The deaths and dangers in the world we face are sometimes made of ourselves and of our fears. In the dark story The Masque of the Red Death the danger being unavoidable death that Prince Prospero shuns away but comes back to kill him. In Young Goodman Brown, the protagonist fears that his faith will be loss and nothing will be good in the world anymore. Both these stories are’ descriptive and use many symbols that connect to fear. While the protagonists in Young Goodman Brown and The Masque of the Red Death are both fearful, Goodman Brown fears of losing his innocence and runs off to find faith but loses it on the way, and the prince in The Masque of Red Death fears losing his riches.
Goodman Brown and Prince Prospero do not have a happy ending. Goodman Brown sees how everyone around him are sinners along with Faith who loses her pink ribbon. The pink ribbon symbolizes her innocence. Prince Prospero was inevitably confronted by death, so neither of these are happy, so the author is trying to make us feel grief with how they tell the story and the story itself. Goodman Brown comes to a realization that everyone is evil, and The Masque of the Red Death shows that that people can be evil but not as evil as something as sublime as death. In Young Goodman Brown the woods symbolize the danger. "The hoofs
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clattered again; and the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air passed on through the Forest"(Hawthorne 29). The forest is where Goodman Brown goes to find his purity and faith but ends up going to the crossroads and being exposed to all the evil and sin by his fellow people, which ruins his faith. The evil voices that run through the forest exposed the true danger that lies there. In this danger the devil can be found and through this temptation and sin consumes Goodman Brown. Goodman Brown is worried that he has sinned because of his desire for Faith. He run off to speak to the devil which is sinful. He fears of losing his faith because like his wife it is innocent and naive. Goodman Brown projected his fear onto his wife,"Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee"(Hawthorne 24). Through this it is revealed that he is questioning his faith and his ability to keep it. Comparatively, Prince Prospero of The Masque of the Red Death is not worried about his morality and the consequences of that. The narrator explains, “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 to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.”(Poe 1). Prince Prospero lacks compassion for the problems outside of the upper class. The two stories both speak on morality but the protagonist have different views. Young Goodman Brown view his temptation as sinful while Prince Prospero is focused on his material effects. The protagonist of The Masque of the Red Death validates his superiority through his wealth.
He shows off his prosperity while ignoring the sick people of his land. Poe unmasked, “There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death."”(Poe 1). Prince Prospero shuns the Red Death without worries; he mistakenly believes his wealth will protect him from death itself. Unlike the Prince, Goodman Brown falsely assumes that his faith will protect him. The two characters rival in thought and inevitably both pay the price for
it. Goodman Brown loses his happiness and everyone around him is considered evil to him. Prince Prospero dies and loses his riches as well. The way these two stories ended was unpleasant. Goodman Brown changes the way he thinks because of what he saw in the woods, that made him realize everyone was not as innocent as he thought, so he begins to think everyone around him is a liar and now he does not like anyone. The moral is nobody is perfect and that he should live his life happy and not obsess with being pure, which could be interchangeable with people's everyday life. People shouldn't be afraid of death or being pure, and both protagonist learn that in very different ways. They show that people shouldn't be afraid of living their life, and not trying to hide.
Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” both deal with the main character’s belief in being able to conquer a situation. Hawthorne’s story centers on Brown’s journey into the forest to have a meeting with an older man, which tests Brown’s faith. Poe’s story focuses on Prince Prospero’s attempt to escape the Red Death by locking himself in his castellated abbey together with friends, and hosting a masquerade ball. Essentially, both stories deal with different scenarios by Brown believing he can overcome evil, and Prince Prospero believing he can overcome death. However, despite the different circumstances, both stories have significant similarities. Both “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Masque of the Red Death”
The paper compares two short stories (Poe’s “the fall of The House of Usher” and Perkins-Gillman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper”), in order to develop arguments about the relationship between characters’ fears and the main theme of each story. In the two short stories, the characters are suffering from various forms of fear under different circumstances. Such fears include fear of fear, fear of death, fear of other people, fear of isolation, fear of punishment, and fear of loss of reputation. Such different forms of fears can assist readers in understanding the motives of the characters.
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
In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, sensory detail and symbolism not only to build suspense, but also to convey the idea that an individual can not hide or run away from death which becomes closer as time passes on. Throughout the story Poe uses imagery details to create suspense in the story. For example when the author is describing the disease that has taken many lives he describes the unfortunate event as, “ Blood was its Avator and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood. One can understand that in the story the tragic death of someone might occur as tragically as the disease is described. Accordingly, as the story progresses the deep shade of the color red is evident in many areas to represent symbolism.
