When the choice came to read three of the psychological thrillers by Edgar Allen Poe, I decided to read “Ligeia”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, and “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”. In the short story “Ligeia”, the narrator was having trouble dealing with the death of his first wife. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, the prince was focusing on keeping himself alive from the plague, and not worrying about his other subjects. “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” had a tone of psychotic killing, having the top workers for a mental institution get overthrown and killed. The three stories had different means of dealing with death, and each of them showed different ways people can react to it. In the short story “Ligeia”, the narrator was having trouble dealing with the death of his first wife. The story started out as the narrator trying to remember memories from her lifetime, but he had too much trouble remembering anything except for how she looked. When the narrator remarried, he became sad and depressed, and he hated his new wife. After marrying, he decides to lock his wife up in a chamber. He resorts to smoking opium to help deal with the death of his first …show more content…
In a stroke of pure stupidity, this prince decides to throw a large masquerade with all of his friends and family. At that time, the Red Death was huge and still extremely dangerous, but he thought that bringing a large group of people together would not spread such a contagious disease. As the party is happening, a mysterious figure, dressed like the Red Death would dress, shows up to the party. Outraged, the prince starts chasing down the Red Death. Since he is so fearful of the disease, he tries with all of his might to kick the Red Death from the party. In the end, the same disease that had killed many of his subjects kills the
Authors use various styles to tell their stories in order to appeal to the masses exceptionally well and pass the message across. These messages can be communicated through short stories, novels, poems, songs and other forms of literature. Through The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven, it is incredibly easy to get an understanding of Edgar Allen Poe as an author. Both works describe events that are melodramatic, evil and strange. It is also pertinent to appreciate the fact that strange plots and eerie atmospheres are considerably evident in the author’s writings. This paper compares and contrasts The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven and proves that the fear of uncertainty and death informs Edgar Allen Poe’s writings in the two works
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death” Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. ED. Edgar V Roberts and Robert Zweig. Boston, Longman: 2012. 516-519.
In the short story “ The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to express ideas to develop his theme and characters. “ The Masque of the Red Death” tells a story of prince Prospero who locks his friends and himself in a castle to escape the Red Death, a deadly disease. Much to Prospero’s dismay, in the end, the deadly disease causes them to perish. Poe uses the dark room to reveal Prospero’s unusual character and reveal that death is always there and cannot be avoided.
Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, "The Telltale Heart" and "The Masque of the Red Death" are two very different stories. One is about a simple man, perhaps a servant, who narrates the tale of how he kills his wealthy benefactor, and the other is about a prince who turns his back on his country while a plague known as The Red Death ravages his lands. Yet, there are some similarities in both. Time, for instance, and the stroke of midnight, seem to always herald the approach of impending death. Both are killers, one by his own hand, the other by neglecting his country. One seeks peace, the other seeks pleasure, but both are motivated by the selfish need to rid themselves of that which haunts them, even at the expense of another's life. However, the point of this critique will show that their meticulous plans to beat that which torments them are undone by a single flaw in their character - overconfidence.
The setting of “The Masque of the Red Death” is an invite only party the prince is having in his isolated abbey. The story says “When his dominions were half depopulated; he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light- hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, literary critic, and editor. Despite of his many talents, Edgar Allan Poe is best acknowledge for his poems and short stories, primarily his tales consist of mystery and deception of death. For instance, in the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, the story involves a plague that is killing the people, in which the Prince and his closest friend want to avoid. In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” is about a perfect murder planed out for revenge, in which he succeeds. In the story “The Tell-tale heart” involves the murder of an old man, in which the killer’s heart makes him say the truth. Many of Edgar Allan Poe stories use irony, by expressing a meaning that is contrary of what is expected throughout the
Death, despair, and revenge, these three words form a treacherous triangle to any reader who dare enter the mind of Edgar Allen Poe. In many of his works these expressions seem to form a reoccurring theme. Comparing the works "The Mask of the Red Death" and "The Cask of Amontillado", we will discuss these themes while analyzing the method behind Poe’s madness.
