The stories entice the reader with the brilliant use of first-person narration, creating the theme of psychological terror. ... It is apparent that his life story contributes to his gothic infatuation for the death of a beautiful woman, and the psychological thriller, the themes in most of his work. ... Poe often used mental or physical weaknesses, the death of a beautiful woman and psychological terror as themes in his work. ... Poe uses psychological terror as the main theme in both. ... "Days passed-it might have been that many days passed-ere it swept so closely over me as to fan me w...

• Word Count: 2349
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

In contrast, Mark Strand chooses to ration the amount of information that he gives the reader, but instead allows the reader to establish his own conclusion regarding the various details in the story. In his opening lines, Strand apparently gives the culmination of details for the reader to understand the setting of the story, "A man has been standing, in front of my house, for days." ... The theme of both stories is obviously the concept of one seeing and coming into contact with their own personage. ... An attempt to explain the characters feelings that he has known this personage before is ...

• Word Count: 1660
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Poe took his reputation for writing Gothic stories a step further with the theme of living inhumation. He involves this theme in many stories, including "The Premature Burial"." ... Long --long --long --many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it --yet I dared not --oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! ... Each one of his stories is presented as if it could occur in real life. ... Poe's use of gothic realism has a greater effect because it places the reader in that situation, giving them a stronger fear. ...

• Word Count: 1545
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The story reaches its climax when the boy begins to go insane, and the story comes to an end. ... Poe writes using elements that contribute to a central theme of a story which are repeated throughout (May 1647). Guilt is a major theme in "The Tell-Tale Heart." ... Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me" (Poe 58). ... As way to give life to the old man's groan, the killer says, "[p]resently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. ...

• Word Count: 1485
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

When I was praised fro my conduct I felt a guilt that in some way I was doing something that was really against the wishes of the white folks, that if they had understood they would have desired me to act just the opposite, that I should have been sulky and mean, and that that really would have been what they wanted . . . everyone praised me and I was invited to give the speech at a gathering of the town's leading white citizens." ... Because each author uses vocabulary differently in his story, the tone of each story is strikingly different. ... In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" ...

• Word Count: 1443
• Approx Pages: 6

It is then stated that the sun gives back to nature her own gift, a hundredfold of her desire. ... The last paragraph states that "the rose changes give us our joy in seeing. ... Now that you are here, let me touch you like the forehead of the beggar that touches the ground. It's not surprising that you came to find me because you care for the ones in pain like me. ... In the first stanza he refers to the Urn as a Sylvan historian that tells a story more sweetly than a poem. ...

• Word Count: 1751
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School