tfothou 4 a

Today we read the sixth paragraph. Here's what we understood :

The narrator goes into the castle, is lead by a valet to the studio of his master, and he meets a physician on his way.

What about the themes ?

First, we noticed the narrator says the objects around him are familiar to him. Does he already know that place ? He uses fancy words like phantasmagoric.

He also describes the house as having "many dark and intricate passages." This place feels like it's a labyrinth, a maze, a Daedalus where we can get lost. But considering the house is personified through a catechresis, that's it's evil and sick, that it also stands for the family (like a double), then maybe we could say that the family itself has "many dark and intricate passages," that's it's a labyrinth too.

Like the narrator, we are entering a new place (the short story), and we must navigate its "dark and intricate passages" (Poe's complex writing).

Likewise, there are two reproductions of engravings from Italian artist Piranesi, who was highly influential on Poe and other Romantics. One of these engravings it entitled The Gothic Arch. Thomas de Quincey (who wrote Confessions of an English Opium-Eater) told of his trip to Rome with English poet Samuel Coleridge, and of their fascination for the intricate, impossible imaginary prisons of Piranesi, and their dystopian and kafkaesque nature.

"studio" is in italics

 HOMEWORK:

"The room in which..." p.93

"..."inappropriate splendour." P.98

1. read this passage

2. Dyonisian? Apollonyan ? 

3. Plot.

4. find and write a cool sentence.




After that, we considered E. A. Poe's influence today. We watched Vincent from Tim Burton. Here are our observations :

GOTHIC TROPES

  • a bleak, dark atmosphere
  • mental illness, loneliness
  • a young beautiful wife dying an untimely death
  • visions and nightmares
  • intrusive thoughts (the perverse)
  • evil double
  • being possessed by a house

The poem rhymes, and is narrated by horror movie actor Vincent Price. The Raven is quoted in the end.

In Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton tried to tranpose a Gothic hero into the everyday world of today. Here are some relevant points:

GOTHIC WORLD                            NORMAL WORLD

Monochrome                                                            Colourful

Lost age, old science                                               Modernity

Lonely                                                                        Lively

Disorder and chaos                                                Order and symmetry

Darkness                                                                        Light

Artistic                                                                        Superficial  



 

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