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Use of irony as one of the dramatic devices
Many authors use irony as a way of questioning the reader or emphasizing a central idea
Essay on dramatic irony
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We handle fear in a multitude of different ways. Many people use angst to their advantage by becoming more careful and aware, while others become paralyzed and unable to function. Fear can be both beneficial and harmful, although it comes down to one’s personality to understand why people react in different ways to it. Fright can be extremely helpful because as humans, it’s usually our mission to survive, which could lead to the fabrication of a plan or a way to stand up to the root of the fear. Even though apprehension can be advantageous , it also can be harmful. Fear can induce paranoia and conceive an obsession that clouds judgement and controls emotions. Edgar Allen Poe shows the consequences and rewards, to which his characters in “The …show more content…
Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Masque of Red Death”, and The Pit and the Pendulum” handle their anxieties. Through symbolism, irony, and imagery, Poe displays the distorted minds of the narrators and the results of their paranoia and fear. Symbols are present throughout Poe’s stories, depicting the main characters fears.In the “Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of Red Death”, symbols are constant through the stories and present the progression of madness caused by obsession. In the “Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator states, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” (74) The narrator fears the old man’s judgement, which is symbolized by the eye, and decides to kill him just for that reason. The narrator’s fear of the eye soon leads to an fixation that controls his actions. Everything he thinks and does, is for the eye. The result of his actions due to delusions and timidity, is a torrent of guilt that leads him to admit to the police what he did. The symbols present in “The Masque of Red Death” each symbolize that avoiding the inevitable is impossible, similar to “The Tell-Tale Heart” except instead of guilt, it’s death. The author writes, “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” (61) The clock and the Red Death are the two main symbols in the story. The clock represents time slowly running out, and the mortal human life. Each time the clock surpasses an hour, it rings loudly, signaling the shortness of time. The Red Death symbolizes death, destruction, and unavoidable truths. Prince Prospero is afraid of death and tries to hide from it, but like what the clock signifies, mortality is undeniable. The Prince becomes obsessed with avoiding and hiding from the Red Death so much, that it leads him to lock himself away in his castle where he believes death cannot reach him. Death, in fact, does come, and kills everyone in the castle including Prince Prospero, which is a result of the Prince’s paranoia and fear. In both of the stories, “The Masque of Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, irony is one of the key factors to the overall themes.
“The Masque of Red Death” portrays irony in a very cruel way, causing Prince Prospero to perish by the very element he secluded himself from. The Prince believes he’s safe, locked inside his castle, separated from the outside world, “All these and security were within; without was was the ‘Red Death’.” (57) The Prince isolates himself in his palace believing he can keep the Red Death out, but ironically the Red Death is already inside and kills everyone in the castle. Prince Prospero is extremely afraid of the Red Death and let’s his fear govern his decisions. These decisions lead him to his death, and everyone else’s in the palace. Related to “The Masque of Red Death”, “The “Tell-Tale Heart” has irony regarding fear of the outside evils of the world. The story reveals irony, not through the narrator, but with the old man. “..for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers..” (75) The old man had a natural fear of robbers, but so much so, that he closed his windows and locked them every night, believing the threat was outside. Ironically, the actual threat he should’ve been afraid of was alrwady inside his secluded home. The old man was afraid of evil and didn’t have a clue to how close its vicinity to him was. Similar to “The Masque of Red Death,” the old man’s paranoia and extra precaution did nothing for him when death fell, orchestrated by one in his household. The old man tried to keep evil out, but it was already
in. Imagery is applied countless times in “The Pit and the Pendulum” and crucial to identify the theme. The narrator endures punishment after punishment, each close to bringing him to death, but he still survives. Poe writes, “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me.” (66) Even the setting threatened to kill him. In the beginning, the narrator was reluctant to even stand up in the eerie cave, for fear of many unseen things. Each time the inquisitors tried to kill him it was with horrifying methods. And every time the narrator began scared and afraid, but slowly started to think and originate plans to survive the trials. He overcame the punishments and his fear, and continued to live and sustain himself. Poe tried to communicate that through hope and logic, anyone can conquer anything. The main character was the only one of the three stories to use his head, instead of his emotions, to guide his actions. Edgar Allen Poe exhibited the constant presence of fear and paranoia through the three stories and how it can be used to both help and harm anyone. Poe additionally demonstrated the distortion of the minds of the characters, and how it either lead them to ruin, or survival. Edgar displayed his opinion that through hope and rationality it’s possible to overcome anything. Balancing emotions and the mind is a hard concept to grasp but Poe proved its necessity through his stories.
