Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

Revenge is a dominate theme throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”. Poe uses symbolism and characterization to develop the theme of revenge that Montresor seeks on Fontunado. This use of symbolism and characterization illuminates the achievement of Montresor’s revenge with the ultimate sacrifice of Fortunado’s death. This revenge reveals a darker side of the human psyche. To reveal this darker side, Poe’s vivid descriptions of his characters allow for understanding of their…

The Fall of the House of Usher is a story written by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe as many of us know was a famous author because all his stories and poems were written in a sense of terror or mystery and that's what caught the attention of many people. As many of us know Edgar Allan Poe wrote his stories in a sense of terror and mystery and "The Fall of the House of Usher" was not an exception. This story also contains romanticism due to the age it was written, at first…

In “The Uncanny,” Sigmund Freud writes about “that class of terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar” (Freud 2-3). “Uncanny” is defined here as uncomfortable, uneasy, gloomy, ghastly, and (of a house) haunted (2). Freud also mentions it as darkness, silence, and solitude (20). _____. The following dream illustrates Freud’s description of the uncanny as being fearful and uneasy. Freud refers to uncanny as being a class of something terrifying that leads back…

Gothic elements are used exquisitely and meticulously in gothic-era short stories to captivate the type of mood the author is portraying for the reader. Examples of this are exemplified in: “The Devil and Tom Walker” by: Washington Irving, “The Feather Pillow” by: Horacio Quiroga, “A Rose for Emily” by: William Faulkner, “The Black Cat” by: Edgar Allan Poe, “Prey” by: Richard Matheson, and “The Raven” by: Edgar Allan Poe. Specifically, are significant because they utilize ambiguity and…

Book Title: The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the world’s most unlikely holiday destinations. By Dom Joly. Simon & Schuster, United Kingdom, London. 2nd Edition. ISBN 978-1-84739-846-8. 279 pages. Background of author Dom Joly wrote the book, titled The Dark Tourist in 2009. The book was first published and printed by Simon and Schuster in the United Kingdom, London, in 2010. Another edition was published in 2011. Dominic John Joly, also known as Dom Joly, was born on 15th November 1967, who is…

Living house In the story “The Fall of the Usher House” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is insane or dreaming. The entire story is a projection of his mind. In the story the narrator is going to visit his boyhood friend and his sister who are terribly ill, the sister dies and is thought to be buried alive, resurrects as a ghost. When her brother sees his sisters ghost, it scares him to death. The narrator runs out of the house, when he looks back the house rips in half and sinks to the bottom…

Camille Pissarro’s The Banks of the Marne in Winter,1866 challenges the conventions of provincial landscapes through the depopulation and spatial organization of the romantic countryside present in Constant Troyon’s The Marsh,1840. Both Troyon and Pissarro’s large scale works depict provincial French landscapes complete with peasant women and wide reaching skies, however the methods used in the two paintings are disparate enough to bring forward arguments about the inherent modernity in…

For my first museum visit I went to the Dali museum in St. Petersburg on the 26th of March. The visit as a whole was fascinating and I got to see several paintings that were intriguing. For this assignment, however, I am going to talk about one piece in particular and that is Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid. This piece stood out to me for a couple different reasons. First, was obviously the name. It appears to be a blend of Gala Dali, his crush over whom he obsessed, and deoxyribonucleic…

Suspenseful Techniques of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce is widely known for his ability to establish suspense in his infamous short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. In this literary work Bierce uses a variety of techniques that build up its suspense. These techniques catch the attention of the reader and keeps them intrigued. Bierce’s use of imagery, nonlinear plot, and point of view in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” contribute to the suspense of the story.…

“The Cask of Amontillado,” written by Edgar Allan Poe, is about a man named Montresor who vows to get revenge on another man named Fortunato for an unknown reason. This story explores many moods including tension, irritation, suspensefulness, eeriness, and others in both the short story and film. Both the film and story include different techniques to portray the darker tones of the plot of the story. Throughout the story, Poe conveys the theme of dignity throughout the story, using the…