Poe's Short Stories Lesson Plan

Describe the Maelström. What emotions does this description conjure?

The Maelström is a whirlpool, a very dangerous area of water. “if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beat to pieces against the rocks; and when the water relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up again” (68). The whirlpool has destroyed many ships. It drags them to the bottom and then the rocks spark destruction. “When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it. Boats, yachts, and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within...