Cowardliness?
(Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red Death)
Each person is individual. We actually act differently in the same situations. But the situation does not have to be so problematic and so stressing for each of us. Somebody will stay and face the arising problem and somebody will run away as quickly as possible. However still there is something we all have in common, we all hide a coward in ourselves. No matter how powerful, wealthy and strong we are, everybody is scared by something. This fatal fear makes us to do everything possible to avoid it and if there is no other way just to escape from it. But are we therefore cowards?
There are lots of kinds of threats. Some of us are afraid of different sorts of animals, some are afraid of height, some are afraid of closed vessel, etc. However, the most usual fear is a fear of death. Also this piece of literature is about such a fear and what it can do to human.
Poe chooses plague as his tool of death. He takes his time to perfectly describe how enormous threat such a plague can be: “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” Another terrifying fact is that the plague is incredibly quick and therefore there is practically no chance to be cured: “At the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half and hour.” To support the idea of dread, Poe is also describing the process of the horrible and painful dying: “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness and the profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” Moreover we can feel a certain respect to it. The author even calls it by a name “The Red Death” and uses capital letters. He is animating it this way and the reader realises it is not so easy to escape from it.
So it is not surprising people are so thrilled by it. Maybe it is also because it is so painful. Maybe because it is extremely quick or maybe because it kills without any control. No matter if you are man, woman or child, if you are young or old, if you are rich or poor, etc. Poe uses a great example of what is human able to do to protect his own life. The Prince Prospero, “happy, and dauntless and sagacious” man has such a fear that he decides to isolate himself in a big fortress with “a strong and lofty wall girdled it in.
Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is based on the supernatural and the unknown. In The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero invites the revelers to come to the castle to party until the danger of pestilence is gone. The party was interrupted by an intruder who was dressed in all black (like the Grim Reaper) and was associated with the plague of the "red death." The reaper killed everyone one by one in the end. The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory. An allegory is symbols that are presented in the story that have two levels of meaning. An example can be the clock in the story. The clock told time and represented the time they had left before they died. There were seven chambers that were different colors, and the last chamber was black, which was the last chamber that represented death. I think the seven rooms symbolized the days until you die and the clock symbolized the time until you died.
The Masque of the Red Death was very serious from the beginning to end. The story never pulled away from the sense of a looming threat. Poe did not waste anytime, he cut straight to the point and set the tone right away. The tone relates to people language and the specific words that he uses to create illusion and imagery. Poe uses different times of words to define his language which is called Old English today. Poe sentences are also short and they are practically identical in the simple structure. Poe is a very different writer than most writers today, he has a unique way about his language.
I believe that Edgar Allan Poe did a wonderful job of portraying the effects of the horrible disease Red Death. Poe used a concept everyone knows of, a party, to display how sneaky and powerful the death was. Prince Prospero was the protagonist of “The Masque of the Red Death” and was according to the text, “he was happy, dauntless, and sagacious” (Poe 13). To escape the plague, Prince Prosper invited a thousand of “hale and lighthearted” (Poe 13) friends and courtsmen to come join him in his voluntary seclusion. They wanted to lock themselves inside the walls, to lock the Red Death out. As the party and plague continued to rule Prince Prospero and his friends, they all began to feel nervous and agitated for an unknown reason. The tension caused by these feelings was intensified when many individuals in the party became aware of a mysterious masked figure, who was sneakily and silently spreading its presence (sickness) around the castle. The shadowy masked figure was the Red Death itself. I loved this concept and plot because I believe that it appropriately infused this death with a happy and joyful time, which really showed The Red Death’s power and ever-presence during its reign.
In the "Masque of the Red Death," the first sentence, "The Red Death had long devastated the country," sets the tone for the whole story. Poe describes the horrors of the disease, stressing the redness of the blood and the scarlet stains. The disease kills so quickly that one can die within thirty minutes of being infected with the disease. To create a frightening effect of the revulsion of this disease, Poe uses words such as "devastated," "fatal," "horror of blood," and "sharp pains and profuse bleeding." In summary, the story relates the prince, trying to be safe and away from the horrible death, invites a thousand friends to be in seclusion in his abbey away from the disease. During a celebration , a masked ball at the abbey - with incredible described rooms and moods - a surprise masked intruder causes death to all.
