  on HEAD (representing intellect, rational
  thought, and scientific reasoning)

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Unnamed Narrator

• Unnamed narrator frequently tells stories
  (narrator not meant to represent Poe)
• Lack of specific identity gives him an EVERYMAN
  quality

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Premature Burial/Suffocation

• Life-in-death motif
• the idea of being enclosed with the dead while
  still part of the living

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Dreams/Dreaming

• Dreams are the porthole
• into the inner workings of the mind
• Poes narrators may awaken from dreams and
  question whether they are awake or not
• Reside in a state of twilight. . .
• Rarely are dreams soothing or pleasant

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Two Sides of Oneself

• Duality of man (man is both good and evil light
  and dark can be contained in same person)

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Time/Clocks

• Many of his stories are set in ambiguous times
  and places, making them universal and
  contemporary to the reader of any era
• Poe frequently uses HOURS and times of day
  (especially 300, 600, 900 and 1200)