Exploring Gothic LiteratureThe Pit and the Pendulum

Edgar Allen Poe

Get your paper read to create a Note Cloud:• Write the words Gothic Literature in large letters.• Add these words using smaller letters:

• Characters• Setting• Plot• Supernaturals• Famous works• The dark side of Romanticism

Write “Elements of Gothic Literature” on your paper.Take

notes as you

watch the videos.Write a

summary explaining all of the

elements of Gothic

Literature.

Gothic Fiction:• Horror and Romance• Sinister Settings

• Extreme landscapes, decaying castles, hazy forests

• Elements of supernatural• Stimulation of fear, horror, macabre (grisly, gruesome, morbid)• Villains, tyrants, maniacs• Madwoman, femme fatales, persecuted maidens• Byronic heroes

Your Task is to Create a Gothic Tale

Exposition

Exposition• The exposition is the part of the story that

sets the stage for the drama to follow.• It introduces the theme, setting,

characters, and circumstances at the beginning of the story.

• Consider these for a Gothic Tale:• a setting in a castle, ancestral family home,

vault or crypt• supernatural beings - monsters, vampires,

ghosts, werewolves, and such• a person, particularly a damsel (or 2, or 3!) in

distress• an atmosphere of suspense and/or terror• women threatened by tyrannical

male/patriarchal figures• an exotic locale, often in a country other than

that of the story's origin.

Conflict• The conflict is the struggle

between the characters in the story.

• In a Gothic Tale consider these:• a vendetta or vengeance

perpetrated against the protagonist and/or his/her family by the antagonist

• an unrequited love, or illicit love affair or romance

• an ancient prophecy foretelling the doom of the protagonist and/or his/her family

• Insanity explored

Rising Action• The rising action is a series

of events building toward the point of greatest interest.

• These events begin immediately after the exposition of the story and builds up to the climax.

• For your Gothic Tale, consider plot twists that the reader did not see coming.

Climax• The climax is the apex of

the story, where the ‘battle’ will take place. All of the drama and conflict has led to this point where it is determined if the leading character will succeed or fail.

Falling Action• The falling action occurs

right after the climax. • It is what happens after the

main problem of the story has been solved.

• Consider this, what are the direct effects of the climax?

• The falling action gives the reader satisfaction of the whole story; knowing what happened next.

Resolution• The resolution ties up

any loose ends that may be left in the story.

• Sometimes the rising action and the resolution mix together in a plot.

Let’s Take a Look at the Assignments! Your Task is to Create a Gothic Tale

Directions:

1. Create a 6-panel storyboard for your Gothic Tale with the following elements and clear visuals of important events. Your story will be more specific, so just include the most important events on your story board (see example in presentation). You may include speech bubbles and or explanation bubbles to support your drawings. (25 point Formative)

Exposition

Conflict

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

2. Type your Gothic Tale (100 point Summative):

1 inch margins, Double spaced, Times New Roman 12 font

350-500 words

Heading in the top left corner

• Your full name

• Instructor’s name

• Course name

• Date (for example, 06 January 2016)

3. Included elements of Gothic Literature (refer to your Note Cloud for details).

4. When you write your story include characters, setting, and situations that exudes a dark moody, dreary, gloomy, decaying, mysterious atmosphere.

5. Use vocabulary that the reader can visualize and “feel” the emotion and suspense.

6. Use the literary device called synesthesia:

• When one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another.

• We tasted the salty grin on the trickster's face.

• The sight of red ants makes you itchy.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song title, “Taste the Pain”