Learning Experience :Dr. Jay Mehta sir on E. A.Poe's short stories

we had guest lecture in our English Department MKBU. From 18th to 22september we have Dr. Jay Mehta Sir’s lecture on Edger Allen Poe’s short stories.

First sir gave us pre-thinking activities. This activity related with short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. 
in which we have given answers to the five common but deep questions. Here given the blog link of that task:-

http://zankhanamatholiya.blogspot.com/2018/09/pre-thinking-activity-reflecting-life.html

  Poe is a famous for his horror, terror, fear, bloodshed, burying lie, macabre and various psychological abnormalities. Poe is master of ‘Tales of  mystery and imagination’. 

• Two types of short story he writes :

• 1.Tales of horror and terror. 
• 2.Tales of ratiocination. 

Element of Fear is in center of all the stories. Psychological analysis with Freud’s theories like over consciousness, OCD- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PS- Paranoid Schizophrenia, sadism and machoism, Neurosis, Psychosis, Freudian slip means…’It’s never slip of tongue  it’s slip of mind, and many other things like weakness and grey area of human mind .

Characteristics of Poe's Short stories:

• -Writer of Diction language
• -Autobiographical elements in his writing
• - Great creator of suspense in writing
• - Inner conflict in characterization
• - Balance in head and heart
• - He brings the poetic in short stories
• - Death and darkness of human mind is major theme 
• - Tone of melancholy and sadness
• - Singularity of effect
• - A skillful artist 

He had taught us six stories with critical point of view.

1. The Tell- Tale heart
2. The Black Cat
3. The Fall of the House of Usher
4. The Cask of Amontillado
5. The Purloined Letter

6. The Gold Bug

1- The Tell Tale Heart.

• Story open with the conversation of the narrator and an unknown person who is not identified at all.
• The listener may be a police, a doctor, a lawyer, a judge or any other person.
• The story is not focusing on the innocence of the murderer but on the sanity of the murder.
• The story is about a systematic actions and precision - rational explanation for irrational behavior.
• The story's final scene, is a result of the narrator's feelings of guilt.
• Like many characters in the Gothic tradition, his nerves dictate his true nature.
• Former poet laureate Richard Wilbur has suggested that the tale is an allegorical representation of Poe's poem "To Science". The poem shows the struggle between imagination and science.
• In The Tell-Tale Heart, the old man represents the scientific rational mind while the narrator is the imaginative.

Meaning of the title:

• Tell-tale: clearly showing something: clearly showing or indicating something that is secret or hidden.
• Here the heart reveals the true fact of murder…
• Symbolically speaking, the self-conscience cannot bear the crime and hence indicates the secret or hidden facts of murder.

2. The Black Cat

Setting:- The story is written from the narrator's jail cell, highlighting the theme of "Freedom and Confinement." The narrator writes from a space of confinement, and detailing the events that led him to prison is one of the few freedoms he has left.

Plot:-Internal conflict : The narrator vs Alcoholism External conflict: The narrator vs Cat (his own conscience)

Theme:-

• Violence 

• Drugs and Alcohol 

• Freedom and Confinement 

• Justice and Judgement

3. The Fall of the House of Usher

  

•  The most famous short story of Edgar Allan Poe.

•  It is the masterpiece of American Gothic Fiction.

• Gothic Fiction: Dark, strange and melodramatic stories which lead to something evil  , Gothic fiction  Horror.

• First person .
  

• A nameless narrator.

• He describes the events as he saw them.

• characters 

• The narrator:- A friend of the master of the House of Usher. He witnesses terrifying events.

• Roderick Usher:- The master of the house, he suffers from a depressing malaise.

• Madeline Usher:- Twin sister of Roderick. She also suffers from a strange illness.

 Themes  

• Mortality 

• Madness 

• Fear 

• Incest 

• Friendship 

• Burial 

• The Arts

4. The Cask of Amontillado

• This story  It is about a well planned murderer Montresor who has killed Fortunato

           to take revenge of his insult.

• The name 'Fortunato' symbolically represent fortune, but here he is the unluckiest one who

            was stoned by his friend Montresor.

Theme

• The major theme of ''The Cask of Amontillado'' is revenge.

5. The Purloined Letter

• Edgar Allen Poe as father of Detective story. 
• Purloined Letter as a Detective story.

Detective & Detective stories Detective :- 

• A person, especially a police officer , Whose occupation is to investigate & solve the crime. 
• Detective story, type of popular literature in which crime is introduced and investigate.
• A Detective must be Memorable. 
• A crime must be significant. 
• A criminal must be worthy opponent. 
• All suspects must available. 
• All clues must be available. 
• Solution must be logical.

Plot:-

• The Title of the story suggest that it is about Letter. 
• Letter belong to an unnamed female. 
• Letter contents are being used by Minister -D to blackmail the women. 
• Prefect is still searching for the Letter. 
• He offers Dupin 50,000 Fances for Letter. 
• Dupin produced Letter.
• Dupin explains that Minister-D knew that police detective would have assumed that the Blackmailer would have concealed the letter in elaborate hiding place. 
• Letter was hide in plain sight. 
• This story quality of Detective.

6. The Gold Bug

What is “cryptogram”?

“Cryptogram” is a coded message which is used for the directions of the hidden treasure. In this story this cryptogram is used;

53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡)4‡;806*;48‡8¶60))85;1-(;:*8†83(88)5*†

;46(;88*96*?;8)*‡(;485);5*†2:*‡(;4956*2(5*- 4)8¶8*;40692

85);)6†8)4;1(‡9;48081;8:8‡1;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48;

(88;4(‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188;‡?;

Means….

" 'A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.' "

• Though Poe did not invent "secret writing" or cryptography he popularized it during his time.
• Poe's character Legrand explains his ability to solve the cipher in a similar manner as Poe does in "Some Words on Secret Writing".
• Poe's depiction of the African servant Jupiter is often considered stereotypical and racist from a modern perspective.
• Jupiter is depicted as superstitious and so lacking in intelligence that he cannot tell his left from his right.

After the Poe and his selected Short stories, our last lecture on Poets and poem at the last day. 

By

And Last Session on Poems and Poets of Gujarati/Hindi  Literature.

Normally He starts his session with reciting poetic lines and writing a quote on board. "કવિતા - શબદો સાથેનું સગપણ"
He recite  tow poem which poem He write.
 He recite a many lines of Gujarati, Hindi and English poems. He introduce many poet in front of us for reading poems like…Ramesh Parekh, Anil Chavda, Khalil Dhantejvi, Suresh Joshi, Saumay Joshi, Dushyant Kumar,Miskkn, Irshad, Galib, Gulzar, Harivanshray Bachhan, Rahet Indori, Amrut Ghayal, Esha Dadawala, Gani Dahiwala  and many others. 


At the last I wants to share my poem which I wrote on sir 's lectures

સંદેશો પહોચ્યો અમારા સુધી આપના આવવાનો,
ત્યાં  તો ધડકનોની ગતી વધી ગઈ,

આ Department માં અમારી જાણે...
પાનખર પણ વસંત બની ગઈ,

તમારા Lecture ને વ્યકત કરવા નથી શબ્દો...
મૌનની ભાષા આજ ગઝલ બની ગઈ,

રાહ ભટકેલ આ પવાસી ને હવે ....
મુકામ પર પહોંચવા ડગર મળી ગઈ.

Thank you....