Realms of Darkness
APPLYING LITERARY TERMS
The Dark Side American
Romanticism
 1828-1865
 Similar to Transcendentalism:
 Interested in spiritual
 Intuition/imagination over reason
 Exploration of mystery of human existance
 Different from Transcendentalism:
 Didn’t believe in inherent “good” in man- saw madness,
evil, and alienation as driving forces of human spirit
Gothic Fiction
 Creates a haunting/supernatural atmosphere (use of
imagery)
 Includes strange/chilling events, torture,
resurrection
 Explores unsettling, irrational depths of mind
Purpose of Gothic
Fiction
 To show the madness and violence underneath the
seemingly peaceful surface of civilization
Allegory:
A symbolic story that serves as a disguised
representation for meanings other than
those indicated on the surface.
The characters in an allegory often have no
individual personality, but are embodiments
of moral qualities and other abstractions.
(Abstractions are ideas/concepts that aren’t
physical. Ex: love, freedom, moral, success.
Ex –”isms”: racism, feminism, sexism).
Allegory in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
 Dr. Heidegger=God-figure (all knowing, all



powerful)
Dr. Medbourne=greed
Colonel Killigrew=lustful/gluttonous
Madame Wycherly=vanity
Mr. Gascoigne=dishonesty
Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, and Gothic fiction
 “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
 Setting contains elements of the supernatural- faces of
the dead appear in mirror; décor is ancient and
mysterious
 Characters undergo magical transformation and illustrate
follies of human nature
 “The Fall of the House of Usher”
 Poe creates a dark and foreboding atmosphere: a rotting
mansion, mysterious illnesses, and a person buried alive
to name a few
Ravens as symbols
 Raven: A glorified black
crow. It can be be up to
two feet long and eats
small animals (roadkill!),
fruit, and seeds. They
often appear in legend and
literature as sinister
omens.
What’s “The Raven”
about?
 The death of a beautiful woman, Lenore, as
lamented by her bereaved lover.
 Who is Lenore?
 It is possible that Lenore represents Poe’s beloved wife,
Virginia, who was in poor health when Poe wrote "The
Raven." She died in her mid-twenties, just two years
after the publication of the poem.
Setting:
 The “chamber” of a house at midnight.
 Poe uses the word “chamber” rather than “bedroom”
because chamber has a dark and mysterious
connotation.
Poe uses words to create atmosphere:
The importance of word
choice:
 Poe is careful to use primarily
words that contribute to the
overall atmosphere and tone of
his work.
 In The Raven, examples include:
 weary, dreary, ghastly, ebony, sorrow
A musician at heart?
 The Raven has a musical sound
and rhythmic pattern created
through the use of:
 internal rhyme, end rhyme, and
alliteration, repetition (refrain)
Alliteration
 Repetition of consonant sounds
 “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to
dream before;” (Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven)
Internal Rhyme- 2 forms:
1. Rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry
 “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
pondered, weak and weary.” (The Raven)
 The rhyme is within one line!
Example: Eminem and Rihanna, Love the Way You Lie
“And right now, there’s a steel knife in my windpipe.
I can’t breathe, but I still fight while I can fight.
As long as the wrong feels right it’s like I’m in flight.”
Internal Rhyme, continued
2. Rhyme can also occur in the middle of 2 or
more consecutive lines of poetry:
“And right now, there’s a steel knife in my windpipe.
I can’t breathe, but I still fight while I can fight.
As long as the wrong feels right it’s like I’m in flight.”
Refrain
 The repetition of a phrase or line, usually at the end
of a stanza
 Stanza’s 3-7 of The Raven end in “nothing more”
Onomatopoeia
 A word’s sound that imitates its meaning
 The rusty spigot sputters, utters a splutter, and spatters
a smattering of drops. (Also, personification and
alliteration used here ).
 Also, repetition of above “S” sound creates
onomatopoeia (sssssss sounds like running water)
 Line 13 of The Raven “silken, sad, uncertain, rustling”
(of curtains).
Criticisms of The Raven
 Some reviewers in Poe’s day, including poet Walt
Whitman, criticized “The Raven” for its sing-song,
highly emotional quality.
 The poem is still criticized for the same reason,
often in the form of parody (The Simpsons).
