Similarities Between The Night Circus And The Cask Of Amontillado

Different Paths to the End

Death is a fact for every living thing known to man. The genre gothic romanticism literature is heavily dependent on the literary devices symbolism and foreshadowing to show death to a reader. This is demonstrated in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and the short stories, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Our ultimate fate is inevitable and paralleled as time goes on. The Night Circus and “The Masque of the Red Death” both use symbolism to lead the reader to the inevitable fate of the main characters. Morgenstern used the rooms Marco and Celia created of reach each other as a symbol of love, “I suppose in a way, I made the wishing tree for you,” (Morgenstern 259). However Marco and Celia’s actions contradicted their ideal

The inevitable fate experienced by the main characters. Marco and Celia’s fate was unique in terms of gothic literature because it diden’t have a direct connection with death, even though it was something that sparked fear in the characters, such as Hector who spent his whole life trying to avoid it. Instead it led to being ‘trapped’ which was long before Poppet’s prediction, “Is it not bad to be trapped somewhere then? Depending on where you’re trapped?” To which Widget replied, “I suppose it depends on who you’re trapped with and how much you like whoever you’re stuck with,” (Morgerstern 229). This also symbolizes the circus deterriorating because of the connection of being trapped and how is seems never-ending. Similarly, the symbol Emily has in the town, “Miss Emily has been a tradition, a duty, and a care” (Faulkner 1). This makes her a symbol of dying tradition and fate while foreshadowing the towns obligation to her that ultimately led the to town to Homer’s