Danse Macabre: A Literary Analysis

Gothic, suspense, and horror add an exciting and chilling type feeling to people’s lives. Weather it is reading a story, a poem, or watching a movie, these genres leave the audience or readers wanting more and will make them not want to stop reading or watching. In a book called Danse Macabre, an examination of the use of phycology in the horror genre, Stephen King writes “what’s behind the door… is never as frightening as the door… itself.” All of the build up until the door is actually opened makes the audience more scared and tense than what is actually behind the door. Behind the door can either be scary or not as scary, but all the details and extra effects leading up to the door opening cause the suspense and will not make the reader

The pace and sequencing of events play a large and effective role in creating that tension and horrific feeling that readers and audiences are looking for in this type of genre. Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates pace very well when he writes, “It was then, however,... any tangible form”,(170-184). During this entire section each sentence seems to build directly off the sentence that came before. It seems as if there were never any periods and it was one long sentence for the entire paragraph. As soon as the reader’s eyes hit this section, they will help but not to notice that they had started to read quicker and with more of an erie type tone. This faster paced section helps create that dramatic, fist clenching, and tense type feeling that is perfect for the suspense genre. The device of pacing is also expressed in Skeleton, when Bradbury writes, “Harris felt his jaw… M. Munigant was gone!”(39-40). The effects of this sections increased pace are very similar to that of increased paced section in the Masque of the Red Death. The tension that is created from increased quickness is much more suspenseful than that of the “door” finally being opened. Once that “door” is finally opened then all of that built up tension is quickly relieved. However, when these two sections with increased pace are being read, the readers or audiences feel much more tension because they start thinking of all the possibilities that might happen and all of the possible outcomes. The pacing and sequencing of events in the Masque of the Red Death and Skeleton help correlate the idea of Stephen King’s quote that the tension before the door is opened is much more dramatic than what is actually behind the door