Edgar Allan Poe - Mrs. Humphreys › uploads › 2 › 5 › 6 › 0 › ...Edgar Allan Poe The son...
Transcript of Edgar Allan Poe - Mrs. Humphreys › uploads › 2 › 5 › 6 › 0 › ...Edgar Allan Poe The son...
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
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