ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Edgar Allan Poe: The Twilight Connection 3321 Views


Share It!


Description:

Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Edgar Allen Poe: The Twilight Connection, a la Shmoop.

00:10

Edgar Allan Poe liked killing people.

00:12

Not literally, of course, because then he would've ended up in an orange prison jumpsuit

00:16

for the rest of his life, and orange was not his color.

00:19

No, Poe liked to kill off the characters in his stories.

00:24

Or have them go nuts. That worked, too. Poe is one of the best-known authors of the

00:29

Gothic genre.

00:31

Besides all the death and crazy in his stories, you can also count on creeptastic settings…

00:36

…like houses that crumble for no apparent reason...

00:39

...and lots of supernatural occurrences.

00:42

Death pops in every once in a while to say “hola”…

00:44

…as do reanimated corpses and random thumping noises from under the floor.

00:51

While reading Poe, you should feel terrified...

00:53

…but don't bother worrying about any of the characters because, chances are, they're

00:59

toast. Gothic literature has been around for better

01:01

than two centuries.

01:03

Besides Poe's works, a couple of stand-outs in the genre are Frankenstein and Dracula...

01:08

and if you haven't read those yet, no worries.

01:11

That's what college lit is for.

01:13

Today's authors still rely on the spooky and the supernatural for inspiration, which may

01:18

leave you wondering: Is Twilight a Gothic novel?

01:21

Ah, Twilight: a book that many love, and many love to hate.

01:27

Stephanie Meyer did include some Gothic elements in Twilight, including the story's unsettling

01:32

setting of Forks, Washington...

01:34

...and some vampires. Those vampires may sparkle but, by golly, they're still supernatural

01:39

creatures. Where Twilight falls down as a Gothic novel

01:43

is on the thematic front. There's no madness or death in Twilight...

01:48

...well, okay, Edward's dead, he's a vampire.

01:52

However, he is the living dead, which means he'll stay topside, watching football and

01:56

paying his mortgage and staring moodily into the sunset, for eternity.

02:01

Once Bella gets her fangs, she'll be right there with him, forever.

02:06

That's what Twilight's about: eternal life. And eternal life isn't generally considered

02:11

scary or panic-inducing...

02:13

...although we'd be frightened by the prospect of spending centuries with Bella, but maybe

02:17

that's just us. Poe's stories should leave you cowering under

02:21

your sheets at night, wishing you'd never even heard of

02:24

The Tell-Tale Heart.

02:27

Finishing Twilight either makes you want to take a trip to the bookstore as soon as possible

02:31

so you can buy New Moon...

02:32

...or convinces you that there is no hope left for humanity.

02:37

And that, friends, is the difference between Grade A Gothic literature and… sorta-Gothic

02:45

literature.

Up Next

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
123036 Views

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...

Related Videos

The Giver Summary
105891 Views

Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...

Invisible Man (Ellison)
1818 Views

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1255 Views

Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...

Quotes: A fool's paradise
293 Views

Find out the meaning behind "a fool's paradise."