3. On the Edge
• Through flashback, Poe’s narrator reveals the
incidents which bring him to the point of facing
his own death on the very next day.
• We learn of the narrator’s personality, which is
monstrously altered apparently by an addiction
to alcohol.
4. Clues
• Remember that Gothic Literature employs the
literary device of the grotesque.
• “Grotesque”, an adjective, derives from the Italian,
meaning “grotto” or “cave”.
• The “cave” used in the gothic sense is the mind, the
inner world.
• Gothic writers explore the inner world of the main
character.
5. Pursuing the Clues
• Look for words in the story that refer to the
mental state of the character.
• Look for conflicts that result from a character’s
lack of self-control.
• Look for names or places that suggest darkness
or what is hidden.
• Look for actions that defy rational explanation.
6. • Notice as well that Poe provides us few concrete
details.
• His language is often spare and suggestive.
(“I suffered myself to use intemperate
language to my wife.”)
• We must enter into our own imaginations to
develop the context of the setting, the action,
and the physical appearance of the characters.
7. What Is Really Going On?
• Remember, we are expected to enter into
the character’s mind, and by so doing, enter
into our own as well.
• What motivated the character to act as he
did? By extension, what motivates us to act
as we sometimes do?
• Poe believed that our irrational actions
(pleasant one moment, crabby and irascible
the next) result from our “perverse” nature.
8. Our Dual Nature
• Look for characters who exhibit separate
personalities.
• Look for situations that involve two separate
states of being.
• Look for unexplainable events.
• Look for characters in torment—usually a
consequence of guilt.
