Edgar Allan Poe

The Man, The Mystery

Edgar Allan Poe

The son of traveling actors.

Attended University of Virginia and West Point.

Volatile relationship with his foster father (John Allan).

Married his cousin Virginia Clemm who 10 years later died from tuberculosis.

Developed characters whose sanity is questionable.

Most of his stories deal with death, murder, and even cannibalism!

Father of the genre “the short story”

His death is mysterious…

Significant Works

Tamerlane and Other Poems - 1827

The Fall of the House of Usher - 1839

Murders in the Rue Morgue - 1841

The Tell-Tale Heart - 1843

The Raven - 1845

The Cask of Amontillado - 1846

Annabel Lee & The Bells - 1849

Is REVENGE ever justified?

• If so, under what circumstances? Take a moment to

think about it, then briefly answer the following

questions on a sheet of paper :

1. How far would you go to obtain revenge on someone or

some group who destroyed your family?

2. Can you achieve justice through revenge?

3. What is justice?

4. How does our society treat those who achieve revenge?

The Cask of Amontillado

Poe’s last (and

greatest?) short

story

Revenge, Murder,

Torture, and

Addiction

Takes place during

carnival festivities

Set in the Italian

catacombs

Carnival

Carnival

• Carnival is a secular holiday, but it

evolved from the Christian

observance known as Lent.

• Lent is a solemn forty-day period of

fasting prior to Easter.

Carnival

• Traditionally, the fasting during

Lent involves abstaining from

eating meat.

• Modern interpretations of fasting

may involve abstaining from

anything one enjoys.

Carn + Val

FLESH (Meat) + FAREWELL

• In anticipation of the solemnity of Lent, the celebration of Carnival evolved.

• Participants engage in excessive and extreme behavior to bid farewell to meat-eating (and merriment).

• Carnival is a time of EXCESS and INDULGENCE.

• BINGEING upon food and alcohol is common.

• The combination of alcohol and costumes creates an atmosphere where people tend to let down their inhibitions

European Carnival traditions survive in the

United States in the form of Mardi Gras.

Setting of “Cask. . .”

• “The Cask of Amontillado” is set

during the “supreme madness”

of Carnival.

• In such a riotous atmosphere, it

is easy to see how a crime could

go unnoticed.

Paris Catacombs

• It lies far beneath the city

• In it, there are the bones

of 5 to 6 million people.

• Starting from the late 18th

century, lacking in space

to put corpses, bodies of

people who could not

afford proper burials were

moved from the

overflowing cemeteries

and dumped there.

Why Catacombs?

• At the end of the 18th

century, Paris was greatly

overcrowded, flooded with far

too many people who had

come seeking work or

adventure

• But there was also a great

deal of filth, disease and

death, and the influx of new

people, often bringing new

diseases, filled the city

cemeteries to overflowing.

Why Catacombs?

• Proper burial became

impossible.

• People stacked corpses in

cemeteries with only a thin

layer of dirt over them

• The stench of decaying

bodies was unbearable and

also spreading disease

• It was then ordered to find an

alternative– thus, catacombs

The Empire of Death - Paris Catacombs.mp4

Extra Credit Opportunity

Create an 8x10 color drawing of the

catacombs and Fortunato’s burial vault.

You must include Fortunato and Montresor

in the drawing.

Due by Friday 2/7

For example ...

Death Theories

Read pages 222 - 228

Timeline of Poe’s last

days, based on

information from “Poe’s

Final Days”

Complete the Test

Practice questions on

pp.229-230