Exploring Edgar Allan Poe's Dark Literary Elements

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Recommended: Edgar Allan Poe style and significant techniques

Edgar Allan Poe could be considered as the creator or the horror genre in literally with his chilling and twisted stories. Every story Poe wrote always has a deeper meaning than what is presented on the surface. Getting past the surface of the story Poe normally leaves similar meanings that he wants the audience to be presented in his stories. Poe’s main form of presenting this to his audience is through dark symbolism, imagery, and theme. All three of these elements are embedded in the layers of The Masque of the Red Death and The Cask of Amontillado. The Masque of the Red Death published in 1842 could be compared to the Black Plague. The Story starts out in a fictional town with a rapid spreading disease that killed many people. The main …show more content…

It is set during a carnival when a very unreliable narrator Montresor explains how he seeks to get revenge upon his enemy Fortunato, yet he never tells the audience what Fortunato has done to him. Montresor simply says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge (165). The reason why Montresor is so important as a narrator is because it leaves it up to the audience to decide if Montresor had a reason to kill Fortunato or not. This story was much darker than The Masque of the Red Death, because it told a story of a murder, but the narrator Montresor try’s to convince the readers that he is the good guy. Poe focuses more on theme and characters in this story, Fortunato meaning “fortunate one” is a very ironic name because throughout the story Fortunato expects nothing he simply thinks he is going to try a special type of wine. The catacombs were Montresor plans to kill Fortunato splits the two worlds, above there is live and drinking and fun but below there is something much darker about to take place. Edgar Allan Poe leaves a nice imagine in the readers mind of Fortunato being all chained and blocked into a room screaming “ For the love of God

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