POE’S WRITING
Analyzing the Author’s craft!
By Tara Holloway
w/ contributions from Leigh Clapp
AGENDA
• Obj.: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Obj.: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events
within it, and manipulate time, create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
• Literary Techniques: Foreshadowing, Irony & Suspense
• Literary Elements: Symbolism
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
• Suspense keeps readers wondering what will happen next.
SUSPENSE
• What makes “The Cask of Amontillado”
suspenseful?
• Complete the evaluation chart:
• Think about points in the story when you were excited or scared,
or wondered what was going to happen next. Fill in the first
column with those parts from the story.
• Use the second column to think about why these parts of the
story were suspenseful.
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
• Foreshadowing is clues that hint at events that will
happen later in a story.
• Giving clues creates suspense.
FORESHADOWING
• Find and highlight 3 examples of foreshadowing in “The
Cask of Amontillado.”
• Identify statements or events that foreshadow Fortunato’s fate.
• How does foreshadowing add to the suspense?
LITERARY ELEMENTS
•
Symbolism/Symbols using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea.
•
Symbols can include:
•
An action
•
Person
•
Place
•
Word
•
Object
•
When an author wants to suggest a certain mood or emotion, she can also use
symbolism to hint at it, rather than just blatantly saying it.
•
When dark or ominous symbols are given, they can create suspense.
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Irony
1.
verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else.
2. dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the
literature does not know.
3. situational irony is a difference between what is expected and what happens
When the audience knows something that the character(s) doesn’t know, that can
create suspense.
PARAGRAPH ANSWER
• Does “The Cask of Amontillado” succeed as a
suspenseful story? Explain your answer.
• Remember, you should use English words to help explain your
answer. You should discuss irony, foreshadowing, and symbols
as appropriate for your answer.