The Significance of Names in Selected Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2012 , 26 Pages , Grade: 1,0

English Language and Literature Studies - Literature

Looking at the representation of Edgar Allan Poe in the works of literary scholars reveals an ambivalent positioning. While some celebrate him as one of the most ingenious writers in America, if not in the world, others reject him for the fact that they consider him racist, sexist, elitist and anti-democratic. However, both sides are – in one way or the other – fascinated by Poe and his works, who has thus become one of the most discussed American authors.
This paper will examine a specific part of Poe's manifold bibliography, namely a selection of short stories, and work out how names are used to establish, convey or support a certain attitude or underlying meaning. Yet the objects of investigation are not necessarily solely names of the characters, since Poe has also assigned certain names to, for instance, buildings (in The Fall of the House of Usher) or beverages (in The Cask of Amontillado), which are not less important to the respective stories than the characters' names and are therefore to be taken into consideration as well.
In order to assume a certain theoretical background, this paper will start with a brief description of the general way in which Edgar Allan Poe wrote (and intended to write) literary texts in order to help to estimate which relevance should be assigned to specific details (names). A second theoretical section deals with the overall function of names in literature. What follows is the analytic part of this paper, namely the analysis of the significance of certain names in four of Poe's short stories. The analysis will start with The Fall of the House of Usher as both one of the most famous and one of the most controversially discussed of Poe's tales and deal with the way how names support the story's interpretation. The next section will deal with The Cask of Amontillado, adding special emphasis on the reliability of the narrator, based on the way in which the story is told and names are used. Thirdly, the center of attention will be Poe's The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether and, accordingly, political references which are conveyed by the use of names. Finally, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is analyzed as an example of a story which was written after real events. Here, it is especially rather the question for the reasons of the renaming than the question for the origin of the respective name (which in this case is not only obvious, but also explained in the story itself.
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Table of contents

1 Introduction

2 Poe's general approach to the writing of a literary text

3 The role of names in literary texts

4 Names and character traits in The Fall of the House of Usher
4.1 Roderick and Madeline Usher
4.2 The House of Usher

5 Names and social status in The Cask ofAmontillado
5.1 Montresor
5.2 Fortunato
5.3 Amontillado, Medoc, and De Grâve

6 Political references of characters' names in The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
6.1 Doctor Tarr andProfessorFether
6.2 Monsieur Maillard

7 The realization of references to real persons in The Mystery of Marie Rogêt

8 Conclusion

• College: University of Wuppertal (Fachbereich Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften)
• Course: Short Stories of the American Renaissance
• Grade: 1,0
• Author: Bastian Immanuel Wefes (Author)
• Publication Year: 2012
• Pages: 26
• Catalog Number: V201476
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656273974
• ISBN (Book): 9783656277187
• Language: English
• Tags: Short Stories, Poe, Edgar Allan Poe, American Renaissance, Romanticism, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, Onomastics