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Edgar Allan Poe’s work is a part of the American Gothic Romantic tradition. Romanticism, a style of art and literature that flourished from the late 1700s well into the 1800s, was originally a European movement focused on glorifying nature, emotion, and imagination. Gothic Romanticism, which grew out of this tradition, focuses on the macabre and on the more troubling aspects of emotion and imagination. It is characterized by eerie, isolated settings, foreboding atmospheres, and morbid and sensational plots. For this reason, Gothic Romanticism is also sometimes referred to as “Dark” Romanticism. These dark elements can be clearly seen in “The Oval Portrait.” The abandoned chateau with its strange architecture and tattered decor is an isolated and unsettling environment, and the morbid story the narrator reads while he is there is touched by a hint of the supernatural. Poe even nods to one of the founders of Gothic Romanticism, English novelist Ann Radcliffe, early in “The Oval Portrait” when he has the narrator mention that the chateau resembles a setting in one of her works.
The story is part of a group of Poe’s works that Poe himself referred to as “arabesques.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Philosophy of Composition
The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe