Similarities Between The Black Cat And The Masque Of The Red Death

Edgar Allan Poe has captivated millions of people with his writing time and time again, with his constant unique ways of telling a narrative from beginning to end. Poe crafted two stories, with very different stories, but yet they still have similarities that can be seen throughout both texts. “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are both similar in many ways however, they are also very different in many ways. “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are both similar in many ways as can be seen through the use of word choices, structural impact, and pacing that builds suspense making the reader react eagerly throughout both stories. Some differences that are seen throughout both stories are both the setting and theme.

Setting is something that is remarkably different throughout both stories, with the “The Masque of the Red Death” taking place in a Castle, cut off from the rest of the world and the “Black Cat” taking place in the narrator's tavern. A particular setting can drastically change the mood of a reader and change the narrative, characters, and overall plot for

better, or worse. The settings in both stories are so different, that they create different moods for the reader. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, the setting of a castle creates more of a high-class, rich, clean feel then that of the dirty, dark, dingy Tavern in “The Black Cat”.

Theme is defined as the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition, or topic.

Theme can vary based on plot as a whole. Poe uses his stylistic word choices to better convey the theme and create a varying theme out of both stories and help to further improve the aesthetic impact on the reader. The two stories’ themes are very similar in the aspect of being dark or twisted in a sense ,but in “The Masque of the Red Death” it is mostly self destruction while in “The Black Cat” it is of guilt and violence to the narrator’s wife and pets. Another aspect the stories’ themes had in common were their connections to fear. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prince Prospero was scared of the The Red Death so he tried to hide from it in in his case and in “The Black Cat”, the narrator had the animals in fear of him from the violence alcohol would

bring.

There are many differences in both stories, but there are also lots of similarities in both stories, especially with both being written by Edgar Allan Poe. A huge similarity that is shown throughout both stories is the way Poe paces his stories. Poe creates a slow burn throughout both of the stories. Poe added detailed information to other important aspects of the stories such as the setting in order for the reader to be able to visualize and understand the atmosphere of the story to help build the suspense.

All in all, both “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death” have their similarities and their differences that make both stories unique. Both Poe written stories share similar structural impact to its stories. Besides the literary impacts, Poe puts in the writing he also gives the two stories a similar pacing that builds up suspense and creates a specific mood to the reader. With the many similarities in the two stories, Poe adds some differences that makes each story unique and great in their own right such as the setting and themes of the stories.