Assessment for Poe’s writing
Please read each question carefully and create a graphic organizer, including at least two (s) 2specific references to each of Poe’s works that we studied in class. Remember Darian? Don’t be Darian. Organizing your response before your begin writing will make your writing stronger.
Essay, well written paragraph for each question including a quote from each story. Question one is asking three things in one question. You should have six quotes all together for this question.
Format: Double space, Font 12, Times new roman
Questions:
1. Analyze the function of setting, point of view, and pacing in Poe’s works The Tell Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum. How does each contribute to the overall effect of Poe’s writing?
The Tell Tale Heart Information Examples: Contribution
Function of Setting
• House and Bedroom
• Night and Morning
• No certain time period
• “And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it –oh so gently!”
• “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness..”
• “And every morning when day broke I went boldly into the chamber” • Mind going crazy!
• Curious- terrified making things more scary
Point of View • first person
• trying to prove sanity
• stream of conscienceness
• how old man feels and is thinking- omniscient narrator • “Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror.”
• “But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eve.” • writing it in first person makes story more scary
• shows how insane this man is
Pacing • Slow then picks up • “It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant.”
• “The old man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! –do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am.”
• “Yet the sounds increased- and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sounds- much such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.” • Builds suspense
The Pit in the Pendulum
Information Examples Contributions
Function of Setting
• Spanish inquisition
• Toledo, Spain
• Creditability
• Specific time and place
• Dungeon • Knowing that it had happened it adds to the creepy effect of the story
Point of View
• First Person • “And then the blade swung closer and our hero looked really, really scared.”
• * Illustrates to the audience the fear of death and unknown
Pacing • Pendulum = time
• “It was the painted figure of time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I suppose to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum, such that we see on antique clocks. * Makes the reader go back and forth of good and evil because of the pendulum
2. Edgar Allan Poe is identified as a Dark Romantic writer. Defend this classification. What elements of his work support this classification?
Elements: Support:
Creepy Symbols • Vultures eye- The Tell Tale Heart
o “But I found the eye was always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye.”
• Pendulum- The Pit and The Pendulum
o “Twice again t swung, and a sharp sense of pain shot through every nerve.”
• Pit- The Pit and The Pendulum
o “The Pit, The typical of hell, and regarded by rumors as the ultima Thule of all their punishments.”
Horrific Themes • The Tell Tale Heart-
o “The old man’s hour had come!” “With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.” “The old man was dead.”
• The Pit and the Pendulum- Death
o “Another step before my fall, and the world had seen me no more. And the death just avoided, was of that very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the inquisition.”
Psychological effects of Guilt and Sin • The Tell Tale Heart- Guilt
o “I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt I must scream or die!”
• The Pit and The Pendulum-
Not To Sure?
Edgar Allen Poe is considered a Dark Romantic writer because he wrote in 1840-1860 •
3. Poe had a troubled life. Explain how childhood, the many losses, and struggles he experienced could have influenced his writing.
a. Childhood:
i. Poe’s parents had both died, no one wanted him
1. This reflects on The Pit and the Pendulum and The Tell Tale Heart. In The Tell Tale Heart it shows that ones love didn’t represent anything because the narrator who claims he loves the old man murders him. In The Pit and The Pendulum
b. Many Losses:
i. Lost both his parents, and his wife.
1. This reflects to both writings because their themes are death. In The Pit and the Pendulum, the man is tortured to death. However, he is saved. Also, in The Tell Tale Heart the old man was murdered.
c. Struggles:
i. Gambling problem- Led him to poverty
ii. Drug and Alcohol addiction
1. This reflects to both his writings because gambling, drugs and alcohol were considered sins. For example, in The Pit and the Pendulum we do not know what the man had sinned to be put in a chamber and tortured. Also, in The Tell Tale Heart, the man had committed a sin by murdering the old man who he said he loved.
4. Poe’s works include characters who both inflict death and those who struggle to avoid it. Discuss how Poe uses the inevitability of death as a theme in his works The Tell Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum.
a. The Tell Tale Heart-
i. Poe uses the threat of death as a theme in The Tell Tale heart by the narrator expressing his love for the old man and step by step slowly thinking of a way to kill him. Even your loved ones can kill you.
b. The Pit and the Pendulum-
i. Poe uses the threat of death in The Pit and the Pendulum by allowing the narrator to still be alive tell the story with the threat of death always on his mind, when, where, and why he is going to die.
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