Poe also used his words kill as a magician to build the bloody imageries to make the audience feel reliable to his purpose. First he describe the terrible of Red Death, "There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the sympathy of his fellow men’’(Poe 43). It was a bloody scene , Poe portrayed the death scene horrorly to make the death in this story became more scary. Then Poe described Prince turn to died ‘’The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habilments of the grave...His vesture was dabed in blood and his broad brow, with all the features of the face was besprinkled with the scarlet horror’’( Poe 46). He performed the death of Prince is more horrible than everybody to get a strong conforment. Although The prince do everything to avoid the death but he still died. Not only sight, He was using hearing imagery too ”it's a pendulum swung and fro with a heavy monotonous clang; it came from the brazen lungs of the sound which was clear and loud
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.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” in 1842. While only one character is actually named, Prince Prospero, the story builds apprehension just based on the descriptions and not on dialogue. The narrator is never named and it is a mystery as to this person’s involvement in the story. The ambiguousness of the narrator also helps build the drama throughout the story. “The Masque of the Red Death” tells the story of a group of wealthy people who are trying to ignore and separate themselves from a terrible disease that is sweeping across their country. The disease is swift and brutal and can cause death within 30 minutes. The people infected weep blood from the pores on their faces and bodies, which causes a disturbing visual image. Poe uses the setting and symbolism to reiterate to the reader that death is inevitable.
Each line, every detail seems to tie into a deeper meaning that carries the reader throughout the story alongside the narrator and partygoers, all the while laden with hints and deeper meanings that progress rapidly toward the awaiting “horror” of death. With the introduction of the story alone, Poe has already set the stage with the background on the horrifying “pestilence” and its effects on the human body. By aptly naming it the “Red Death,” Poe is already conjuring images of the gruesome, painful deaths of history’s great plagues, particularly the black death which nearly shares its name, as well “the redness and the horror of blood” (Poe 438). It is here that the story takes a turn with the introduction of Prince Prospero himself, momentarily placing thoughts of the Red Death on the
Edgar have written numerous poems and stories about death, but some in particular suggest that it was something that reflect upon his childhood. The reason why I said suggest was that we don’t know for sure because Poe never openly stated that, and proven this suggestion. One story, The Masque of the Red Death was about a sickness that was common and deadly during Poe’s life. It had claimed the life of his mother, and his foster mother. Later on it claimed the life of his young bride Virginia Poe who was also his cousin. But the death of his two mothers must have been a significant impact on Poe’s childhood, and the disease, which is tuberculosis, must have struck hatred and fear into the young Poe’s heart. The story (The Masque of the Red Death) was about a red horror that claimed numerous lives, leaving in its wake, a trail of red, bloody destruction. The horror described in thi...
Every poem of Edgar Allan Poe’s has some common literary elements, such as themes, symbols, motifs, and moods. Poe often uses similar themes throughout his poems. For instance, revenge is a common them and is used in the “Cask of Amontillado” and “ Hop Frog.” Another them he uses quite frequently is death. In almost every poem, death is mentioned. In the “Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor kills Fortunato. In “Premature Burial,” it has documentaries of people who have died. In “Tell Tale Heart,” a man his killed. Dea...
Poe has shown a rough interpretation of life and death. Death introduces itself in the form of “The Red Death.” It strikes suddenly without empathy. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.
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.
Throughout Poe’s life there is a lot of indication, which can be seen in his writing, that he had a sad and dreary life. While most of his stories have vastly different plots and themes, one theme that prevails through all of his stories is the concept of death or morbidity. He has this disillusioned fear of life and success, that is prevalent in his own personal life, through constant alcoholism, self-sabotage of his career or life-goals, and negative reactions to his tragic life events. All of these events can be evidenced through popular writings such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado and the commonalities shared between these two and even more of his other stories.
The point of view Edgar wrote this in is very effective and understandable. His main focus is on two characters, capturing image-like thoughts of their minds. The characters actions relate back to their personal conflicts within themselves. Poe wrote this story in 3rd person, limited point of view. The Red Death's emotions and feelings are filled with hatred and terrorism. Poe says,"...and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero" (Poe). This clearly shows the Red Death's goal, to kill and destroy. Prince Prospero however, ignores the death and instead shows, as it has no impact on him. He avoids the dreary thought of death overall. He asserts,"...he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends"(Poe). He is loved by many and loves unlike the Red Death. The Red Death's thoughts are not clear in comparison to Prince Prospero as to what he wants and feels towards otherwise. Edgar asserts, "The Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious"(Poe). His feelings were blunt. Poe also states, "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous"(Poe). The Red Death's thoughts are very vague and unclear. This direct and indirect perspective helps the story flow and create a suspicion....
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.