Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's gothic home, image from wikipediaManiacal Mansions!
Aberrant Abbeys!
This is the stuff of gothic fiction, a genre that blends romantic fiction and horror fiction to create narratives that are psychologically gripping, emotionally complex, and downright scary.
This website, created by college students, discusses the main attributes of Gothic fiction, including the primary emphasis on setting as an expression of the emotional and psychological reality of the characters, who are living in a fallen, chaotic world.
What's particularly interesting in Poe's story is the use of stereotypical Eastern imagery, from opium dens to Arabesque patterns, to sarcophagi. How is Poe using this imagery in juxtaposition to the Germanic Romanticism?
We must also consider our narrator--how reliable is he? After all, he is strung out on opium for most of the story...
What, finally, is Poe's message about love?
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