In “The Masque of Red Death” and “The cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe warns the reader that overconfidence and pride will often lead to death. To convey this idea Poe has used similar setting and Characters.
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.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown,” the author uses danger and mystery to represent the struggle of good versus evil. Young Goodman Brown journeys into the night and comes to realize an unforgiving truth. Everyone is in danger of abandoning their faith or is inherently evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne has filled this story symbolism, after reading this story the reader may have questions about Young Goodman Browns’ determination to journey towards his evil purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne implies strong faith can endure but when that faith is destroyed, what view does a person have towards mankind? Let us take a look at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of significant symbols throughout “Young Goodman Brown.”
The next character is Young Goodman Brown himself. His name also becomes a multilayered metaphor. Being known as “young” represents Goodman Browns innocence and virtue. He is also condensed to represent his own consciousness. But, by leaving his wife, Faith, Young Goodman Brown is giving into the unconscious. "He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind" (Kelly, 191). Taking this path that closes behind him represents Young Goodman’s decent into the unconscious and his loss of innocence. On this journey he soon meets a man who is a condensation of several different factors. The man represents the devil, as well as Brown unconscious mind.
Stories have an opportunity to leave the reader with many different impressions. When you look a different characters within the stories the ones that leave the greatest impressions are the ones that tend to scare us. The figures in Bob Dylar’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have you been?”, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, and Stephen King’s “The Man in the Black Suite” all instill a bit of fear in the reader. They are symbols that represent the devil or devil like attributes in people and the uncertainties of human nature.
Goodman Brown, a young man who was only married for three months, left his home and his wife, Faith, to go into the forest and spend the night on some mission that he will not explain. Even though Faith has strong feelings about his journey and begs him not to leave, Brown has made his decision and leaves everything behind. Faith is appropriately named, because she represents Browns faith and what he believes in. The name is genuine, religious and hopeful. It represents the good side of Brown and his hope for life. He feels bad for leaving her because he knows what he is about to do is evil and goes against his faith. Brown swears that after this night he will be good and not do anything evil again and vow his life to Faith. Brown is upset about leaving her because he knows that what he is about to do in the forest is evil and goes against his Faith. Hawthorne describes Browns journey as "crossing the threshold", meaning that he is going from one part of his life to another, he is leaving the genuine good side to go to the bad evil side.
Fear is the emotional state that someone goes into when they feel threatened or endangered. The fact that we do not know everything makes us think that everything we do not know is feared. There are many stories that include the fear of the unknown. Each poem, story, and drama include some type of fear. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “Poof” there is an extensive amount of fear for the unknown. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, and Lynn Nottage all used the fear to their advantage while writing and making an entertainment for the readers.
"The Masque of the Red Death" is written by Edgar Allan Poe an American author who married his thirteen year old cousin. "The Masque of the Red Death" was published in May 1842, and the Twilight Zone episode aired on January 5,1962. Both, "The Masque of the Red Death," and the Twilight Zone episode, "Nothing in the Dark," have different settings, protagonist, and antagonist. Although "Nothing in the Dark," aired more than 100 years later after Poe had published his book the themes of both, "The Masque of the Red Death and the Twilight Zone episode, "Nothing in the Dark," are very similar, no one escapes death.
Prince Prospero was foolish to think he could escape the threat of the masque of the “Red Death.” When Prospero sees that his “dominios were half depopulated,” he assembles over 1000 knights, dames, courtiers, and entertainers within a “castellaed abbey” complete with a thick walls and gates of iron. Poe states , “all these and security within. Without was the ‘Red Death.’” Prospero surrounds himself with 1000 people inside the walls of this fortress. Within such a great number, he cannot honestly believe that the “Red Death” is not hidden within them. He is also foolish to believe that thick walls and iron gates could hold the disease was spread. The narrator describes how extravagantly detailed each of the seven
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.
Through life one must learn that not everything comes easy. Life is not something to toy with. Poe shows this in his short story The Masque of the Red Death. Prince Prospero believes with all his power and money he can avoid reality and even death itself, although Poe shows the reader otherwise. In The Masque of the Red Death, to bolster his allegory of life, Poe shows how nothing determines who someone is in the eyes of death, and how it always comes through Prince Prospero, the castle, the clock and the stranger.