Irving-Harte

IT was late in the afternoon, and the light was waning. There was a difference in the look of the tree shadows out in the yard. Somewhere in the distance cows were lowing, and a little bell was tinkling; now and then a farm-wagon tilted by, and the dust flew; some blue-shirted laborers with shovels over their shoulders plodded past; little swarms of flies were dancing up and down before the peoples' faces in the soft air. There seemed to be a gentle stir arising over everything, for the mere sake of subsidences very premonition of rest and hush and night.

A New England Nun (1891) Mary Wilkins Freeman Summary: Louisa promises to marry Joe, but he left to make money. She has lived in solitude for the most of her life. Louisa overhears Lily and Joe talking and they love each other very much. Louisa released him from his promise and lives a lone. She also gets annoyed because Joe disrupts her daily life Theme: solitude, change, love, no victim or enemy

Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying. Her physical being was for the moment predominant. She was not thinking of his words, only drinking in the tones of his voice. She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him with the sensitive tips of her fingers upon the face or the lips. She wanted to draw close to him and whisper against his cheek--she did not care what--as she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman.

A Respectable Woman (1894) Kate Chopin Mrs. Baroda is upset that her husband invited his friend over for a week. Gouvernail is a college friend and a journalist and she likes him. She wants to leave and her husband tells her that he is staying another week. Gaston tells his wife that Gouvernail wants a break from city life and so his wife goes to the city. Mrs. Baroda wants to kiss Gouvernail, but is a respectable woman. When he leaves, he tells Gaston that she has overcome everything Theme: marriage, honor, temptation, loyalty

Autres temps

Autres Temps (1911) Edith Wharton Mrs. Lidcote is riding to New York and talks about how her daughter got a divorce and so did she. She feels shame and knows that society is judging her, but they don't seem to be judging her daughter. When she is going to go home, Franklin Ide confesses his love for her, but is still reluctant to be shown in public with her. Themes: marriage, society's standards/judgments, reputation

I looked at him steadfastly. His face was leanly composed; his gray eye dimly calm. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him. Had there been the least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his manner; in other words, had there been any thing ordinarily human about him, doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises. But as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors. I stood gazing at him awhile, as he went on with his own writing, and then reseated myself at my desk. This is very strange, thought I. What had one best do? But my business hurried me. I concluded to forget the matter for the present, reserving it for my future leisure. So calling Nippers from the other room, the paper was speedily examined.

Bartleby the Scrivener (1853) Herman Melville An old lawyer has a stable business with Turkey and Nippers doing good work. He hires Bartleby who does good work at first, but begins to be more lazy and rejectful. The lawyer doesn't do anything until the end, where Bartleby starts living in the office. The narrator makes him move out and Bartleby gets imprisoned and dies. Themes: order, weaknesses and strengths, business, responsibility and compassion, lawyer feels compels to take care of Bartleby. Failure to connect

The mean employment of the man was in contrast with something superior in his figure. His hand, black with continually thrusting it into the tar-pot held for him by a Negro, seemed not naturally allied to his face, a face which would have been a very fine one but for its haggardness. Whether this haggardness had aught to do with criminality could not be determined; since, as intense heat and cold, though unlike, produce like sensations, so innocence and guilt, when, through casual association with mental pain, stamping any visible impress, use one seal- a hacked one.

Benio Cereno (1855) Herman Melville Captain Delano sees a ship and the captain Benito Cereno is nervous and eccentric. The slaves on Cereno's ship have a lot of freedom and this confuses Delano. Delano thinks Cereno is plotting to take over his ship so he gives him supplies and prepares to leave, except Cereno jumps onto Delano's ship with Babo, his slave. It turns out that Cereno and his crew were hostages and Cereno wanted to escape. Themes: benign racist - doesn't think the slaves are smart or powerful, leadership (Delano tunnel vision)

Death in the woods

Death in the Woods (1933) Sherwood Anderson Summary: An old woman lived on a farm, named Grimes, and her husband once had a lot of money, but got involved with alcohol. He met Grimes through a German couple who sexually assaulted her. After they escaped, they had a son and a daughter. The men do nothing while Grimes does everything with no support. The old woman goes to town for some meat. She goes into the woods and dies. When she is found, she frozen and looks young. Themes: age, development,

He tried to speak to the little quadroon boy; but no sound would come, at first. When he heard his name uttered, he looked up, and his mistress was pointing to the door. He laid aside the great, soft fan, and obediently stole away, over the polished floor, on his bare tiptoes. She stayed motionless, with gaze riveted upon her child, and her face the picture of fright.

