Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

discovers that she is, in fact, still alive. Madeline seeks out Roderick and murders him, herself dying shortly after. Throughout the decades, it has been considered controversial as to who the blame should be laid upon for the ending result of this tale. In Poe’s story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick is truly the one who should take full blame for the deaths…

Fear, writing and twisted, does not only boil to the surface as a primal response to danger, but to the sense of terror, to loss, to loneliness, and the like. Gothic stories such as Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, aspire to unleash and elucidate these sensations. In the fashion of Romantic-era literature, this dread is shown as a ramification of excessive human ambition. To achieve this, Frankenstein shuffles the story’s chronology and employs three different voices to piece its events…

Tell-Tale Heart NarratorーMentally Unstable or a Calculated Killer? Edgar Allen Poe, one of the world’s most influential writers, often wrote stories and poems about people whose sanity could be questioned. One of his most famous short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” is no different. The narrator of this story murders an old man, and then proceeds to admit to the murder. The question that must be asked is, “Is the narrator a calculated killer or is he just mentally unstable?” The evidence in the…

The Tell-Tale Heart Research In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe’s 2,200- word first person unreliable narrative short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” was published. Edgar Allan Poe was a successful editor, literacy critic and American writer who wrote short stories and poetry. The Tell-Tale Heart is known for its unnamed narrator’s insanity and classifies Poe’s writing as a gothic fictional story. The narrator explains in the opening of the story that he killed the old man, but it was not for passion nor…

like a few short stories written by Poe himself. The novel and short stories share settings, themes, and characters that closely resemble one another, both with a chilling mood, theme of death, and characters that are utterly insane. Though these tales were not written by the same author, the two have almost identical writing styles. This leads to distinct storylines with the same underlying characteristics. First off, the mood set in the beginning of Avi’s and Poe’s stories is eerie. After…

Vladimir Nabokov’s, Lolita, shows off his extraordinary narrative skills which bring a visionary insight into the issue of morality, a romantic verse and a grasp of human character that seem unique as his own. He uses first-person narration to affect the reader’s perception of the events being described in the novel through the use of stylistic devices. Thus, able to manipulate the reader’s beliefs and train of thought, to dictate what the they should think. More specific to the factors…

In The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe showcases a unique style of writing, rendering unique pieces of literature. These stories are within the genres of horror and romanticism, however, Poe does not conform to these genres as they were in the 19th century. Poe branches out of horror and romanticism, developing gothic romanticism and pioneering psychological horror. Aspects of both genres are distinguishable and apparent in both texts. This is because Poe uses narration and…

These are somewhat easy to find in this and many others of Poe's works, an example would be that many time there seem to be "ghosts" in his stories, like in "The Black Cat" and even though is quite debatable "The tell-tale heart". In this story there is the "connection" the twins share, although there are other things that are a lot more noticeable. Like when while reading, all the descriptions of that came out of the book, actually happened around the narrator and Roderick…

Tell Tale Heart, the insane story of a self assured sane man. This short story was published during 1843 by the eccentric author Edgar Allan Poe. In this short story, the frantic narrator diligently tries to convince the reader that he is a sane man, while providing contradicting details for his quest to murder an innocent old man. His reasons behind it? Simply because he is agitated by the old man’s eye and finds it distasteful. In this short story “The Tell Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe depicts…

One of the major writers during Romanticism that significantly employs the element of the terrible in his writing is Edgar Allan Poe. Behind the impact that it has on readers’ minds Poe is utterly mindful about the phenomena present in the human mind. Accordingly, he concentrates on this fact rather that in the traditions of the Gothic practices of Romanticism’s times which allowed him a vast work on the genuine foundation of terror (Lovecraft, 1927). In this sense, Poe’s objective in doing so…