Wednesday, January 10 "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

Coming up: vocabulary quiz "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" on Wednesday, January 18 (class handout / copy below)

UNDERSTANDING Poe’s horror stories— “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The TellTale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” for example—are keystones in the Gothic tradition. Poe is known for internalizing the Gothic, moving terror from the external world of ghosts and vampires to the psychological world of the deranged murderer. As Poe himself says, “my terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.” Focusing on close textual analysis of a single story considered to be one of Poe’s best, we will explore how the story conveys terror to readers with intricate language play: puns, ironies, foreshadowing, and double entendre. We’ll also locate the story in broader cultural contexts: Gothic tradition, the temperance movement, and obsessions with premature burial.

FRAMING QUESTIONS  “The Cask of Amontillado” is a revenge tale, in which revenge is exacted according to specific requirements. What are those requirements, and how are they fulfilled?  How does the narrator’s attentiveness to language help him achieve his revenge? What is the role of puns, ironies, foreshadowing, and double entendre in the story?  What is Poe’s theory of the “unity of effect,” and how does it work in “The Cask of Amontillado”?  What is the “Gothic”? What is Poe’s place in the Gothic tradition?  How does the story engage with broader cultural preoccupations like temperance? Is there any way it engages distinctly American concerns?
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Vocabulary for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving

 quiz on Wednesday, January 18 (last grade of this quarter)

1.    To gambol- (verb) to play boisterously

2.    To imbibe (verb)- to take in (usually liquids)

3.    listless (adjective)- lacking energy or vivacity

4.    onerous (adjective)- wearing down, not easily borne

5.    propensity (noun)- a natural inclination

6.    resplendent (adjective)- having great beauty

7.    bevy (noun)- a flock of birds

8.    pertinacious (adjective)- extremely stubborn

9.    sumptuous (adjective)-rich and superior in quality

10.tractable (adjective)- easily managed