Edgar Allan Poe and James Joyce Similarities and Differences

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Literature has been around for thousands of years and its oldest pieces of poems, short stories are still being read by students. Two great authors Edgar Allan Poe and James Joyce have similarities and differences from there form, imagery, themes each of them use. One of the all-time great horror author’s is Edgar Allan Poe with his unique style of imagery used in his poems and short stories to scary readers. Another great author is James Joyce with a unique style of writing with a multiplicity of meaning, humor, and hidden messages. (The Writing of James) The two pieces of work I’ll use are Edgar’s Masque of the Red Death and James The Dead both are horror short stories in different time periods. Both have similarities in the type of imagery and differences of theme being used.
The form in literature means the organizational mode of a particular short stories and to whom is it addressed. Edgar form of writing is gothic, a genre which was very popular during the 1800s. James Joyce form of writing was more about using mythology, or history creating an innovative language using symbols forms. Each of the authors are different because James has more of a mysterious role in his stories for example in The Dead “His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious….” (The Dead…) Meaning he is approaching his death very soon but his conscious doesn’t let him. Edgar uses gothic horror meaning in his short stories in Masque of the Red Death prince, Prospero, locked himself inside his palace in order to ignore the plague or else known as the Red Death. After several months Prospero throws a huge party and invites guest and for the celebration he decorates room with different colors. Each room has a ...

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... from the plague. James story is more about how death can catch up to you no matter what happens, basically the reality of life. Literature criticism of Edgar themes always relating to the dark side, and James with mystery side of things.
Edgar and James are consider to be one of the all-time greats to every write literature. Both have similarities in writing what relates to the time period there in or the amount of detail each writer puts in their imagery. The differences are the theme each other uses one uses horror and the other more of a mystery theme. Both writer are great but personally the best writer out of both has to be Edgar Allan Poe the imagery he uses in his stories is amazing it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Literature has been around for centuries and its hasn’t changed we still read the old piece of Edgar and James arguable the best authors.

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