Gothic Qualities in the Works of Poe - Free Essay Example

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, known for writing gothic literature. Though his writing at the modern time may not be as horrifying, we can assume his writing back in the day was quite terrifying. Going over some of his most popular tales known as The Raven, The Cask Of Amontillado, and The Tell Tale Heart, will all cover signs of gothic literature. The Raven, probably landing at the most popular piece from Edgar Allan Poe is a tale of a man that had lost his love, and now a raven has came to haunt him. The raven seemed to only know one word, Nevermore, in which already sets a gothic mood. In The Raven the man cannot stand the bird only saying that one word, in fact the world scared him, making him think that the girl hed love to see once more, he would see her Nevermore. Yet The Raven wasnt the only piece of literature with a creepy mood such as that, there was another story, The Cask Of Amontillado. A story of a man by the name of Montresor, insulted by a man named Fortunato, making Montresor on a hunt for revenge. Montresor in this story wanted to kill his pal Fortunato for the insult, and that he did with great planning. Giving the man Fortunato loads of wine as they went, possibly thought he was gonna kill him that way too. Montresor was smart with his scheme, leading him deep into the depths of the vaults, leading him to a wine known as Amontillado. With the huge barrel of wine in Fortunatos sight, yet Fortunato could not move, Montresor had chained him to a wall, so he could slowly die of suffocation as Montresor built a wall around him. The grim coughs of Fortunato when suffocating in the wall, considerably the most gothic piece of the story. Yet one more tale can be explained, The Tell Tale Heart. This story is about a man who hated the eye of an old man, making him furious, and gave him psychopathic thoughts of killing him. In the very beginning we are told by the man that he thinks he is not crazy, that he is a calm and collected person that had good reasoning to kill. The man spends eight nights, stalking the old man in his sleep, planning on how to kill him eventually. Then is when he struck, on the eighth night he put a light over the old mans eye, and suffocated him under a mattress. Adding a greater scale of gothic literature, the man cut up the limbs of the old man, and made sure all the blood had been cleaned off of the floor. The cops had came over, but the man had hid the body so well they started to believe he did nothing wrong. The mans heart was filled with anxiety and nervous tension, he could no longer stand the worrisome feeling of his heart beating loud. He revealed the dead body under the boards, and gave in to his worry. These three pieces of gothic literature written by Edgar Allan Poe that have inspired many generations of people to write horror, and even more gothic tales.

4 Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing

Have you committed one of these four errors in your teaching? Overcorrecting, holding back help, unclear assignments, and over-expectation can frustrate your students and hamper your best efforts. How can you overcome these deadly errors? We’ve all suffered it at one time or another—frustration about writing assignments. Either on the receiving end  or perhaps now on the giving end, there can be a few distinctly discouraging aspects to teaching and being taught writing. The tough questions include: What to correct and how to give a grade? How much help is too much? Isn’t the assignment clear enough? Why don’t students find their own errors? Because we are so much a product of our environment, our style of instruction often becomes a reflection of how we were taught, and consequently the â€Å"sins† of our teachers can easily be passed on to our own students if we are not diligent in evaluating and honing our teaching skills.    Andrew  Pudewa  is the founder, principal speaker, and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Presenting throughout North America, he addresses—with clarity, insight, practical experience, and welcome humor—issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music. His seminars for parents, students, and teachers have helped transform many a reluctant writer and have equipped educators with powerful tools to dramatically improve students' skills.