Reading Assignment Topics

Edgar Allan Poe II + Nathaniel Hawthorne

Instructions: Write a page (minimum) in response to each of the following topics. Be as

detailed and as thoughtful as you can. This is not a research exercise. The aim is to encourage
close reading and specific thinking about the texts as part of your preparation before coming to
class. You must be clear and coherent, but thought, attention to detail, and willingness to play with
reasonable possibilities of meaning will all count more than either “expression” or “correctness.”
Handwritten responses are acceptable. Late responses will not be counted

1. What happens in “Ligeia”? That is, what do you understand to have actually occurred, as
opposed—perhaps—to what the narrator says occurred?

2. In so far as the narrator tries to define Ligeia as an ideal of beauty, what are the essential terms
of that definition?

Bonus: (Not required)

3. In the opening chapter and then in the first scaffold scene, how specifically does Hawthorne
represent or characterize the Puritans? (Go beyond “somber,” “religious,” and “oppressive,” or at
least consider what he suggests are the causes or significance of these qualities)

Due: Monday, November 2