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Violence In The Black Cat And Sharp Objects

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In the “The Fall of The House of Usher”, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn are all uses of gothic literature that establish an eerie atmosphere. All three works encompass many elements from blood and violence to psychological issues. These authors use gothic literature to strengthen their works and to set a certain tone to fit their writing styles. “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is a story about a deranged man who has many psychological issues. He is notorious for inflicting pain on animals and it is comforting to him when he does. The narrator eventually goes too far and ends up killing his cat named Pluto. Poe ironically names the cat Pluto because the word “Pluto” is being referred to the Roman version of Hades. This allusion is ironic because Pluto is the God …show more content…

The narrator of this story is requested to visit his old childhood friend through a letter that he receives. Once he approaches the house he is a little stunned by the appearance of the house. “With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” (Poe 3) Once he gets inside the house he hardly recognizes his friend who seems to have an illness. “The writer spoke of acute body illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him” (Poe 4). Poe starts off the story with a mysterious feeling and it works well to keep the reader reading. Inside the house a bunch of strange things start occurring. One thing for sure is that the narrator’s friend has serious psychological issues. “But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence.” (Poe 24) This can be argued that ghosts are present in the house but it seems to be part of his mental

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Next, is the setting as much of it is somewhat unclear. First the time period in which the story takes place is not stated but by the text we can assume it 's around the 1800’s. For instance,”...I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head.”(Poe 90). Since he used a lantern it was at least before 1899 when the first flashlight was made. Where it takes is also not stated, but the story takes place inside a house and where the story is being told from is not clear.

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The setting of the narrative gives a very dark and scary feeling, from the description of chamber until the slow movement of the curtains because of the rushing air. Poe 's narrative have always had an important characteristic that 's making readers to feel the way the characters feel. In this narrative it makes the reader infer into believing that something was going to happen in his dorm, and that it would be something dark and

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When the character goes out to open the door, Poe is able to deepen the feeling of gloom and melancholy and describes the outside as

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586 Words | 3 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of The House of Usher is a haunting story about a man that get invited to a mysterious mansion and his experience staying in this ancient, gloomy place. Poe uses imagery and other literary devices to entrance readers in the mind of the narrator and undergo the same feelings as him. As our narrator approaches the mansion, Poe sets the scene for a very gothic and somber setting.

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770 Words | 4 Pages

The Narrator arrives at the “melancholy” House of Usher, and immediately feels a sense of sorrow. He describes the house as having, “Bleak walls -- upon the vacant eye-like windows -- upon a few rank sedges-- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to after-dream of the reveller upon opium”(Poe 1).What is meant by this quote is that the depression felt upon first glance at the house is one that can only be compared to the depression felt after coming down from a euphoric drug-like high. Regarding the physical landscape of the The literature that Edgar Allan Poe has produced has been some of the most interesting literature in American history.

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In the short stories, “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, he uses homogenous gothic elements that are also contained in the book Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. The elements portrayed in these works include the main character suffering from mental illness, as well as coping with previous deaths, and alcoholism. In Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn Camille, the main character, an introverted and mentally unstable journalist that has just been released from a rehab facility; to deal with her self -harming issues. “[She is] a cutter.

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1159 Words | 5 Pages

On the other hand, the narrator is anxious, suspicious, and even claims he lacks a valid justification for killing the old man and has no clue how the thought came to him. This suggests that Poe was writing about a partially insane character. Poe undoubtedly incorporates elements of his own mental attitude, such as the utilisation of supernatural powers and death-related ideas, into his works. It's conceivable that Poe used the mystical elements to help him escape reality. By having a profound insight of the human mind and the extraordinary capacity to write from the viewpoint of an insane man, Poe's life might be seen to be represented in this narrative.

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1. Poe 's chosen diction in the first paragraph gave me the impression of an unstoppable force that causes horrendous deaths; fates that are bloody and painful. For example, “Blood was its Avatar and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood.” gives me the vibe that this force is extremely menacing and should not be taken lightly. 2. Poe relied heavily on imagery to describe Prospero 's hall to give a better sense of the forgery of happiness and the true darkness in the story.

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1669 Words | 7 Pages

“ The Fall of the House of Usher “ by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about a man named Roderick Usher who initiates some events such as evoking his friend The Narrator as a protagonist to the dreadful mansion. The images such as the house and gothic ambience are used to reinforce the idea of giving the mystery to the reader. Edgar Allan Poe uses gothic elements to show how they affect the atmosphere and the characters. In the beginning , the gothic atmosphere of the house is indicated with terrifying images such as “ dull, dark and soundless ” that the feeling of horror vaccinated into reader by the thoughts of the narrator.

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The only life found outside is the fungus growing across the House, feeding on the decay and rot of the plants and structure. This family that is rich and powerful has allowed their home, the symbol of their stability and dominance to fall into such disarray. The masonry hasn’t started yet to fall, but the cracks are beginning to show. “In disclosing the abyss in metaphor and loosing forms of metaphorical substitution and screening, Poe’s phantasmagoria move towards a phantasmagoreality refusing the stability and separation of hallucination and reality, mind and fiction” (Botting, 2010, p. 14). The sight of the House in such misery causes the narrator to turn and look at the tarn next to the House, so the picture can be more serene, but to his horror the inverted image is even more ghastly.

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Gothic stories are able to give readers insidious images to a readers mind through its vast setting. A Gothic story setting is often grim with descriptions of grand medieval structures, such as castles and cathedrals, along with powerful illustrations of supernatural events. Two authors that were influenced by Gothic elements are Edgar Allan Poe, and Joyce Carol Oates. Poe has written an assortment of gloomy ominous stories, one of these stories is “The Fall of The House of Usher.” Here we follow a narrator who is invited over to a ghastly, crumbling mansion to comfort his old companion, who is slowly losing his sanity, with the separation between him and his twin sister.

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387 Words | 2 Pages

1. The house of Usher had “Insufferable gloom, ... Bleak walls, … eye-like windows” (Poe 702). This house was not welcoming and the one telling the story shows up at this house after he received a letter from his friend saying that he was sick, “nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness of a pitiable mental idiosyncrasy”

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1598 Words | 7 Pages

If one were to read over, and decipher, most of Poe’s work they would think he is a man beyond one’s self repair, and would be unfortunately precise on the matter. His childhood, leading all the way through his adulthood, is where he formed the craving for sinister narration found in his written productions. Within a few years of his birth, both of Poe’s parents had succumb to their binded fates and had passed away. Being taken in by a wealthy tobacco owner, John Allen, Poe had distanced himself from the architecture of business, instead redoubling his connection with the art of literature and the commonwealth of poetic script. After excelling, but subsequently retiring, in his educational field at the University of Virginia,

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1058 Words | 5 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe 's stories all have some type of mysterious setting that makes a reader read in between the lines and decipher the meaning behind his characters. Poe 's stories also incorporate a great deal of violence and sinister acts, which adds a grimness to each story he tells. “The Black Cat” is a true work of literature that incorporates a hidden meaning behind each of the characters and contains a great deal of violence. In this particular story, the narrator’s use of the first-person point of view, symbolism through the characters, and the eerie setting creates a fascinating tale. Edgar Allan Poe 's story is told from the first-person point of view.

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882 Words | 4 Pages

To begin, the narrator cannot be trusted through his vague personality. The narrator claims, “And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night” (Poe 626). The narrator mentions this the morning after the seventh night of stalking. In the wee hours of the morning, the narrator ever so cautiously enters the old man’s bedroom.

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