American Literature 19th Century Fiction

D​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​evelop a 400-word composition discussing one of the topics listed for this period. Compose and format your work in MS Word, then copy and paste it under the topic you have chosen; after pasting, confirm that your formatting has been maintained. 1 A Possible Obsession (Use this as your title.) Read Poe’s “Ligeia” alongside two of his poems— “Annabel Lee” and “To Helen”—and then consider his marriage to his beautiful thirteen-year old cousin. Can you make a case that Poe had a particular kind of obsession? 2 Fictional Diversions (Use this as your title.) Consider “Ligeia” or “The Black Cat” as a particularly effective diversionary fiction. 3 Narrator Confessions (Use this as your title.) Is “The Tell-tale Heart” written from a jail cell? Does the narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado” get caught after concealing a crime for half a century because of his confession​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​? Given the unrealistic events in these stories, is it feasible to argue that the narrators of these stories never committed these crimes; in short, are they fictional crimes? 4 Sin Among the Puritans (Use this as your title.) Hawthorne explores the Puritan obsession with sin in The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables, and many of his tales. Discuss the symbolism of sin in “Young Goodman Brown.” 5 Early Science Fiction (Use this as your title.) ` Hawthorne uses science fiction to explore a particular idea of sin—that certain things are possible by God’s hands alone and over-reachers will bring down some kind of dire punishment. Apply this to “The Birth-mark” or “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” 6 Fiction from the Other Side (Use this as your title.) Narratives written from the other side of death are necessarily fictional. Using two Dickinson poems, demonstrate tha​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​t it is impossible to know what she herself believed.