3 Shorts by Edgar Allen Poe
Gotta love those gothic tales.
The Tell-Tale Heart
I love the old man, but his staring eye gives me the creeps. I'll just have to chop him up. And bury the bits under his bed. BUT HIS HEART KEPT BEATING I HEAR IT, I TELL YOU.
Gothic checklist:
Obsessed main character who thinks he's perfectly normal - check. He's not even crazy, he just has super hearing and sometimes hears things other people don't.
Innocent person who has no idea that horror is about to unfold - check. Poor old man.
Ruined building - nope. Perfectly normal setting, but the effect of the moon and wind out the old man's window is delightfully creepy.
The Oval Portrait
A man becomes sick while hiking through the mountains. He finds refuge in a decaying castle. His valet (you know you can never go hiking w/out your valet, right?)sets him up in the smallest bedroom, complete with decaying tapestries, adorned with lovely pictures.
The most beautiful picture has a strange story behind it.
Gothic Checklist:
Ruined building - check. Delightfully creepy place for a sick man to recuperate. Ruined tapestries are just icing on the cake.
Obsessed character who thinks he's perfectly normal - check. How did the long-dead painter not notice that his wife was dying as he painted her?
Innocent person who has no idea that horror is about to unfold - check. But lo and behold! The beautiful wife has been immortalized! She just had to die first.
Ligeia
In a ruined German city, a man lives with his wonderful wife Ligiea. Really, she's wonderful. Three pages of detail on her eyes, her nose, her mouth her skin, her hair, her wisdom, her walk - and another few pages for her to die, all the while fighting, never surrendering her will to Death.
Our Hero wanders to an English abbey - also ruined - and sets up an opium addicted life. He marries a woman who is described in one sentence. Several paragraphs explain how their bedroom has tomb-elements, besides being in a ruined abbey.
Surprise - the 2nd wife dies. And as Our Hero sits up with the body in an opium daze... Ligiea's ghost takes over the body and stands up. Totally not an opium dream! Maybe.
Gothic Checklist:
Ruined building - check. Just in case a ruined city isn't enough, Our Hero has to move into an abandoned abbey.
Obsessed character who thinks he's perfectly normal - check. Our Hero doesn't know Legiea's family name, we don't know his name at all, but of course being in love with your wife is normal, right? RIGHT?
Innocent person who has no idea that horror is about to unfold - check. How the heck Wife #2's family could let her marry an opium addict in a crumbling building is a little nuts, especially with five sarcophagi in the bedroom. Crazy much?