The Masque Of The House Of Usher Short Story Analysis

1304 Words3 Pages

For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.
The first technique Poe uses in both stories is symbolism, which aids the reader in understanding the theme. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism to aid the reader in teaching the theme that death is inevitable. While explaining the setting, Poe describes a black room with red windows and then begins …show more content…

In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the ball held by Prince Prospero in the seven rooms is described in a dream-like manner. Poe writes, “To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these --the dreams --writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps” (Poe, “Masque”). This use of imagery describes guests as dreams, “writhing” in and out of rooms, appearing to change color with each room they go to. In his other story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses dream imagery when describing the interior of Usher’s mansion. It is

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Allegory in Masque (Mask) of the Red Death and Dr Heidegger's Experiment

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Masque Of The Red Death And The Raven

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    Authors use various styles to tell their stories in order to appeal to the masses exceptionally well and pass the message across. These messages can be communicated through short stories, novels, poems, songs and other forms of literature. Through The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven, it is incredibly easy to get an understanding of Edgar Allen Poe as an author. Both works describe events that are melodramatic, evil and strange. It is also pertinent to appreciate the fact that strange plots and eerie atmospheres are considerably evident in the author’s writings. This paper compares and contrasts The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven and proves that the fear of uncertainty and death informs Edgar Allen Poe’s writings in the two works

    Read More

  • The Masque of the Red Death: Symbolism

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author, Edgar Allan Poe, using illusion or misdirection keeps the reader is suspense throughout this story called "The Masque of the Red Death". Symbolism such as the colored rooms, the impressive clock, the feeling of celebration being at a party all makes this story feel like a fairytale. Poe used this fairytale style and converts it into a nightmare in disguise.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death

    1690 Words  | 4 Pages

    Zapf, Hubert. “Entropic Imagination in Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.” College Literature 16.3 (Fall 1989): p211-218. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 March 2012.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Tell Tale Heart And The Masque Of The Red Death

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Figures of speech in The Fall of the House of Usher

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poe also uses symbolism to compare the deterioration of the house to the fall of the Usher dynasty. In Roderick’s poem, “The Haunted Palace”, he describes the history of the house as it began as a strong and “radiant palace”, which over time became a decrepit, disease-ridden cage. The radiant palace repres...

    Read More

  • Literary Legends: Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe primarily authored stories dealing with Gothic literature; the stories were often quite dreary. Poe possessed a very sorrowful view of the world and he expressed this throughout his literary works. His goal was to leave an impression with every detail that he included in his stories. Although Poe’s stories seem very wretched and lackluster they all convey a certain idea. A trademark of Poe’s is his use of very long complex sentences. For instance, in his work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tried to ensure that every detail was as relevant as possible by integrating a wide variety of emotion. In the third paragraph, of page two hundred ninety-seven, Poe wrote, “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around…” This sentence illustrates the descriptiveness and complexity that Edgar Allan Poe’s works consisted of. The tormented cognizance of Poe led him to use a very gloomy diction throughout his writing. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbols and the way he conveyed his writing expr...

    Read More

  • The Fall Of The House Of Usher Analysis

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the death of Madeline and Roderick Usher represents the ending of something, and in this specific case, the ending of a generation. Throughout the story, it is made very clear that Madeline and Roderick are the last living people of the Usher generation. Roderick Usher explicitly states on page four, “‘Her decease,’ he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, ‘would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.’” Therefore, when they both die at the end, it is clear that it is the end of a generation. The ending of their generation creates a depressing and serious feeling through this story due to the fact that the Usher’s will be no more.

    Read More

  • The Cask Of Amontillado And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Literary elements are a major part in the world of writers. A great author will use literary elements to capture the audience attention into what they are reading. This was true with Edgar Allan Poe; he incorporated literary elements into his short stories. In “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe uses a great deal of different literary elements to entice the audience into his horror stories. Literary elements such as imagery, irony, and symbolism were well put to use in Poe’s stories.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's Writing Style

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”

    Read More

  • The Masque of the Red Death

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poe uses imagery to paint a picture in readers’ mind, create a mood, and emphasize the significance of certain objects. One can envision the amazement of the chambers, which had “…a tall and narrow Gothic window…of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the…hue…of the chamber into which it opened” and was lit up by “…a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass” (421). One can also imagine the way the crowd slows down to a pause when the “…chiming of the clock... [causes] disconcert and tremulousness and meditations” (423). These descriptions keep readers’ attention throughout the story. One can feel the terror of the “Red Death”, which “…had long devastated the country” and whose “…Avatar and seal [was] the redness and horror of blood” (420). The fact that blood represents the disease makes it recognized as deadly an...

    Read More

  • The Masque of the Red Death

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this short story Poe successfully illustrates matters of life and death specifically through imagery and projection of morals through diction and mood. This is important to make note of because Poe provides very vivid and precise images pertaining to the message he is trying to convey. The concentration on colour is the most prominent element throughout the story. The use of the colored chambers was greatly effective in delivering its massage of night and day. However, while the implicit theme of the coloured chambers are in fact night and day it again relates back to the more larger theme life and death and the rooms symbolize that progression through life, starting with birth (the...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe´s Literature

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe is notorious for his use of imagery. As he begins his account of his reunion with Roderick Usher in “The Fall of the House of Ushe...

    Read More

  • Human Mortality in Masque of Red Death

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a gothic writer, Edgar Allan Poe created horror using gloom as his weapon. Hidden within the suspenseful story of “The Masque of Red Death” is an allegorical tale of how individuals deal with the fear of death as time passes. Frantic activities and pleasures (as represented by Prince Prospero and his guests) seek to wall out the threat of death. However, the story reminds the reader that death comes “like a thief in the night”(Poe 3), and even those who seek peace and safety shall not escape. Poe uses symbolism to illustrate that man cannot hide from his own mortality.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Poe And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

    451 Words  | 1 Pages

    In each of his writings they all have a spooky aspect to them. In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” Poe stated “For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of he brother, and in he violent and now final death- agonies bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors her had anticipated.”this piece of text is right after the usher sister had been buried alive, this goes to prove that the story had the story had a mood of darkness. Then in the writing “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe wrote “Her bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry.” This is the death scene of Prince Prospero. In both writings there is a dark mood. In the writing “The Cask of Amontillado” there is a dark mood because of the death scene, “No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let in return only a jingling of bells my heart grew

    Read More

More about The Masque Of The House Of Usher Short Story Analysis

Open Document