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

Gothic Literature

Gothic Literature is a genre of literature that combines horror and romance.

Romanticism is a complex artistic literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe. 

Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy. 

Edgar Allen Poe- The Raven, The Fall of the house of Usher, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabeque 

Nathaniel Hawthorn-The Scarlet Letter, Moses from an old Manse

Frankenstein was an example of gothic literature

The crucible

The story the crucible all begins when Tibuta, Abigail, Betty, and a bunch of other local girls are found dancing in the forrest late at night. Some of them were getting naked and Abigail drank chicken blood. Betty becomes ill right away and most people think that it is because of witchcraft. All of the girls then have to arrive in court because back then religion meant a lot and if you went against your religion, and commited witchcraft, it could lead to hanging or getting crushed with stones. When Abigail is questioned about it she says that Tibuta made her do it and she blames it on her. Reverend Hale then questions Tibuta about it by whipping her and Tibuta says that the devil made promises to her and she says that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn were both with the devil. Eventually John Proctors wife is also convicted of witchcraft because abigail is doing everything that she can to go against her because she really likes John proctor and will do anything to get with him. Elizabeth is arrested for saying that she does not think that the devil can take any womens soul. Eventually at the end a lot of people who were convicted were hung, because they did not admit to it. Back then it was weird because if you were convicted of witchcraft and did not say that the devil made you do it, you were going to be hung. But if you admitted to it and said that the devil made you do it, you were going to be fine. But your reputation was going to be ruined. In the end John Proctor was hung because he would not admit to doing witchcraft. Sarah Good and Osborn were also hung, along with many others.