The signal man

The signal man is a ghost story by Charles Dickens.

He was with a visitor and he was having nightmares about ghosts.

The signal man runs the railroads and he controls the movements of passing trains.

When there is danger his signalman alert him with telegraphs and alarms.

The accidents are a collision between two trains on a tunnel, the other one is a young women that jumps out of the train and dies, and the 3rd one is the death of the signalman.

The raven

Edgar Allen Poe

Raven is a bird of prophecy

End rhymes is similar or identical sounds at the end of lines.

Internal rymes are rymes within a line

Rhyme scheme is the basic pattern of the end rhymes.

The Masque of the Red Death

Allegory- a word with 2 layers of meaning. Most of the persons, objects, and events stand for abstract ideas or qualities

There was a plague that killed half of the people that lived in town. The prince invited 1,000 friends and people to live with him because he has plenty of food and they are free from the Red death. There are many different rooms in his abbey. They are all huge with different colors and they all have stained glass windows.

The devil and Tom Walker

Tom Walker and his wife lived near Boston, Mass. Him and his wife were in a horrible marriage where they fought a lot and they didn't spend time with each other. Tom's wife was a women fierce of temper, loud of tounge, and stung of arm. They live with each other in the country near a forrest. Tom heard an old story about a pirate that buried a big treasure in the forrest under the tree. One day Tom discovered the forest. Tom discovered a skull and when he picked up there was a black man that told him to put it down. The man offered the treasure to Tom but Tom declined and he decided to go home and tell his wife about it. His wife was not very happy that Tom didn't bring the treasure home so she decided to go into the forrest herself. She went into the forrest and after a couple days she didnt come back. Tom decided to look for her and when he went back into the forest he saw that her apron was in a tree, with her organs in it. The black man again offered him the treasure and Tom lost all his money. Tom got ripped off for nothing and he was too poor to feed his horses so they died and his house got burned down. He now has to guard the treasure and take the place of what the black man was doing for the rest of his life.

Gothic literature is characterized by:
Grosteque Characters
Bizzare situations
Violent events

It originated in the 19th century
Poe, Hawthorne, and King

Romanticisim: limitations of reason
Celebrate individual spirit, emotions, imagination are the basic elements of human nature
Fascinated by the super natural

Washington Irving
Romantic preoccupation with atmosphere, sentiment, and optimism.

Transcendentalism:
transcendant forms of truth exist beyond reason and experience.
Every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth on his or her own through intotion.

The Dark side of individualism
Gothic architecture- Towers, gargoyles
High stain glass windows to inspire awe and fear
Imaginate destortion of reality

Threshold of the unknown- fantastic, demonic and the insane reside

Romantics see hope
Gothics see evil

Edgar Allen Poe:
Dark midevil castle, decaying ancient estates, weird and terrifying events
Male is insane
Girl is dead or dying, beautiful
Extreme situations, live burials, mental torture

Only when you put to the extreme can you see the dark side.

Hawthorne- fear, greed, vanity, mistrust, betrayl