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Copywork
About This Passage
Poe advances a genuine theory of fear inside a single suspended sentence: the worst horror of an apparition springs not from belief but from 'anticipative horror, lest the apparition might possibly be real.' Copying it teaches the long periodic structure, the qualifying interruptions ('even in the cases most in point'), and how an author can reason like a scientist about terror.
It is not too much to say that such remnants of doubt have been at the bottom of almost every such visitation, and that the appalling horror which has sometimes been brought about, is to be attributed...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: the silent creep to the cabin, Peters's leading the men toward superstition, the narrator's descent as the dead Rogers, the fight won with Tiger's sudden aid, and the gale that reduces the brig to a hulk. Then name the moment you find most decisive and defend your choice.
Discussion Questions
- When the figure of Rogers descends among them, the mate alone drops dead while the rest freeze or rouse to fight. Explain what this spectrum of reactions reveals about the men, and what most sharply distinguishes the mate from the others. Use details from the chapter.
- At the very moment the false Rogers appears, Poe suspends the action to theorize about why apparitions terrify us. Explain what this analytical pause accomplishes at the climax, and why Poe might reason about the deception rather than only dramatize it. Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Marked by dread or expectation of what is to come.
Item 2
A visit, especially a supernatural or ghostly appearance.
Item 3
The state of being impossible to reach or enter.
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Critical Thinking
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