Edgar Allan Poe: Author Study
CA Focus Standard:
LRA 3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection
represents a view or comment on life, using textual evidence to support
the claim.
LRA 3.5 Analyze recognized works of American literature representing a
variety of genres and traditions.
Objectives:
1.
Identify prior knowledge about Edgar Allan Poe
2.
Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and identify key events which
influenced his work.
3.
Read “The Raven” and identify its narrator and key events and
explain how symbolism communicates the poem’s theme.
Identify prior knowledge about
Edgar Allan Poe
Where I learned it…
Everything I know…
EDGAR ALLAN
POE
CORNELL NOTES: Poe’s life
Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and identify key events
which influenced his work.
BACKGROUND:
•
Describe his early childhood.
RELATIONSHIP TO ROMANTICISM:
•
What was the belief about nature held by Dark Romantics?
•
What was his criticism about other writers at the time?
•
How much did he get paid for the poem titled “The Raven”
•
What modern authors did he influence?
CORNELL NOTES
CORNELL NOTES: Poe’s Death
•
What did people around him notice about his appearance
at the end of his death?
•
Where was he found on October 3, 1849? In what
conditions?
•
Describe one theory of his death as explained by Jeff
Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.
•
What were his last words on October 7th, 1849?
CORNELL NOTES: Poe’s Death
“The Raven”
SUMMARY: The narrator tries to read to keep his mind off his
lost love Lenore (she’s dead), when he suddenly hears a
“rappin’” (tapping) on his door. He opens the door and
finds no one there but a raven who perches itself atop a
bust of Athena (Goddess of wisdom and war) and keeps
repeating the word, “NEVERMORE!”
DESCRBE THE NARRATOR’S STATE OF MIND BY THE END OF
THE POEM.
WHAT DOES THE RAVEN SYMBOLIZE?
WHY DOES HE KEEP REPEATING “NEVERMORE!”?
WHAT EFFFECT DOES THE RHYME SCHEME HAVE ON THE
TONE & MOOD OF THE POEM?
“The Raven”
Identify prior knowledge about
Edgar Allan Poe
Where I learned it…
Everything I know…
EDGAR ALLAN
POE
What I learned today
Describe Edgar Allan Poe’s background by writing
reflection. Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and
identify key events which influenced his work.
_______can be described as ______. He was born
________ and spent most of his life________. While
_____________, he ___________________________.
Additionally, ________________. His works are an
example of Romanticism because ______________
_______________.
Edgar Allan Poe: Author Study
CA Focus Standard:
LRA 3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a
selection represents a view or comment on life, using textual
evidence to support the claim.
LRA 3.5 Analyze recognized works of American literature
representing a variety of genres and traditions.
Objectives:
1.) Describe Edgar Allan Poe’s background by writing
reflection. Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and identify
key events which influenced his work.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by
completing an Analysis Chart.
Define American Romanticism
1. 18th Century complex artistic, literary,
and intellectual movement
2. Reaction against Rationalism and
the Industrial Revolution.
3. Valued feeling over reason and
believed truth could only be arrived
through imagination.
4. Nature as superior to industry and
technology.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
The Spanish Inquisition was a religious court set up by the Catholic Church
and the Spanish monarchy during the fifteenth century to punish those who failed
to comply with the church or the royal authorities. This story takes place in the final
days of the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo, Spain.
In “The Pit and the Pendulum” Poe imagines the horrors of slow torture that
many endured during the Inquisition. The first person narrator recalls being
condemned to death by faceless judges and waking in a pitch dark dungeon, where
he narrowly escapes a fatal fall into a pit. He then falls asleep and awakens to find
food and water and once again loses consciousness. When he wakes up again, he
finds himself bound to a frame and sees a pendulum descending toward him. He
tries to set himself free by calling on the help of rats. Once he is unbound, he rolls
free and the dungeon walls collapse around him and force him into the pit. At this
point he is caught by the strong arms of General Lasalle of France, whose army
has just taken Toledo.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
As you read complete the analysis chart that
follows.
AFTER you read, answer the following questions:
1. What do the pit and the pendulum represent?
2. What does Poe communicate about the political,
religious, and social situation in the historical period in
which this story takes place?
3. Social norms are the rules considered normal in
mainstream society. Dogma is the opinions set as
rules by authority figures. What Romantic critique is
Poe making about the effects of social norms and
dogma? About technology and science ?
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism
in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by completing an Analysis Chart.
As you read complete the analysis chart that
follows.
AFTER you read, answer the following questions:
1. What do the pit and the pendulum represent?
2. What does Poe communicate about the political,
religious, and social situation in the historical period in
which this story takes place?
3. Social norms are the rules considered normal in
mainstream society. Dogma is the opinions set as
rules by authority figures. What Romantic critique is
Poe making about the effects of social norms and
dogma? About technology and science ?