However, the consensus of critics and
ordinary readers appears to be that the
poem is a meticulously crafted work of
genius and fully deserves its standing as
one of the most popular poems in
American literature.
“THE FALL OF THE
HOUSE OF
USHER”
POE 1839
Elements of Gothic Writing in “Usher:”
 Emphasis on setting
 Exterior: landscape
 Interior: houses
 Castle-like architecture
 Characters are brooding, secretive
 Buried family secrets
 Long history of family tied to place
Gothic Architecture in America
 Started in US about
1840
 Steeply pitched roofs
 Pointed arch windows
 Elaborate trim around
roof edges
 Poe’s “house of
Usher” looks more
like a medieval castle
or English cathedral in
Gothic style
 The house might look
something like this
(from a photograph by
Simon Marsden in his
Visions of Poe)
The house as a symbol

The “house of Usher” has two meanings
The physical dwelling
2. The family line, or lineage, and the split in the
family
1.
– “the entire family lay in the direct line of descent”
The Doubling Motif
 In literary criticism, this is
called a “doppelganger,” from
the German for “double-goer”
Representations of the Doppelganger:
 A doppelganger is a double or second-self.
 In literature, the Doppelganger is often figured as a
twin, shadow, or mirror-image of the protagonist.
 The Doppelganger characteristically appears as identical
to (or closely resembling) the protagonist; sometimes
the protagonist and Doppelganger have the same name.
Purposes of the Doppelganger:
I.
One form of the Doppelganger motif is the “psychomachia,”
which depicts "conflict within the soul" or the struggle between
virtue and vice within an individual. Separate characters
represent different aspects of a single human personality. Conflict
within the drama depicts either:
 the struggle of conscience or,
 the need for integration of the personality.
As seen in “Usher,” Roderick struggles with his conscience
(specifically, with a choice he made).
Example of Doppelganger in
“Twilight”
 Jacob struggles to accept and integrate his new
second identity, the werewolf:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBnEwthMphE
Purposes of the Doppelganger, contd:
II.
The Doppelganger represents hidden or repressed
aspects of the protagonist's personality. The arrival of
the double represents the "return of the repressed."
The protagonist must acknowledge what the double
represents, and at the same time struggle against it.
 In “Usher,” Madeline’s
reappearance after
breaking out of her tomb
represents the return of
Roderick’s repressed self.
Purposes of the Doppelganger, contd:
III.
Often, a Doppelganger story climaxes with a
confrontation of the two, usually a fight to the death.
The death of the Doppelganger represents the
successful repression of the dangerous impulses, but
the struggle leaves the protagonist sadder and wiser
about humanity and about himself or herself.
Madeline kills Roderick and in doing so,
kills herself as well.
So, Who Represents What?
 Roderick- reliance on mental
 Madeline-reliance on physical
Roderick
 Roderick’s mental condition is affected by his
environment
 “He was enchanted by certain superstitious
impressions in regard to the dwelling which he
tenanted . . . An effect which the physique of the
gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into
which they all looked down, had, at length, brought
about upon the morale of his existence.”
 Here, “physique” refers to something physical
 And “morale” refers to something mental
 Roderick is all mind in a weak body
 He represents in one way the life of the isolated
artist
 Paintings
 Reading
 Guitar playing
Madeline
 Illness has debilitated her, adding to Roderick’s
loneliness
 All descriptions focus on the body
 “gradual wasting away of the person”
 She returns from the tomb to reclaim her twin brother,
her “double,” representing her strong mental will.
What is Poe’s point?
 Poe addresses the dual and conflicted nature of the Self
 Mind and body are at war with each other in each of us
 We try to repress one side and live without it
 But we cannot achieve a harmonious existence in this
way
Stream of Consciousness writing
(“interior monologue”)
 Characterized by a flow of thoughts and images,
which may not always appear to have a coherent
structure or cohesion.
 The plot line may weave in and out of time and
place, carrying the reader through the life span of a
character or further along a timeline to incorporate
the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other
time periods.
 Focuses on the emotional and psychological
processes that are taking place in the minds of one
or more characters, revealing important character
traits.
 Example, taken from Ambrose Bierce’s “An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:”
 He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. "If I could free
my hands," he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the
stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously,
reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank
God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond
the invader's farthest advance.”
