The Gothic and Macabre

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Edgar Allen Poe uses elements of both a Gothic and macabre nature in order to develop an atmosphere of intense horror within his short stories. The paper portrays how several stories take place in dark and gloomy settings, allow characters to undergo cruel and unusual events and generally end with an inevitably bizarre form of death for some characters. The paper illustrates this with the stories "Ligeia", "William Wilson," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher."

From the Paper:

"Many of Poe's stories take place in settings characterized as being dark and oppressive. These settings often contain large, decrepit, and antiquated dwellings with countless rooms and secret vaults and passageways. The dwellings are usually set in remote and desolate locations, which effectively cut occupants off from the rest of civilization. Such a setting can be found in the story "Ligeia", where the narrator explains that after the death of his beloved first wife he took up residence in a dismal abbey located in a remote part of England. Within the abbey is an unusually shaped bridal chamber atop a high tower, which is where the narrator supposedly witnesses both his second wife's demise and first wife's subsequent resurrection."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bernardo, Karen. "Poe's 'William Wilson'." Storybites.com (N.D.) Retrieved April 23, 2007:http://www.storybites.com/poewilson.htm
• Cummings, Michael J. "Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)". Cummings Guides. (2005). Retrieved April 23, 2007: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Ligeia.html#Top
• Poe, Edgar A. "Ligeia." E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore. Oct. 23, 1999. Retrieved April 16, 2007: http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/ligeiab.htm
• Poe, Edgar A. "The cask of Amontillado." E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore. Nov. 22, 1998. Retrieved April 16, 2007: http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/caska.htm
• Poe, Edgar A. "The fall of the House of Usher." E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore. Oct. 23, 1999. Retrieved April 16, 2007: http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/usherb.htm

More papers on The Gothic and Macabre:

• Analytical Essay # 149329 : "Dracula" and the Gothic Genre"
• Analytical Essay # 129045 : "A Parody of Gothic Fiction"
• Analytical Essay # 8827 : "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe"

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