A presentation for the American Literature course, taught by Mrs. Yony Cardenas in the UNMSM -Peru.

2. 1825
Engaged to
Sarah March 27, 1834
January
Elmira
19, 1809 John Allan dies
Royster
Edgar Allan January 29, 1845
Poe was
1815 Becomes famous for January 30, 1847
Born to May 16, 1836
1826 “The Raven” which Virginia
David & Eliza Edgar lives with the
Attended the Poe marries his 13 was published in Clemm, Poe’s
in the city of Allan’s in England &
University of year old New York wife dies of T.B.
Boston. attends school in
Virginia. cousin, Virginia and Poe
London & Stroke-
Clemm in became ill.
Newington.
Richmond
February 28, 1829
December 8, 1811
October 7,
Frances Allan dies of Febuary, 18
Eliza dies on a 1835 1849
T.B. 41
theatrical tour in
Moves to Poe Poe died in a
Richmond.
Richmond with became hospital in
cousin Virginia editor of Baltimore and
Clemm and her Graham’s was buried in
1821 1827
mother Magazine the
Poe Arguments with John Allan Westminster
continues so leaves for Boston where Presbyterian
to go to he publishes poems such Church
school in as Tamerlane and joined
June 1839
Richmond the army
assistant editor for the Magazine
Burton’s Gentleman

3.  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
 He is credited with the invention of the detective
story (these stories provided Poe with the order &
logic that was lacking in his own life)

4. Poe explored the dark and often irrational side of the
human mind .
His stories often are filled with a sense of anxiety &
have a dreamlike quality
Poe saw women as angelic figures: “Women have
been angels of mercy to me.”
Poe’s characters are often tortured by guilt
Poe’s stories are quite modern in their
psychoanalytical components
Like many of his characters, Poe was caught between
•Rationality & irrationality
•Order & chaos

5.  Helen, thty beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
-.Thy: your
-Yore : long ago
-Roam: to walk or travel around without a direction
-Thee : you
-Agate: a hard stone with bands or areas of colour, used in jewellery
-Nicean: refers to boats from the city of Nicea in Asia Minor. Poe creates the phrase for its melodious sound
- Wont: accustomed.
-Hyacinth: wavy and perfumed
-Naiad : in classical mythology, a water nymph
-Psyche: goddess of the soul

6.  The narrator moves through a sequence of changing moods.
When first awakened by the raven, he is gloomy. Terror
quickly follows, then curiosity as he seeks a simple
explanation for the tapping. The entrance of the bird makes
him smile. But soon the uncanny aptness of the same, cruel
answer causes bitter self-questioning, sad memory, near
hysteria, and finally permanent hopelessness. The raven in
the end never flits, still sitting there, with devil eyes, its shadow
falling on the floor; and the man’s soul is in that
shadow, forever.
 The subject of the poem deals with the death of a beautiful
woman, which could be Virginia or others whom the Poe
speaker loves, and the sorrow of a lover whose beautiful lady
has been taken from him by death.

7.  He is continually
reminded of the pain he
feels from her loss (the
bird will leave him in the
morning like Lenore;
Lenore will never sit in
the chair as he does in the
poem).
 As much as the narrator
wants to forget his loss, he
can’t help but remember.

8.  The poem contains
internal rhyme:
 “Once upon a
midnight dreary
while I wandered
weak and weary”
 Poe establishes
immediately, an
atmosphere/tone of
darkness/melancholy/
suspense/fear/anxiety

9.  “The Raven” reflects the
darkness, anger and frustration
Poe felt while watching his wife
Virginia die for five years
 During that time, Poe struggled
to keep Virginia fed and
warm, and also to give her the
medicine she desperately
needed
 The guilt & anger he felt are
expressed in the darkness of
“The Raven”

11. In the story we read about how
the main character lives with
an old man in his house.
However, the old man has a red,
vulture’s eye.
For some reason this bothers the
main character so much that
he wants to get rid of it! Then he
starts spying on the old man
every night in the dark, but one
night the old man realizes he’s
there.
The old man I killed and buried in
his house.
Days later, the police went to the
house and the main character
confessed his crime.

12.  The conflict of the story
is that the old man’s eye
bothers the main
character so much that
he wants to get rid of it.
 In the end, he gets rid of
the eye by killing the old
man but the main
character can still hear
the old man’s
heartbeat.

13.  Murderer
 Old man
 Police officers

14. The Duality of Man
› Light vs. Dark, Good vs. Evil –
every man has to find a way to
balance these out in the hopes
that the light/good will be the
predominate side in his life.

15. In The Tell-Tale Heart some foreshadowing
is used. He also uses a simile and
repetition of important ideas of the story.

16.  The Tell-Tale Heart is a Horror short
story. Edgar Allen Poe published
mostly horror fiction stories.