The Life of Poe
What was the last name of the couple who adopted Poe?
Allan
Where does the narrator hide the body?
Under the floorboards.
What are the names of the two characters in the story?
Fortunato and Montresor
What is the name of the first cat?
Pluto
What point of view are the three Poe stories written in?
First Person
Who/what is thought to have killed Poe?
Many Theories: If group names one. Credit earned.
*His death remains a mystery to this day
What time of the day do the police arrive?
4:00 am
What does Fortunato's outfit symbolize?
His foolishness and inability to see that he is being led into a trap/death.
What image appears on the second black cat?
The gallows/noose
What factors can make a narrator unreliable? Explain and provide an example from one of the three stories.
A narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the story exactly as it happened. This could be due to the character's mental capacity, mental stability, memory, drug and alcohol use, being the villain of the story, etc. All three Poe stories have an unreliable narrator.
In which city is Poe buried?
Baltimore, MD
What is the main point that the narrator is trying to make in his confession?
That he is not insane.
In what ways is Fortunato's name an example of irony?
His name is ironic as you would expect him to be an extremely fortunate person, but he is in fact very unfortunate as he dies.
How does the narrator change over the course of the story?
He changes from a pleasant loving man to a murderous, alcoholic sociopath.
Explain an example of foreshadowing from any of the three stories.
TTH - The title, the old man's beating heart is mentioned halfway through the story
Cask - Talk about masons, pulling out the trowel, I shall not die of a cough
The Black Cat - the narrator hanging the cat, the cat on the wall, the gallows on cat's chest,
As a literary critic, what nickname did Poe receive for his harsh criticisms?
The Tomahawk Man
What is a theme from the story? EXPLAIN.
Be careful who you trust
Guilt can consume us
Past actions will always catch up to you
(Other answers will be accepted depending on explanation)
What is an example of verbal irony in the story?
Refers to himself as a mason
Montresor says Fortunato's "health is precious"
Montresor affirms Fortunato won't die of a cough
Montresor toast to Fortunato's long life.
Montresor says Fortunato looks nice as he is dressed as a clown.
What is perverseness? (The narrator feels is a part of all humans and in our nature)
The desire to do wrong, break rules or laws, or doing something that one knows will be bad for themselves or others.
Name four commonalities present in each of the three stories.
Unreliable narrator, murder, hidden body, themes (specific), tone/mood (specific), an obsession (the eye, wine, animals), etc.
Aside from the horror genre, what other genre did Poe have a profound impact on? (He was said to be the father of this genre).
Mystery/detective fiction
What does the old man's blind eye symbolize?
The narrator's blindness to his own insanity AND/OR the old man's blindness to the danger he is in, in his own home.
Create your own example of situational irony.
Points for good example.
What do the narrator's house, the fire, and the damp cellar symbolize?
The narrator's mental state and how it deteriorates throughout the story. Fire symbolizes his sin and his mentality being destroyed by that sin. Going into the cellar is his final descent into evil/madness.
Name and explain the three types of irony discussed in class.
Verbal Irony - say one thing and mean something else
Dramatic Irony - reader's know something the characters do not
Situational Irony - expect one thing to happen, and the opposite occurs