Jasmine Bessada
C 6/7
The Oval Portrait
This short story written by Edgar Allen Poe consists of a story within a story which creates and establishes a romantic gothic mood. In Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Oval Portrait", Poe creates a unified effect of mystery and suspense by using gothic elements, juxtaposition, and fatal love.
Poe utilizes many diverse gothic elements throughout the story to portray the setting and mood. The gloomy, bleak ambience and the mysterious events going on in the story are a multitude of devices that allude to the gothic elements of this story. At the beginning of the story, the narrator elaborates that the "appearance [of the chateau] had been temporarily and very lately …show more content…
Fatal love was used in this story to create the unified effect of suspense and mystery. The woman “love[d] and cherish[ed] all things” which reveals that she was a very pleasant and delightful person who enjoyed life. However she "hat[es] only the art which was her rival.” This portrays how the woman despises and loathes his art because she feels like she has to compete with his art for his time, affection, and of course, his love (153). The story about the painting also describes how much the woman loved him, "...and wrought day and night to depict her who so loved him" describes how much she adored and cared for him, but he was too busy and focused on his art to pay attention to her. However, she still remained by his side (153). Throughout the story, the more the artist became focused on his work, the more his wife becomes weak. At the very end of the story, right when he finishes his painting, he finds his wife dead, and the reader can infer that her death was caused by feeling unwanted and unloved. Fatal love created a tone of mystery and suspense because the audience never really knows if the artist actually loved her or
C 6/7
The Oval Portrait
This short story written by Edgar Allen Poe consists of a story within a story which creates and establishes a romantic gothic mood. In Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Oval Portrait", Poe creates a unified effect of mystery and suspense by using gothic elements, juxtaposition, and fatal love.
Poe utilizes many diverse gothic elements throughout the story to portray the setting and mood. The gloomy, bleak ambience and the mysterious events going on in the story are a multitude of devices that allude to the gothic elements of this story. At the beginning of the story, the narrator elaborates that the "appearance [of the chateau] had been temporarily and very lately …show more content…
Fatal love was used in this story to create the unified effect of suspense and mystery. The woman “love[d] and cherish[ed] all things” which reveals that she was a very pleasant and delightful person who enjoyed life. However she "hat[es] only the art which was her rival.” This portrays how the woman despises and loathes his art because she feels like she has to compete with his art for his time, affection, and of course, his love (153). The story about the painting also describes how much the woman loved him, "...and wrought day and night to depict her who so loved him" describes how much she adored and cared for him, but he was too busy and focused on his art to pay attention to her. However, she still remained by his side (153). Throughout the story, the more the artist became focused on his work, the more his wife becomes weak. At the very end of the story, right when he finishes his painting, he finds his wife dead, and the reader can infer that her death was caused by feeling unwanted and unloved. Fatal love created a tone of mystery and suspense because the audience never really knows if the artist actually loved her or