 These Gothic conventions had been a staple of popular fiction in Europe and the United States for several decades by the time Poe utilized them.Considering the subtitle, "A Tale in Imitation of the German", critics and scholars disagree if Poe may have, in fact, intended the story as a satire or burlesque of the genre, purposely exaggerating the elements of the Gothic to be humorous.Other evidence is that all of the other three stories Poe published in 1832 ("The Duc de l'Omelette", "A Tale of Jerusalem", and "Bon-Bon") are comic tales written, as Poe said, ""intended" for half banter, half satire".