I'm doing a paper on the mood that the setting in the begining of a gothic text creates. I need a SHORT story by Poe in which he describes the setting of the story, particularly on in a dark and dismal place. I am already using The Raven as a source and I need something of that sort. If you know of any SHORT story in which he describes the setting of a spooky place, please write back.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

Answers

"THe Oval Portrait" online at www.eapoe.org. This is all about a traveler reacting to the history of the place and the artifact portrait and is very instructive about what you may be looking for. Also the setting is the classic German style Gothic landscape and architecture. Compares to "My Last Dutchess" by Robert Browning or "The Portrait of Dorian gray" for similar themes about haunting paintings. Other stories actually are rather sensually reduced, claustrophobic and dark in regards to the location. There is always a vague disconnect, a strangeness and difficulty in dealing with the reality regarding the narrator/protagonist and his struggle with perception.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002