Thursday, October 29, 2009

Single Man by Charles Dickens

Spector- Ghost
It's about a single man on the railroad who gets a sign from a spector when soeons is about to die. The last time he gets hit is by a train He keeps seeing a lady falls from the train.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

-Propecy-What's goin to happen
-Raven is a prophecy. It has been associated with mystery, evil, omens and death.
*End rhyme-smiliar or identical sounds at the end of lines Ex:last word rhyming
*Internal Rhyme- rhymes within a line Ex: words within, tapping, napping
*Rhyme scheme- basic pattern of the end rhymes Ex: abc last words and if they rhme
*Stansa- a group of words: like a paragraph

-One December he is just about to fall asleep when he hears a knock on the door.
-It was the ghost of Maiden Lenore
-Keeps repeating over and over because he is scared
-He tells the person to be sorry for he was napping. But when he opens the door no one is there.
-He is scared because no one is there and all he whispers in Lenore over and over!
-He shuts the door, but then there comes another knock. he believes it is only the wind
-He opens the shutter and it is a Raven
-He is asking the Raven why he is coming if he is bringing the death.
-All the Raven says "Nevermore".
-The man pulls a chair up to the window and looks up at the bird. he wonders why this.
-The man asks God to give him relief from his memories of Lenore. he drinks in hopes of these thoughts leaving him.
-All the Raven says is "Nevermore"
-The man accuses the Raven of being a prophet, of the devil and evil. Either sent by the Devil or someone else, he asks if he will ever be relieved.
-Raven "Nevermore"
-He tells the Raven to leave
-Raven "Nevermore"
The Raven is a deamon, the lamp casts the Raven's shadow on the floor as the Raven takes the man's soul and kills the man.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Masque of the Red Death Short story by Edgar Allan Poe

*The most scary part is the suspense
*When you know there is something behind the door and you see it, you are relieved, but scared at the same time
*Also being scary is the unknown and the music. Mute a movie and you won't think it is that scary.
*You anticipate what's coming
*The thing that scares people is the leading up to the scary action, not the actual "scary" thing itself
*Allegory- work with two layers of meaning. Persons, objects, and events stand for abstract ideas or qualities
*Prince
-Possible meaning: even a prince dies eventually
-Possible lesson: no matter how high you sit, it won't save you
*The Abbey
-Possible meaning: sort of a safe place
-Possible lesson: walls can't protect you from everything
*Series of 7 rooms
-Possible meaning: all rooms had life, but the last one. Black
-Possible lesson: many seasons of life
*Clock
-Possible meaning: life is a ticking clock
-Possible lesson: all our days are numbered
*Stranger
-Possible meaning: he brings death
-Possible lesson: no one can escape death; no matter what you do

-Talks about the disease
-Prince Prospero is happy and wise
-Castellated abbey-building to resembel a monstary
-He built it making everything new. He brought ballet-dancers, musicians. All safe from "Red death"
-He had a party for his a thousand friends
Improvisating- poets who recite verses that they make up as they go along
-Rooms all different in color; Seven rooms
1. blue
2. purple
3. green
4. orange
5. while
6. violet
7. black velvet (window panes color red)
-No light in any room
-Huge clock in the black room. When it rang out everyone stop and was silent
-The party would be happy and alive then when the clock rang everybody would be sad and just look around and laugh nervously.
-The duke didn't like the fine things. People thought he was mad
-Masquerades had bizarre appearances
-No one was to go in Room 7
-At midnight everyone stops and is quiet and still. When everyone is standing still someone walks in
-Prince is in the blue room when he orders the man to take off his mask
-Figure was tall and had clothing from the grave. Look as he was sprinkled blood. Like the "Red Death"
-The Prince goes up to him and the figure stabs him with a dagger.
-The skull masked man was Red Death. He killed everyone who was at the party. The clock stopped working also.
*LESSON
- No one can cheat death. No matter what you do. Death comes in any way. It doesn't matter how it comes in. You will die so before you die you need to live life.

The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving

-Set in Boston, Mass
-A tree had lots of money being buried by a pirate. Some people say that the devil hid the money. But Kidd never return to the sport because he was hanged for being a pirate.
-Tom and his wife were so miserable together that they would cheat each other.
-Their house was pitiful; Iron bars, trees look like a haunted house.
-Fought a lot too
-Tom took a shortcut home through the swamp when he stopped at a old Indian village. When he was sitting he found an old tomahawk.
-This guy comes from behind and is angry with him. He's Indian, but he is covered in soot to make him look black.
The black guy goes by various names. Wild huntsman, black miner etc.
-Talks to Quakers and Anabaptists
-They had a long talk and they soon become friends. Black guy told him about the money.
-He comes home and finds out Absalom Crowninshield is dead.
-Tom and the guy make a deal about the money. He isn't suppose to tell anyone about it.
-Tom goes home and decides to tell his wife about the money. She wants him to do it, but since she wants him to do it he won't because he doesn't want to make her happy.
-The wife decides to talk to the guy. She goes, but comes back empty handed. She goes back again with everything she owned and never returned.
-He comes home and doesn't think anything of it. But after while of her not being there, he gets scared.
-Many stores came up. She got stuck in the swamp, eloped with a guy and moved. Others said a tall black man came out of the swamp with an ax and a bag full of stuff.
-One of the stories said that Tom went to go look for her, when he was about to give up when he looked up and saw her apron and a vulture. When he got to the tree the vulture flew away, but Tom got the apron only to find a heart and a liver.
-tom thought the black man hepled him because of his wife dying. He wanted to pay him back.
-They get together and talk but the money. The black man wants to give it to the slave ship, but he refuses.
-Black man tells him he has to open a broker's shop in Boston.
-He opens his shop and everyone goes to him thus making him rich and taking everyone's money.
-He started to become a bragger and going to church and becoming a LOUD Christian.
-As he got older he became more crazy. One incident is when he cemented his horse to the ground because it was believed that the earth was going to turn over and when it did he would be able to ride away.
-One day when he was old and finishing a deal there was a knock on the door. The black man was there. He tries to get away, but he didn't have any of his bibles with him. the black man whisks him away and the people never saw him again.
-The black man was like the devil. The deal was that he could have the money, but when he has to sell his soul to the devil. And that's what the black man came to get him for. His time was up.