 Common examples of “stream of consciousness” are
brainstorming charts and journal writing.
Making inferences
 “Inference” is simply an educated guess based on facts and
your own knowledge.
 An important skill when reading literature is making
inferences or “reading between the lines:”
 Go beyond the surface details to see other meanings
that the details suggest or imply (not stated).
 Choosing the most likely explanation from the facts at
hand.
You enter class and your teacher says:
“Clear your desks of everything but a sheet of
paper and a pencil.”
What would you infer is about to happen?
Making inferences and “A Rose for Emily”
 Certain details in the text that seem to describe one
thing can actually help us understand Miss Emily
better (description of her funeral suggests she was
once important).
 Sometimes details that are left out of the writing
help us understand her, too (no mention of people’s
feelings for Miss Emily indicate she led a lonely
life).
 Turn to page 875 for a brief reading/activity.
Metaphor
 By now you all should know the simple definition of
metaphor... “a comparison not using ‘like’ or ‘as’.”
 However, some metaphors are not stated directly,
they are hinted at.
 An “implied metaphor” is a comparison between 2 unlike
things that is suggested but not stated directly.
Implied Metaphor in The Death of the Ball
Turret Gunner
 The gunner in the poem is referred to as both
 a newborn infant
 a helpless animal
What words develop this implied metaphor? (See poem,
page 1040)
Answers:
 Newborn:
 “mother’s sleep”
 “belly”
 Helpless animal devoured by (taken advantage of)
the government:
 “fell into the State, hunched in its belly”
 “wet fur froze”
Imagery
 The use of descriptive details and sensory images to
evoke a picture, feelings, or a concrete sensation.
 The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner:
What it says:
What you picture:
Feelings evoked:
“I fell into the State”
Tumbling backwards
Helplessness, fright,
confusion
“And I hunched in its
belly till my wet fur
froze.”
“When I died they
washed me out of the
turret with a hose.”
Post-reading ideas/themes we are left with:
 Poem illustrates soldier’s courage, bravery
 Soldiers actions are “born” (relates to newborn
metaphor) of the ever-powerful government, the
institution that controls them. Soldiers, by
comparison, are powerless.
 The senselessness of a young man’s death.
 War is brutal and ugly- it is not the glorious
adventure it is sometimes depicted as.
 Society becomes desensitized to soldiers’ deaths
(corpse is casually washed out with a hose).
Irony
 By now you should know some basic definitions of
irony:
 When the opposite of what you expect to happen occurs
(situational)
 Saying the opposite of what you mean (verbal)
 When audience knows more than character (dramatic)
 A basic definition of irony is when there is a
discrepancy between appearances and reality.
Tone
 Reflection of the writer’s attitude, manner, mood,
and/or moral outlook in his work.
 Think about the different tones of voice parents might say
these words in:
What is said:
Tone:
Come inside, please.
Calm, polite
Get your butt in the house right
this instant, young man!
Frustrated, angry
 A tone pervades written words just like spoken ones!
Mood
 The mood is the overall feeling or emotion that a literary
work arouses in its reader.
 Mood is usually summed up in one or two adjectives,
such as pessimistic or hopeful.
 Mood and tone are closely intertwined. The writer’s tone can
certainly affect the mood of the piece. The best way to
understand how they are different is to understand that the tone
is a reflection of the writer’s beliefs whereas the mood of a work is
interpreted and felt by each individual reader.
Irony and Tone in Because I Could
Not Stop for Death
 A basic definition of irony is when there is a
discrepancy between appearances and reality.
 Part of the success of this poem rests on this definition.
 Dickinson personifies Death in a manner that is opposite to what most
people think about death: Death appears harmless , civil, polite even.
This is contrary to the general belief (or reality) that death is a scary
and/or sad event.
 This contributes to a certain tone in the poem–Death is the narrator’s
carriage driver and appears lighthearted yet imminent (tone).
If Death is personified as civil and polite, it doesn’t
appear sorrowful, scary, or evil as people (in
some cultures) view death. Dickinson’s tone of
lightheartedness helps establish a light mood.
Brainteaser time!
This discrepancy between our feelings of
Death in the poem versus our feelings
about the subject of death is also a part
of the irony of this poem!
Just for fun 
THE END…
 And this concludes our “Realms of Darkness” notes!