Desiree's Baby (1897) Kate Chopin Summary: Madame Valmonde finds Desiree as a baby and adopts her. She is recently married with a baby to Armand, a rich man. However, one day Desiree sees that her baby's skin color correlates with one of her slaves. She tells Armand and he accuses her of being colored. She says no and writes to her mom. Her mom tells her to come home and she leaves, but not to her mom's house (thinks she dies). Turns out Armand is the colored one. Themes: race, gender, economic class, pride, and mysterious background

Hands

Hands (1919) Sherwood Anderson Summary: An old man named Wing Biddlebaum lives isolated because he used to be a teacher that used physical touch a lot. Adolf Myers was his original name and he got accused of touching the boys which forced him to leave town. Themes: different, identity, Semitics, homosexuality? Misunderstood

I want to know why

I Want to Know Why (1919) Sherwood Anderson Summary: The narrator is obsessed with horses and racing. He is trained by Jerry Tilford who he puts on a high pedastal because he has a magical connection with horses. However, he follows him to a bar and Jerry brags to a girl about how he does all the work and not the horses. The narrator hates him and wants to kill him Themes: idolization, betrayal, obsession, family dysfunction

This neighborhood, at the time of which I am speaking, was one of those highly favored places which abound with chronicle and great men. The British and American line had run near it during the war; it had, therefore, been the scene of marauding and infested with refugees, cowboys, and all kinds of border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable each storyteller to dress up his tale with a little becoming fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make himself the hero of every exploit. There was the story of Doffue Martling, a large blue-bearded Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British frigate with an old iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his gun burst at the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentleman who shall be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be lightly mentioned, who, in the battle of White Plains, being an excellent master of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small sword, insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade, and glance off at the hilt; in proof of which he was ready at any time to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There were several more that had been equally great in the field, not one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable hand in bringing the war to a happy termination.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) Washington Irving (1783-1859) Summary: In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane, schoolmaster, wants to marry a woman named Katrina Van Tessel for her wealth. He competes with Brom Bones, a master in horsemanship. He goes to a party, but is disappointed in Katrina. He then gets chased by a dark horseman, but when he reaches the bridge, the horseman throws his head and Ichabod disappears. Everyone thinks it was Brom, but others believe it was the Headless Horseman. Themes: fantasy/Supernatural, Greed, Pettiness, Lack of History,

With a woman's intuitive tact and poetry, she had, as she spoke, slowly shifted her position so as to bring the mute figure of the ruined man between her and her audience, hiding in the shadow behind it, as if she offered it as a tacit apology for her actions. Silent and expressionless, it yet spoke for her; helpless, crushed, and smitten with the Divine thunderbolt, it still stretched an invisible arm around her.

Miggles (1869) Bret Harte Summary: In the midst of a storm, a group of travelers are stuck between two rained out sections of a road and a bridge. They discover that there is one place they could seek refuge, Miggles. With most unfamiliar with Miggles, they are brought to what appears an abandoned house. They repeatedly call out for Miggles in the midst of the storm but no one answers. There, they find a man all but lifeless sitting in a chair. Just as they thought this was Miggles, a woman enters who says she is Miggles. She explains that she had been outside for a while and saw them from afar heading towards her house and so raced to meet them. When they ask about the catatonic man in the house, she explains that it's her friend, Jim whom she has taken to care for. Over the course of the evening, they discover that Miggles used to work at a saloon (presumably as a prostitute) and Jim regularly spent money on her. When Jim went catatonic, she took him in and was able to buy the place they were now living in. They are thrown off by her beauty and ability that contrasts with her willingness to isolate herself away from society with Jim, but to her, it is the right thing to do. In the morning they move on, still in awe of Miggles. Themes: History, prostitution, change, caretaker

