EDGAR ALLAN POE

“The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose

Tale”

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SHORT STORY

30 minutes to 1 or 2 hours to

its reading

Must be able to be read at one

sitting

Must contain a unique or

single effect

Incidents in the story must be

created and organized to achieve

that single effect

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

By Edgar Allan Poe

SETTING

Dusk, carnival season

Narrator’s palazzo

Montresor catacombs (family burial vaults)

Damp, covered with mold, walls of piled

bones

CHARACTER

Montresor: the narrator, cunning, vengeful, a

mason (bricklayer), psychotic, dressed in a dark

suit with a cape

Fortunato: the victim, a wine connoisseur,

dressed in a court jester’s outfit (motley), name

means “good fortune”

Luchesi: NOT A CHARACTER, just mentioned as

part of the bait to lure Fortunato into the trap

CHARACTERIZATION

Narrator’s thoughts

Narrator’s actions

Narrator’s speech

Physical appearance

What another character says

PLOT

Exposition• Introduces the characters• Describes the setting• Hints at the conflict (Point of Conflict)

PLOT

Rising Action• Meets Fortunato • Lures him to his palazzo• Gets him to go down into the catacombs• Shackles Fortunato to the wall• Montresor builds a wall in front of Fortunato

PLOT

Climax• “For the love of God, Montresor!”• “Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”

PLOT

Falling Action• Finished the wall• Replaced a skeleton

Denouement• “In pace requiescat!”• May he rest in peace!

POINT OF VIEW

1st Person Narrator• Told through Montresor’s point of view• Only know what Montresor is thinking• Creates an unreliable narrator• Narrator presents himself as completely in

the right to do what he does• Until the climax, the reader could possibly by

sympathetic• Only until the end does the reader realize

what has happened

THEME

How far does one go to get

even?

IRONY

Technically these really don’t become ironic

until the reader realizes that Montresor has

buried Fortunato alive

Verbal• “. . . you are luckily met.” (468)• “. . . your health is precious.” (469)• “And I (drink) to your long life.” (469)• The last line of the story (rest in peace)

IRONY

Situational • Fortunato is dressed in motley (court

jester)• The joke is on him.

• Montresor’s profession is that of a mason• Fortunato mistakenly thinks he is of

the Masonic Order• Fortunato’s name means “good fortune”

IRONY

Dramatic• Montresor Coat of Arms• Gold foot crushing a serpent

whose fangs are imbedded in the heel

• Montressor Motto• No one wounds me without

being punished.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

E. A. Poe

SETTING

Dreary tract of country

Evening, “melancholy House of Usher”

Establishes gloom

Mere house, simple landscape, bleak walls, vacant

eye-like windows, rank sedges, white trunks of decayed

trees

An utter depression of soul

An iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart

SETTING

• “Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web work form the eaves. . .”• “. . . A barely perceptible fissure,

which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.”

SETTING

Studio• Very large and lofty, long and narrow windows,

black oaken floor• Gleams of encrimsoned light through trellised

panes• Dark draperies• Comfortless furniture• Books and musical instruments lay scattered

about• An atmosphere of sorrow• Stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom

CHARACTER

Roderick• Cadaverousness of complexion• Large, liquid eye• Lips somewhat thin and very pallid• Delicate Hebrew nose• Chin in want of prominence• Hair of a web-like softness and tenuity

(tenuous: delicate and fine) “fell about the face”

• Ghastly pallor of the skin

Roderick (cont.)• Suffers from a condition that causes a

morbid acuteness of the senses• Extreme sensitivity• Could only eat certain food• Could only wear certain garments of

certain textures• Odors were oppressive• Light and sound sensitivity

CHARACTER

Madeline• Roderick’s sister• Has a disease that causes

gradual wasting away• Has incidents of cataleptic

seizures

CHARACTERIZATION

Character’s actions

Character’s thoughts

Physical appearance

Speech

Other character’s actions

PLOT

Exposition: includes the narrator’s description

of the exterior of the house, of the studio, of

Roderick, and of Madeline; introduces an

internal conflict that the narrator is having

PLOTRising Action: Narrator is greeted by Roderick; discussion

Roderick’s and Madeline’s afflictions; narrator attempts to

alleviate Roderick’s melancholy through painting, reading, and

conversing; Madeline “dies”; entombed her in the burial chambers

beneath the Usher mansion; Roderick becomes increasingly more

agitated; “Mad Trist” of Sir Launcelot evokes loud noises from

beneath the mansion; Madeline breaks from her tomb

Climax: doors to the room open; Madeline rushes at Roderick

Falling Action: Narrator flees the mansion; the mansion crumbles

being swallowed entirely by the tarn

CONFLICT

Internal: narrator’s perceptions of the House of

Usher and his desire to help alleviate Roderick’s

depression and help him

Physical: Roderick’s struggle with his physical and

emotional maladies; Madeline’s struggle with her

affliction; Madeline’s struggle to escape from her

tomb

Psychological: Roderick’s inability to deal with reality

POINT OF VIEW

Told through the first-person

narrator - his thoughts and

perceptions

THEME

3 Possibilities• Simply supernatural• Workings of the human mind• Role of the Romantic artist

THEME

Simply Supernatural• Suggests that the story was written primarily for entertainment purposes• A horrific story that fits into the Gothic Tales for which Poe was so famous

THEMEWorkings of the Human Mind

• On the brink of insanity• Madeline (unconscious) and Roderick

(conscious) • When the conscious strives to deny the

existence of the unconscious, the human mind (the Usher mansion) must fall into destruction

• Symbolism involves the use of vivid description of the house as the exterior of the mind and body and of the studio which is the inside of the mind

THEME

Role of the Romantic artist • Roderick is an artist (poetry, paintings, music)• The realm of creativity and the desire to achieve the ideal creative plane• Roderick leaves the real world behind in search for the sublime (beautiful, heavenly, of the highest moral or spiritual value)

THEME

• No contact with the external world that might serve as the subject matter of his art

• Shut down his senses with no source for his art but his own subjectivity

• Metaphorically, he must “feed” upon himself

• The price the artist must pay for cutting himself off is annihilation