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Edgar Allan Poe literary analysis
Literary devices in edgar allan poe masque of the red death
Edgar allan poe descriptive writing
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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 …show more content…
and deep and exceedingly musical" ( Poe 44). He mixed the sound of musical and the sound of the clock, the clock is counting to time of death. No one could realize the death was beside them and they are dancing singing in party. In this story, Poe also just used a few Figurative Language, but they are some spotlight to make his purpose more stronger.
First, he used simili, ’’The Red Death come like a thief in the night’’ (Poe 43). He humanizes the Red Death like a thief, the thief of life.It is fast and furious, we can not escape. Then he used ’’the brazen lung of the clock’’ . Poe describes the clock as having “lungs,” like a human being, creates that this clock -- time -- is a living, breathing thing we cannot escape. He takes the clock ,a non-living furniture, and he humanizes it, like he humanizes the Red Death, which also cannot be escaped. He also used a lots of allusion in this story( Tempest of Shakespeare, or ’’The Death come like a thief in the night’’ in Bible’’ in order to make his theme more strong with his
reader.
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.
By providing symbolism, the setting of each story coerces the reader to think and reflect on the story, its impact, and its deeper meanings. For example the setting of “Hop Frog” provides deeper insights on Hop Frog’s perspective. “In less than half a minute the whole eight orang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below . . . without the power to render them the slightest assistance” (Poe). Though describing the conflagration of the king and his ministers, this setting can also easily describe the hardships faced by Hop Frog every day while in captivity. Unable to escape the fiery wrath of the king, Hop Frog is forced to suffer while Tripetta is rendered powerless, unable to do anything to assist her friend. While the setting in “Hop Frog” can be used to symbolize the pain and suffering Hop Frog is forced to endure, symbolism can also be seen in the setting of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Focused on the idea that no man can escape death, Poe uses symbolism to entice the reader to subconsciously make connections to discover this idea for his or herself. Many symbols are used throughout “The Masque of the Red Death”, one of them being “a gigantic clock of ebony . . . while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale” (Poe). Though it is never specifically indicated that there is more significance to the clock than illustrated in the given information, one could extrapolate that the clock is a representation of time itself. Time is more or less ignored; however, as time goes on and the end draws near, people pay more attention to it, and are terrified by the reminder that they will all perish in the end. This example is one of many of the symbols used in “The Masque of the Red Death”; like in that of “Hop Frog”, the setting of “The Masque of the Red Death” leaves clues for the reader, encouraging him
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
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.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
Poe was a very experienced author of unique tales. He was born on January 19, 1809 and died on October 7, 1849. He had a dark life growing up because his mother, foster mother, and his wife died from tuberculous. His father abandoned him and his foster father disliked him. This background may have greatly influenced his work. He wrote 70 poems and 66 short stories during his lifetime. Poe has written many Gothic horror stories. “The Tell Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” show these similarities.
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.
Zimmerman, Brett. “Allegoria and Clock Architecture in Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.” Essaysin Arts and Sciences 29 (Oct. 2000): P 1-16. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 April 2012.
"The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. 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,'" (209). As Edgar Allen Poe set the scene for his story, he also created an ominous mood and a sense of suspense supported by the setting. He details the fun and amusement inside the prince's abbey, in contrast to the horror and doom outside, and the reader's curiosity is piqued, because such bliss cannot be maintained for long. Throughout the story Poe explicates and changes elaborate environments to build the suspenseful energy and create a strong structure. In "The Masque of the Red Death," setting is employed to organize motives and action, and to focus the reader on the climax. Poe targets the culminating point of his story using rich descriptions of the abbey, the masquerade, and the clock.
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about the red death, terror, and death. Within the story, there are many ways symbolism is shown. One of the main ways this story shows symbolism is the ebony clock. The ebony clock is located in the black room, meaning that the clock could symbolize death, as well as life because of the chimes that happen every hour.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
Poe uses major themes that are shown throughout the whole story in multiple different stories. In The Tell-Tale Heart and The Masque Of the Red Death we see themes that appear largely in both stories such as time and versions of reality. In The Tell-Tale Heart we see three different perspectives of reality that basically can be three different stories that are told depending on the person who’s story you view from. In The Masque of the Red Death there are several different types of reality that range from the poor sick and dying of the kingdom that are locked out of the castle to the rich members of the kingdom who are in a dream like atmosphere and which even includes the prince 's version of reality as well where he believes he can simply just close the door on the disease. The realities in the story even range all the way to the reality of the the Red Death itself who does not see social classes or status but just goes after anyone for no reasons, but just cause chaos and suffering. The other theme also includes how time ties both of the stories together. In The Tell-Tale Heart the unnamed main character and narrator is completely obsessed with time. For several nights in a row he goes into the old man 's room precisely at the same time and and he does the same exact procedure every single night. He then after the murder he commits hears the heart of the dead man that resembles a ticking clock. Next, in The Masque of the Red Death we see time being represented in the orientation of the rooms from east to east, the colors of the rooms and what they represent of stages of life, and finally the clock in the black room that is counting down the time until the death of everyone at the party. Edgar Allen Poe writes his stories with similar themes , but finds a way to have the theme have a different representation in every story and how 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...
As Poe said, “There were sharp pains, 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 aid and from the sympathy of his fellowmen.” In the story Poe made many biblical symbols. He uses the Red Death as an allusion to the Red Death, an ‘antichrist’ and how it “comes like a thief in the night.” The figure in the middle of the photo, is a symbol of the Red Death, he is leaving a trail of blood on the floor as he comes through the ball. As in the seven deadly sins, hands that shed innocent blood, the manifestation leaves a trail of innocent people’s blood. None of those infected by the Red Death, deserved to die, but sadly they did. Using the windows as a symbol of life, Poe shows that no one is able to escape death, not even the
Edgar Allan Poe was a man who unfortunately was born into a life full of morbidity and grief. The stories and poems that he created reflect the experience he has with agonizing situations, in which Poe’s dark side developed; his evil reasoning and twisted mentality allowed Poe to develop extremely vivid and enthralling stories and works. Due to not only his family members but also his wifes to passing from tuberculosis, morbidity and grief is present in almost every work that Poe created. From major works such as “the Raven”, “Black Cat”, “Annabel Lee”, and the Tell- Tale Heart, Poe utilized themes such as death, premature burials, body decompositions, mourning, and morbidity to enhance his point an the image he attempted to convey.