AFTER THE KINGS of Great Britain had assumed the right of appointing the colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with the ready and general approbation which had been paid to those of their predecessors, under the original charters. The people looked with most jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power, which did not emanate from themselves, and they usually rewarded the rulers with slender gratitude for the compliances, by which, in softening their instructions from beyond the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them. The annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six governors, in the space of about forty years from the surrender of the old charter, under James II, two were imprisoned by a popular insurrection; a third, as Hutchinson inclines to believe, was driven from the province by the whizzing of a musketball; a fourth, in the opinion of the same historian, was hastened to his grave by continual bickerings with the House of Representatives; and the remaining two, as well as their successors, till the Revolution, were favored with few and brief intervals of peaceful sway.

My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832) Nathaniel Hawthorne Summary: Robin arrives at a New England colony and is searching for his kinsman and asks several people, an old man, an inn, and a woman. Robin goes to chuch and talks to a man about Major Molineux. He then sees the Major on a horse, tarred and feathered. They all start laughing and Robin returns home. Themes: maturity, coming-of-age, authority and obedience, rejection of the reveloution, Major a symbol of unwanted authority,

Neighbor risicky

Neighborhood Rosicky (1932) Willa Cather Summary: Anton Rosicky is an old immigrant with a farm and family. He is a normal person but has exception love for others. He is concerned his oldest son Rudolph will go to the city with Polly, a girlfriend. To prevent this, he lets them use his car and does chores. He did not like London because he struggled with money. He goes to visit Doctor Ed because he has been hurting due to rigorous activities. He then pushes himself too hard and has chest pain He recovers, but then dies. The doctor toes to the graveyard and pays his respect. Themes: kindness, unfair, positive, setting

Paul case

Paul's Case (1905) Willa Cather Summary: Paul has been suspended and the teachers lash out at him. He is a little eccentric and possibly a homosexual. The teachers finds out that his mother died. He works at Carnegie Hall and after work he sits at home. Paul starts working ith an actor and spreads lies. The teacher's reported him and he left for New York. He then has a lot of fun and fools around with a guy from Yale. After a week, he is reported back in his hometown and he dies at a train station. Themes: exile from society, art, glamour, money, living

How often is it the case, that, when impossibilities have come to pass, and dreams have condensed their misty substance into tangible realities, we find ourselves calm, and even coldly self-possessed, amid circumstances which it would have been a delirium of joy or agony to anticipate! Fate delights to thwart us thus. Passion will choose his own time to rush upon the scene, and lingers sluggishly behind, when an appropriate adjustment of events would seem to summon his appearance. So was it now with Giovanni. Day after day, his pulses had throbbed with feverish blood, at the improbable idea of an interview with Beatrice, and of standing with her, face to face, in this very garden, basking in the oriental sunshine of her beauty, and snatching from her full gaze the mystery which he deemed the riddle of his own existence. But now there was a singular and untimely equanimity within his breast.

Rappaccini's Daughter (1844) Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Summary: A young man named Giovanni goes to Italy and sees a garden that belongs to Giacomo Rappaccini, an infamous doctor. Giovanni becomes attracted to his daughter Beatrice. Giovanni and his professor Baglioni have dinner and he tells Giovanni that Rappaccini is obsessed with poisons and he is a bad man. Beatrice has a power to kill anything bu touching it. Baglioni gives Giovanni a antidote that will cure Beatrice's poison, but ends up killing her. Giovanni becomes poisonous and blames Beatrice. Themes: Tragic love, over protection, pettiness, youth, innocence,

In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some outdoor work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood.

Rip Van Winkle (1819) Washington Irving (1783-1859) Summary: Rip Van Winkle, a helpful man, leaves his town because he is trying to avoid his nagging wife. He finds a Dutchman and falls asleep after drinking from a keg. He wakes up and realizes he is in the future. He lives with his daughter and remains idle. Themes: fantasy/supernatural, sloth/socially acceptable to be lazy. Anti-hero (doesn't participate in a defining American time period). Failure (can't support his family/farm, not the breadwinner. Escape from problems

