Lesson 5 The Black Cat

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Welcome!

Literature with a Creepy Twist - 5

Road Map

 Literature: Short stories with a Creepy Twist

• Edwin Brock: Five Ways to Kill a Man
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Black Cat

Five ways to kill a man

1. Nail them to a cross

2. Have them fight in a war with knights on horses and such

3. Use gas, mud and trenches

4. Drop a bomb on them

5. Just let them live in the middle of the 20th century. The circumstances in this era are bad enough to kill anyone. 

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His life in short

• born in 1809, Boston
• parents died before he was 3 years old
• raised by the Allan family in Richmond (Virginia)
• educated in Great Britain between 1815-1820
• University of Virginia (1825) but had to quit after one year

Edgar Allan Poe bio

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edgar-allan-poe

His life in short

• short stint in the military but dishonourably discharged
• worked as a writer, editior, and literary critic   
• In 1836, at 27,  he married his 13-year old cousin Virginia
• In 1845 the poem 'The Raven' was published. This gained him recognition and success as an author
• 1847 saw the death of his wife of TB
• In 1849 Poe himself dies under mysterious circumstances

Literary aspects

Short story:

'a relatively short work of prose fiction, approx. 500 to 10,000 words, that, according to Edgar Allan Poe, can be read in a single sitting of two hours or less'. 

The short story works to create a single effect. 

(The Norton Introduction to Literature, 2013)

Literary aspects

Structure

1. Introduction 

2. Rising action - often there is some kind of conflict

3. Climax 

4. Falling action - attempts are made to work things out

5. Denouement  

The Black Cat

1. Highlight words you do not know
2. Pay attention to the person of the narrator:

• can you trust him? why? why not?
• how does your image of him change throughout the story?
• see if you can trace the story's structure

Literary aspects - structure

1. Introduction : narrator's initial situation

2. Rising action : narrator's drink problem and its effects

3. Climax : Fire!

4. Falling action: another cat with consequences

5. Denouement: all's well than ends well .... NOT!

Elaborate study guide

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/black-cat-poe

Looking ahead

3 June: Test Passive (2nd hour, 1st hour you can study)

9 June:

In class we will finish the story and you can start on the  questions to The Black Cat

10 June:

Literature, practice WL-skills / 9 + 10: WL-test