This document discusses Gothic elements in Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. It provides background on the Gothic literature tradition beginning in Europe in the 18th century. It then examines key Gothic concepts like deterioration, darkness, and death that Poe explored in works like "The Tell-Tale Heart." The document also lists characteristics of Gothic fiction like mystery, horror, and the supernatural and analyzes Poe's life and some of his most famous short stories, including "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart."

1. Topic:Gothic Elements in Poe’s Short Story.
Name : Solanki Binita M.
Subject :The American Literature.
Semester: M.A. ,3
Submitted to: Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsingh
Bhavnagar University.

2. Gothic
Literature
And the Works of
Edgar Allan Poe

3. The Gothic Tradition
Began in Europe
First Gothic Work:
1765 The Castle of
Otranto – Horace Walpole
Two Early Works:
Mary Shelly’s
Frankenstein, or The
Modern Prometheus (1818)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
(1897)

4.  Gothic literature focuses on such
concepts as deterioration, darkness, death
and dying, alienation and isolation,
restraint and imprisonment and
inhumanity either in the behavior of one
person toward another or within an
individual's own selfhood
 Gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe is
death and the associated process of
decay and this is one of the more
prominent themes in Gothic novels or
short stories

5. Master of the Short Story
Along with Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Poe perfected the modern short
story
Poe stressed a single dominant
effect in his short stories

6. Characteristics of Gothic Fiction
Mystery
Horror
The Grotesque
Violence
The
Supernatural

8. Gothic
Architecture
The Gothic tradition was
also reflected in
architecture: vaulted
ceilings, arches, stained
glass windows, gargoyles

9. Notre Dame

10.  Poe’s professional life was full of failure
 His greatest success was “The Raven,” which
brought him fame, but earned him only $14.00
 Poe wrote many short stories simply for the
money; ironically he is most famous for these
stories
 He saw himself as a poet, but could not make a
living from writing poetry

11. Poe
Poe can be considered
the father of the modern
horror story, influencing
writers such as Stephen
King and Anne Rice

12. Work of E.A.Poe.
TheTell-Tale Heart.
The Gold Bug.
The Fall Of House.
The Cask of Amontillado.
The Raven.
The Black Cat.

13. “The Raven”
Written while Poe’s wife,
Virginia, was dying from
tuberculosis
The darkness of the poem–
the feeling that he will be
free from the pain of the
memory of his “Lost Lenore”
nevermore is reflective of the
agony and desperation Poe
felt in his own life

14. TheTell-Tale Heart
In the "TheTell-Tale Heart,"
Poe presents deterioration in
the mental deterioration of
the antagonist/protagonist
He presents darkness in
the literal darkness that
the protagonist devises
and works his evil plan in