Similarities Between The Night Circus And The Cask Of Amontillado

Different Paths to the End

Death is a fact for every living thing known to man. The genre gothic romanticism literature is heavily dependent on the literary devices symbolism and foreshadowing to show death to a reader. This is demonstrated in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and the short stories, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Our ultimate fate is inevitable and paralleled as time goes on.

The Night Circus and “The Masque of the Red Death” both use symbolism to lead the reader to the inevitable fate of the main characters. Morgenstern used the rooms Marco and Celia created of reach each other as a symbol of love, “I suppose in a way, I made the wishing tree for you,” (Morgenstern 259). However Marco and Celia’s actions contradicted their ideal

outcome. Because of the competition, they were ultimately forced them to hurt one another with their affectionate displays. As the rooms were created, each more elaborate then the last, Marco and Celia grew closer to the end of their competition and what was suppose to be the end of one of them. Similarly to Morgensterns use of love, Poe used the symbol of time to create emphasis on the fate of the people, “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay,” (Poe 1). The clock brought silence and chills each time it ticked and served as a reminder of the horrors occurring outside the sheltered castle, and each tick brought the people closer to the ‘red death’. Both the rooms and the clock can be viewed as a ‘countdown’ to fate. Each time a room was built, even out of love, or the clock ticked, the characters grew closer to death, or some super-natural form of it.
Foreshadowing is essential to creating suspense leading up to the inevitable ending, particularly in gothic literature. This can best be seen in The Night Circus and “The Cask of Amontillado” because of how the stories develop from the beginning. In The Night Circus the anguish the competition would potentially cause becomes very apparent through foreshadowing. After Celia’s initial performance, where Marco is finally revealed his competition, to join the circus he states, “she’s too good,” and, “this could be very problematic,” (Morgenstern 102). This foreshadows the conflict that arises from the competition before it even begins. Poe uses foreshadowing to present the revenge-driven fate of Fortunato, “I promised myself that I would make him pay for this— that I would have revenge,” (Poe 1). This clarifies Montesor’s intentions to the reader and leaves no error in making Fortunato’s end very evident. Marcos concern and Montesors desire for revenge foreshadowed the fates of Fortunato and the seemingly tragic result of the competition.
There were many points in The Night Circus and “A Rose for Emily” where the combination of foreshadowing and symbolism were crucial to the stories plot.

The inevitable fate experienced by the main characters. Marco and Celia’s fate was unique in terms of gothic literature because it diden’t have a direct connection with death, even though it was something that sparked fear in the characters, such as Hector who spent his whole life trying to avoid it. Instead it led to being ‘trapped’ which was long before Poppet’s prediction, “Is it not bad to be trapped somewhere then? Depending on where you’re trapped?” To which Widget replied, “I suppose it depends on who you’re trapped with and how much you like whoever you’re stuck with,” (Morgerstern 229). This also symbolizes the circus deterriorating because of the connection of being trapped and how is seems never-ending. Similarly, the symbol Emily has in the town, “Miss Emily has been a tradition, a duty, and a care” (Faulkner 1). This makes her a symbol of dying tradition and fate while foreshadowing the towns obligation to her that ultimately led the to town to Homer’s

body.
Fate is what people attempt to ‘put off’ or avoid. But, as each author emphsizes, death is inevitable and the signs of it appear much sooner then the actual fact.