The Diction Of A Poe: The Philosophy Of Writing

The Philosophy of Composition is an 1846 essay written by E.A. Poe himself which elucidates a theory of how good writers write when they write well. By the end of the paper, Poe concludes that in order to achieve a strong piece of writing, you must achieve what he calls “unity of effect.” Poe analyzes this theory based on his famous piece The Raven. In general, unity of effect is when an author can completely submerge their reader into the work of fiction. This can be achieved through the means of tone, diction, the setting and even the amount and the way the author allows the reader to interact with the characters. One of the elements that Poe found crucial in achieving a certain mood was the ability to force the reader to be engulfed by

Denouement as he called it, is the resolution of the plot, which is the element which should determine all else that happens within. Through this, short and concise essay, it will be argued and explored that Poe successfully achieves unity of effect in his horrifying short story The Masque of the Red Death. This is done, to rebut the many criticism Poe has revived on his essay The Philosophy of Composition based on that fact that he is biased in saying that his story achieves unity of effect himself. To often when reading short fiction, readers are to focused on identifying typical elements of literary analysis and their experience of a story becomes niched, leading to the entirety of the story being

The tone that Poe achieves in The Masque of the Red Death is terror, alarm, and overall, horror. Poe wanted his reader to leave the piece not being able to stop thinking about it, to walk away with fear in their mind, bones, and heart. Poe achieves this through the words he uses and how he uses them. Poe’s structural style is very ridged, he does this in order to keep the flow of his writing very strong and smooth. In The Masque of the Red Death he makes each of his paragraphs about one topic, by doing this he is able to choose extremely specific language to coincide with each idea. The other aspect of Poe’s writing that assists in his success is the words he uses, or the colour of his writing. One cannot argue the fact that Poe does not have a sheer talent in the choosing of the words, not a single word is written that does not donate to the over atmosphere of the writing. Poe depends on the vividness and dramatic quality of each of the words he chooses. The way he describes the Red Death as “scarlet stains” which appeared upon the face of the victim to the “scarlet” window pane which illuminated the black of the seven coloured room. Poe’s explicit word choice adds to not only the success of his composition but also adds to the feeling of the