Fear is a powerful emotion. Wikipedia.com describes fear as “an emotion induced by threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in brain and organ function and ultimately change behavior, such as running away, hiding or freezing from traumatic events.”Most people tend to avoid fearful situations, not realizing that something positive may come out of the event or experience. Victor Villaseñor focuses on the topic of fear in his novel titled Burro Genius. Villaseñor demonstrates to readers how growing up he was extremely fearful of any situation. Victor also tells his readers how he turned his fear into motivation into motivation to keep going and reach his ultimate goal of becoming a published author.
All people wish to avoid suffering, and those with wealth usually take too long to realize that they cannot avert it. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe tells the readers of death, and how the upper class deals with it. In this story, Prince Prospero and his wealthy friends hide away in a castle to evade death. This obviously does not work, as death is inevitable, but of course, they attempt to save themselves anyways. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the courtiers, Prince Prospero, and the stranger to symbolize the members of the influential upper class and their habit of using their power to postpone their own impending doom.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Fear has controlled the world and shaped humans into what they are now. New technologies have been created, because of the fear humans have. Over time new fears have evolved, and illnesses occurred due to anxiety and depression from these fears. The terror that runs through each individual is different. Without fear there would be no evolution or protection.
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, literary critic, and editor. Despite of his many talents, Edgar Allan Poe is best acknowledge for his poems and short stories, primarily his tales consist of mystery and deception of death. For instance, in the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, the story involves a plague that is killing the people, in which the Prince and his closest friend want to avoid. In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” is about a perfect murder planed out for revenge, in which he succeeds. In the story “The Tell-tale heart” involves the murder of an old man, in which the killer’s heart makes him say the truth. Many of Edgar Allan Poe stories use irony, by expressing a meaning that is contrary of what is expected throughout the
The irony in, “The Tell Tale Heart” is more obscure. The narrator is an insane and a man who has agitation, yet tries to persuade the reader that he is not just sane, but rather logical. He proves this by calmly explaining why the violent act happens, but only resulting in contrary to what is being influence to the readers. One of the act that takes place, was “every night, about midnight, [the narrator] turns the latch of [the old man’s] door and opened it ....It took [him] an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that [he] could see [the old man] as he lay upon his bed”. (1) It is abnormal enough for someone to speak repetitively, the narrator broke this boundary, in putting his somewhat mad plan into action. Another ironic moment was the need to confess his murder at the end of the story, due to guilt that is feeding on him alive. Though he is free of the judgmental eye, he is to be imprison for his
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the author combines vivid symbolism with subtle irony. Although the story runs only four pages, within those few pages many examples of symbolism and irony abound. In short, the symbolism and irony lead to an enormously improved story as compared to a story with the same plot but with these two elements missing.
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are two very different stories that share similar literary elements. The Tell-Tale Heart is about a man who killed this old man because of his “evil looking eye” and “The Masque of the Red Death” is about a prince who hides from a disease that is devastating his kingdom. However, these stories are very similar and are easily comparable. For example, they both let other people die for their own personal needs. Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic style of short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are two stories with insane protagonists that are motivated by the setting and their selfishness and both of these stories share the same tone
Edgar Allan Poe shows us through his stories, how fear can be harmful, but also helpful to a person. Fear can be harmful to a person since it causes paranoia, clouding rational thinking, and maybe even causing it to lead up to the point where all you can think about is your fear, causing you to do things that can harm yourself or others. Though fear is seen primarily as something bad, it can definitely help you out in many cases. Fear helps you because it restrains you from doing something that can get you into trouble since you become to scared to do it. Fear also keeps you alert, and helps you survive in dangerous situations. All the main characters in Poe’s stories, such as the narrators from “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”
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.
The short story Tell-Tale Heart has much suspense, most of it being dramatic irony situations. Three examples of irony in this story, first, the old man has no idea that the narrator harbors such a feeling towards his vulture eye the narrator describes a "cold feeling" every time the narrator looks at him with his eye. Secondly, the narrator plots on the old man for eight nights and the old man still has no idea of his soon to be fate. Finally, when the police arrive, they are unaware that the old man is buried beneath the floor while
To begin with, Poe uses irony is a majority of his writing publications because to portray his dark humor, and entertain the audience in a somewhat sick and twisted manner. To demonstrate, the narrator kills another innocent man malevolently, and disposes the remains inhumanely, “If still, you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (“The Tell-Tale Heart”). The statement the narrator makes to name himself sane provides fright, for his declaration ironically further advances his insanity. This reassurance is lightly put in a sophisticated manner, and his recall on himself as another person consequently creates a dark atmosphere. Additionally, prior to assassinating