Roman fever

Roman Fever (1934) Edith Wharton Summary: Two widows are talking, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, and Mrs. Slade asks if she ever loved his husband, who as very rich. Mrs. Ansley admits that she held onto a letter from Mr. Slade asking to meet him at the Colosseum. Mrs. Slade said she wrote the letter, and she thinks she won the battle, but they ended up meeting anyay. Mrs. Slade tries to gain the upper hand by saying that she had him longer, but Mrs. Ansley replied that she had a child with him. Theme: institution of marriage, setting, pettiness, negative view of women, men in control even dead

It's true that if there weren't other dates than this there were other memories; and by the time George Stransom was fifty-five such memories had greatly multiplied. There were other ghosts in his life than the ghost of Mary Antrim. He had perhaps not had more losses than most men, but he had counted his losses more; he hadn't seen death more closely, but had in a manner felt it more deeply. He had formed little by little the habit of numbering his Dead: it had come to him early in life that there was something one had to do for them. They were there in their simplified intensified essence, their conscious absence and expressive patience, as personally there as if they had only been stricken dumb. When all sense of them failed, all sound of them ceased, it was as if their purgatory were really still on earth: they asked so little that they got, poor things, even less, and died again, died every day, of the hard usage of life. They had no organised service, no reserved place, no honour, no shelter, no safety. Even ungenerous people provided for the living, but even those who were called most generous did nothing for the others. So on George Stransom's part had grown up with the years a resolve that he at least would do something, do it, that is, for his own—would perform the great charity without reproach. Every man had his own, and every man had, to meet this charity, the ample resources of the soul.

The Altar of the Dead (1895) Henry James Summary: Fifty-five-year-old George Stransom is obsessed with observing the anniversary of his fiancee Mary Antrim's death. He decides to provide a material sign of his remembrance in the form of a private altar in a church, which he endows on the condition that he be allowed to stipulate the number of candles to be lit there. Stransom notices that a lady somewhat younger than he has been as frequent a worshiper at his altar as he. One day he notices her at a concert and inquires if she recognizes him, which she does. They strike up a friendship subsequently, although Stransom, in his reserve, takes considerable time even to learn her name. She lives with an elderly aunt, who acts as an obstacle to their further intimacy until her death, after which the young lady invites Stransom to her lodgings. On this occasion, in showing Stransom her room, it is brought out that the young lady was the lover of Acton Hague, and it is to his memory that she has been devoted in her observances at Stransom's altar. More powerfully than the deceased had in life, the ghost of Acton Hague rises up between Stransom and the lady and separates them for an extended period. This gulf is fixed between them because of Stransom's hatred of Hague and the lady's refusal to abandon the memory of her lover. The pious couple are reunited finally when Stransom journeys to his altar to complete the array of lighted candles that lacks but one more for perfect symmetry. Drawn by some mysterious instinct, the young lady discovers Stransom at the altar, now committed to adding a final candle to the group. The young lady believes at first that the addition is to be the memorial to Acton Hague that she had demanded of him, but she discovers her error on realizing that the final candle is to light the memory of Stransom's own death

"Fun or not," said the Easterner, "Johnnie was cheating. I saw him. I know it. I saw him. And I refused to stand up and be a man. I let the Swede fight it out alone. And you- you were simply puffing around the place and wanting to fight. And then old Scully himself! We are all in it! This poor gambler isn't even a noun. He is kind of an adverb. Every sin is the result of a collaboration.

The Blue Hotel (1898) Stephen Crane Patrick Scully owns a hotel and invites guests to eat. The Swede acts weird and paranoid. They play a game of cards and the Swede continues to act paranoid. He accuses a man named Jonnie of cheating and a fight breaks out. He goes to a different bar to fight a gambler, who kills him. The easterner believes that they were all involved and they should all go to jail. Theme: violence, paranoia and personality, guilt

The man's face flamed in a rage begot of whisky. His eyes, rolling and yet keen for ambush, hunted the still doorways and windows. He walked with the creeping movement of the midnight cat. As it occurred to him, he roared menacing information. The long revolvers in his hands were as easy as straws; they were moved with an electric swiftness. The little fingers of each hand played sometimes in a musician's way. Plain from the low collar of the shirt, the cords of his neck straightened and sank, straightened and sank, as passion moved him. The only sounds were his terrible invitations. The calm adobes preserved their demeanor at the passing of this small thing in the middle of the street.

