Poe and More Poe
Themes
Themes
Themes
Revenge cannot be rationalized,
but comes at a great cost.
Motifs:
Motifs are recurring
structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and
inform the text’s major themes.
Lack of evidence for 1000s of
insults and injuries Montresor has
suffered. Frightening that he
commits murder based on some
proof reader is not privy to.
Montresor has power and we don't
have access—difficult to trust him.
Reader is in the grip of Montresor's
subjective reality, quite a horrific
place to be! Also, 50 years have
passed. How reliable are facts
given? Can we trust this narrator
who is so proud of his deed?
Atmosphere
The masquerade is a motif, also occurring
in Hopfrog. A time when inhibitions and
guards are let down and characters are
vulnerable.
Language
Unreliable Narrator
Setting
Singular Effect
Carnival: a time of disguise, of
playing with different identities and
dressing up. Symbolic (and perhaps
ironic) that Montresor chooses this
time to reveal who he really is.
He defined a short story as a
narrative prose work that (1) is
short enough to be read in one
sitting, (2) takes place in one locale
on a single day, (or even in a few
hours), (3) centers on a single line
of action, and (4) maintains a single
mood. Every word or phrase should
contribute to the theme and the
mood.
Catacombs symbolic of M's dark
and twisted character lurking
under the surface of his public,
respectable personality, like
labyrinthine underground
catacombs
Gothic
Irony
POV
Throughout the story, Poe uses verbal
and dramatic irony to build suspense,
foreshadow the ending, and add a touch
of macabre humor
First person: Is this story told from
the pov of a madman? Poe's
interest in showing the workings of
the human mind under extreme
duress, engaged in evil acts.
Testing Poe's Theory of the Short Story on his own writing
Many critics consider Poe to be the father of the modern short story. He was the
first writer to define the short story as a distinct literary form. In a review of Nathaniel
Hawthorne's anthology, Twice-Told Tales in Graham's Magazine, May 1842, he
described his personal theory on how to construct a "tale":
5 rules of short story writing following Poe's principles
Try to make a list of 5 rules for writing a short story as implied in Poe's essay. A
keyword has been given below to help with scanning the text. Try writing your answers
down.
"A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to
accommodate his incidents: but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique
or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents—he then combines
such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial
sentence tends not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In
the whole composition there should be no work written, of which the tendency, direct or
indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and
skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with
a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction."
1. Keyword: effect
2. Keyword: establish
3. Keyword: first sentence
4. Keyword: pre-established
5. Keyword: satisfaction
How well does Poe follow his own rules?
1. What is the single effect of the story on the reader?
2. How do all incidents help Poe to establish this effect?
3. How does the first sentence bring out the horror of the tale?
4. How does the whole story follow a single pre-established design?
5. Does the reader feel satisfied at the end of the story?