Throughout the short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses vivid symbolism, structure, and reoccurring details to paint a powerful image regarding the finality and inescapable reaches of death itself. “The ‘Red Death’ has long devastated the country,” yet the Prince Prospero continues to hold extravagant parties for his fellow elite members of society. Rather than merely telling a series of events, Poe carries his readers throughout the many rooms and scenes that hold the Prince’s masquerade, up until the clock strikes midnight and the partygoers can no longer hide behind their façade, and death comes in to take those that thought themselves invincible (Poe 438-442).
Edgar Allan Poe was a smart, self-taught man. He got little support from his uncaring father, and didn’t have female support due to his mother, sister, and wife dying from tuberculosis. Poe’s stories are similar by having dark characteristics, which represent his life The four stories are “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “Alone”. All four of Poe’s works have a mysterious, dauntless, alarming, fearful, and depressed setting.
In the story, “Masque of the Red Death” it covers six months during the Red Death.It takes place in a castle which has seven different colored rooms.In the beginning of the story it describes the main character prince Prospero as happy,fearless and wise. Towards the end of the story a new guest appears to the party and everyone is scared and Prospero goes from being happy to mad and in the end the new guest kills Prospero and everyone dies because he was the Red Death. The message in this analogy ,”The Masque of the Red Death “ by Poe is life passes by so quick that you don't realize what's going on until it's your time to die.
Edgar Allen Poe is often thought of as being one of the most depressed and morbid American writers of all time. His fascination with death can be seen in his short stories, such as “The Masque of the Red Death”, and his poetry, such as “Spirits of the Dead”. His tragic life left him with depression, a drinking problem, a suicide attempt, and eventually, an untimely death. Though one could argue that Poe’s depression was due to his unfortunate life, his behaviors and drinking problems, coupled with his argumentative nature and lack of self control point to a personality that is high in neuroticism and low in agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe are gothic writers who share many similarities in their stories. Both authors write about characters who live in their own and try to escape the real world around them. In Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s experiment” four participants attempt to escape reality by drinking from a fountain of youth in order to return to make themselves younger. In Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prince Prospero tries to escape the red death, a disease that is ravaging his city, by hiding in his own castellated abbey. The characters in the stories both attempt to avoid death and the inevitable, by hiding behind their barriers, but no matter what they try to do reality catches up to them and they succumb to what they originally try to avoid. In both stories, the protagonists hide behind barriers made by themselves, attempt to conquer death, and eventually give in to death.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, death was a frequent visitor to those he loved around him. When Poe was only 3 years old, his loving mother died of Tuberculosis. Because Poe’s father left when he was an infant, he was now an orphan and went to live with the Allan’s. His stepmother was very affectionate towards Edgar and was a very prominent figure in his life. However, years later she also died from Tuberculosis, leaving Poe lonely and forlorn. Also, later on, when Poe was 26, he married his cousin 13-year-old Virginia, whom he adored. But, his happiness did not last long, and Virginia also died of Tuberculosis, otherwise known as the Red Death, a few years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became isolated and reckless. Due to Edgar Allan Poe’s loss of those he cared for throughout his life, Poe’s obsession with death is evident in his works of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in which in all three death is used to produce guilt.
Edgar Allan Poe was a man who unfortunately was born into a life full of morbidity and grief. The stories and poems that he created reflect the experience he has with agonizing situations, in which Poe’s dark side developed; his evil reasoning and twisted mentality allowed Poe to develop extremely vivid and enthralling stories and works. Due to not only his family members but also his wifes to passing from tuberculosis, morbidity and grief is present in almost every work that Poe created. From major works such as “the Raven”, “Black Cat”, “Annabel Lee”, and the Tell- Tale Heart, Poe utilized themes such as death, premature burials, body decompositions, mourning, and morbidity to enhance his point an the image he attempted to convey.
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his masterful writing on all aspects of mortality, but his famous short story “The Masque of the Red Death” proves to be more than a simple story about death. While it is about death, Poe’s short story can be read and applied as a cautionary tale whose purpose is to illustrate a worthy way to live and die by portraying the opposite of both. This interpretation comes about when the story is viewed through the lens of New Criticism. This viewpoint shows how the story uses its formal elements converge to create one complex theme. Poe’s short story develops its theme through the use of paradox, tension, irony and ambiguity, all of which come together to identify