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (1898) Stephen Crane Summary: Jack Potter eloped a woman who is not pretty or young. People at an inn are talking until Scratchy Wilson, a violent bully starts shooting stuff. Jack Potter is the only person to stand up to Wilson. When Potter comes home Wilson is waiting for him, but Jack tells him that he's married and can't do this anymore.

He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural and far more palpable origin --to the severe and long-continued illness --indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution-of a tenderly beloved sister --his sole companion for long years --his last and only relative on earth.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) Edgar Allan Poe Summary: The narrator arrives at his friend' Roderick's house because he is sick. His sister Madeline is also sick and will die soon. The house is apparently haunted and there is a prophecy that only one Usher can live. Madeline dies but we don't find out how. Roderick starts to go mad and a bloody Madeline walks in the room who kills the house by crashing into Roderick. Theme: fantasy/superficial, fate, family, illness, Gothic atmosphere, madness, guilt

The event was soon to be decided. All this time, the roll of the drum had been approaching through Cornhill, louder and deeper, till, with reverberations from house to house, and the regular tramp of martial footsteps, it burst into the street. A double rank of soldiers made their appearance, occupying the whole breadth of the passage, with shouldered matchlocks, and matches burning, so as to present a row of fires in the dusk. Their steady march was like the progress of a machine, that would roll irresistibly over every thing in its way. Next, moving slowly, with a confused clatter of hoofs on the pavement, rode a party of mounted gentlemen, the central figure being Sir Edmund Andros, elderly, but erect and soldier-like. Those around him were his favorite councillors, and the bitterest foes of New-England.

The Gray Champion (1837) Nathaniel Hawthorne Summary: James II sent Andros to New England to suppress colonial liberties. He threatened to execute any opposition. In the streets, they see a "gray champion" that told the governors that the cry of the opposition sent him. They soon retreat and people wonder who the gray man is Themes: superficial, freedom, oppression, authority, gray=compromise and equality. Puritains/religion

singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats. In a ten-foot dingey one can get an idea of the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience, which is never at sea in a dingey. As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wavewas the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water. There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests.

The Open Boat (1897) Stephen Crane Summary: Four men are stranded in the middle of the sea. The captain is injured and they begin to run low on energy. They decide to swim and a person comes to help them. Every lives, the correspondent, captain, and cook, but the oiler dies. Themes: irony (oiler is the strongest fit, but dies) man vs. nature, optimism, symbolism

The editor was as good as his word. He straight-way betook himself to his case, and, unrolling the manuscript, began his task. The woodpeckers on the roof recommenced theirs, and in a few moments the former sylvan seclusion was restored. There was no sound in the barren, barn-like room but the birds above, and below the click of the composing-rule as the editor marshalled the types into lines in his stick, and arrayed them in solid column on the galley. Whatever might have been his opinion of the copy before him, there was no indication of it in his face, which wore the stolid indifference of his craft. Perhaps this was unfortunate, for as the day wore on and the level rays of the sun began to pierce the adjacent thicket, they sought out and discovered an anxious ambushed figure drawn up beside the editor's window,--a figure that had sat there motionless for hours. Within, the editor worked on as steadily and impassively as Fate. And without, the born poet of Sierra Flat sat and watched him as waiting its decree

The Poet of Sierra Flat (1871) Bret Harte Summary: Editor of a newspaper sees a roll of manuscript that is awful. He is a visited by a rich man named Mr. Morgan McCorkle who brings a young man who claims is a borned poet. He is very shy and Mr. McCortkie ends up buying an advertisement slot so that he can publish his work. The narrator then discovers that Milton goes to a place where a female dresses up as a man for men. The female attacks a man named Boston who attempts to attack Milton for being girly. It is then shown that Milton is actually a girl Themes: gender identity, masculinity and femininity, homosexuality

Neither of the pair spoke immediately--they only prolonged the preliminary gaze which suggested that each wished to give the other a chance. They were visibly shy; they stood there letting me take them in--which, as I afterwards perceived, was the most practical thing they could have done. In this way their embarrassment served their cause. I had seen people painfully reluctant to mention that they desired anything so gross as to be represented on canvas; but the scruples of my new friends appeared almost insurmountable. Yet the gentleman might have said "I should like a portrait of my wife," and the lady might have said "I should like a portrait of my husband." Perhaps they were not husband and wife--this naturally would make the matter more delicate. Perhaps they wished to be done together--in which case they ought to have brought a third person to break the news.

The Real Thing (1892) Henry James Summary: An artist hires two model/actors and experiments by using English aristocracy who are poor after misfortune events. However, they are not good models because they are not versatile. His friend Jack Hawley criticizes the monarch saying that the narrator's art has been damaged. Themes: reversal of roles, identity, and bad experiences

"I know you be, as well as I want to. Now, father, look here" — Sarah Penn had not sat down; she stood before her husband in the humble fashion of a Scripture woman — "I'm goin' to talk real plain to you; I never have sence I married you, but I'm goin' to now. I ain't never complained, an' I ain't goin' to complain now, but I'm goin' to talk plain. You see this room here, father; you look at it well. You see there ain't no carpet on the floor, an' you see the paper is all dirty, an' droppin' off the walls. We ain't had no new paper on it for ten year, an' then I put it on myself, an' it didn't cost but ninepence a roll. You see this room, father; it's all the one I've had to work in an' eat in an' sit in sence we was married. There ain't another woman in the whole town whose husband ain't got half the means you have but what's got better. It's all the room Nanny's got to have her company in; an' there ain't one of her mates but what's got better, an' their fathers not so able as hers is. It's all the room she'll have to be married in. What would you have thought, father, if we had had our weddin' in a room no better than this? I was married in my mother's parlor, with a carpet on the floor, an' stuffed furniture, an' a mahogany card-table. An' this is all the room my daughter will have to be married in. Look here, father!"

The Revolt of Mother (1890) Mary Wilkins Freeman Summary: An elderly man wants to build a barn for his animals, but his wife is mad because he promised to fix the house. She explodes on him, telling him that she hasn't said anything until now, but he says, "I ain't got nothing to say" She decides to move into the barn and when he comes back the old man cries because he feels guilt and shame. themes: gender roles, domesticity, rebellion, defying tradition

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

The Story of an Hour (1894) Kate Chopin Summary: Mrs. Mallard's husband dies and she goes to her room. She now has powerful emotions and is almost happy that her husband is dead because she can do what she wants now. She is free but when she goes downstairs she sees her husband, Brently. Because she has a heart condition, she dies of a heart attack. Themes: Independence, domesticity, gender roles

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) Edgar Allan Poe Summary: A crazy man with intense hearing kills an old man that he works for because of a blue eye. He cuts up his body and hides it under the floorboards. When the policemen come, he goes a little man and admits his crime. Theme: Guilt, madness, Gothic atmosphere

The last form of "The Northern Star" for the 19th of July, 1865,--the only daily paper published in Klamath County,--had just gone to press; and at three, A.M., I was putting aside my proofs and manuscripts, preparatory to going home, when I discovered a letter lying under some sheets of paper, which I must have overlooked. The envelope was considerably soiled: it had no post-mark; but I had no difficulty in recognizing the hand of my friend Hop Sing. I opened it hurriedly, and read as follows:--

Wan Lee, the Pagan (1876) Bret Harte Summary: the narrator goes to a circus and then something happens and a pagan child is killed because he is pagan. Themes: no idea, if you get this story you're f'ed

In the interval of silence, he stole forward, until the light glared full upon his eyes. At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an altar or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage, that had overgrown the summit of the rock, was all on fire, blazing high into the night, and fitfully illuminating the whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze. As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once.

Young Goodman Brown (1835) Nathaniel Hawthorne Summary: Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith to go and meet a man who seems to be the devil. He has a serpent staff and tells Goodman brown that his family has been coming to meet him too. He sees other pure and religious people walking to the devil's ceremony. Brown wants to leave but he hears Faith and he grabs the staff. He returns to his home, but lives the rest of his life in fear and paranoia. Themes: purity of religion, hypocrisy of Puritanism, Lack of Faith, Paranoia, Internalized Sin, evil