26 pages • 52 minutes read
Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber.”
The atmosphere of silence and wisps of smoke sets the tone for much of the story. Smoke in particular will come to symbolize Intertwined Truth and Lies, as its shifting and hazy nature suggests the elusiveness of the former.
“‘If it is any point requiring reflection,’ observed Dupin, as he forebore to enkindle the wick, ‘we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark.’”
This quotation not only sets the stage for darkness’s symbolism throughout the text but also gives insight into Dupin’s methods of reasoning and investigation. Essentially, what seems the most obvious or logical solution is rarely so, just as Dupin’s remark upends the conventional association of light with knowledge.
“‘That is another of your odd notions,’ said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing ‘odd’ that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of ‘oddities.’”
This is the very first quotation from the prefect, and it foreshadows the precise reason why he is unable to solve the crime. He dismisses as irrelevant anything beyond his comprehension (which, according to the narrator, is rather limited) and therefore does not grasp the relationship between Perception and Reality.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe