Poe's Short Stories

How is the Gold Bug used in the story in Gold Bug?

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The gold bug is used as a false lead at the beginning of the story in the epigraph, which states, "What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad! He hath been bitten by the Tarantula," and is attributed to "All in the Wrong." The quote refers to old stories of people who were bitten by spiders and danced what become known as the tarantella folk dance to cure themselves of the poison. Without the attribution, the quote would refer to Legrand's illness and strange behavior that supposedly results from his bite by the beetle, but the fact that the epigraph comes from a source named "All in the Wrong" hints at the eventual insignificance of the bug's bite. The only bite that has really affected Legrand is the suggestion of a vast treasure to restore his fortunes.

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