Poe and the Gothic Short Story

Paper Summary:

The paper compares and contrasts two short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Purloined Letter", regarding how they treat the central Gothic theme. The paper shows how "The Masque of Red Death" is more conventionally Gothic and therefore preserves the mystery of evil and death, while "The Purloined Letter" is only derived from the principal Gothic strand, and establishes the totally new genre of the "detective" story.

From the Paper:

"Edgar Allan Poe introduced the Gothic genre to American literature, but molding the medium in a highly original way that was to become distinctively American (Punter 172). Up to that point the Gothic mode has been applied to novels, as we find in British and continental examples. Poe applied it to the short story, and in the process came up with a number of highly original forms. His tales build up high levels of suspense in a short space, and then allow terror and chaos to explode in the climax. Among the many sub-genres that he has inspired, we consider two, namely the allegorical horror story and the detective tale, and as examples of each, "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Purloined Letter" respectively. Gothic literature aims to confront the dark corners of the human psyche (Cavallaro 12)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cavallaro, Dani. The Gothic Vision. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.
• Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. Poetry and Tales. Ed. Patrick Francis Quinn. New York: Library of America, 1984.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
• Punter, David. The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fictions. London: Longman, 1996.

More papers on Poe and the Gothic Short Story:

• Analytical Essay # 127174 : "Edgar Allan Poe and the Horror Tale"
• Analytical Essay # 119744 : "Poe and the American Gothic"
• Book Review # 114901 : "Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

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