A short story entitled “The Masque of the Red Death” is a wonderfully written story of many types of language. The author Edgar Allan Poe narrated this story from the perspective of himself. One reason the story was written by focusing on feelings was to get the reader to maybe relate to the characters even if only slightly. The seventh room in the suite is symbolic for death. Poe says, "The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue" (359). The symbol of the seventh room is of someone’s life ending. He talks about seeing black which is associated with death. Another representation of death is the fire light in the suite. This is symbolic because the sun sunrises in the east and sets in the west most people believe light means happiness or in this case it means life and darkness is associated with death. darkness is being used as another example of a representation of what death is. Poe has made The Red Death's thoughts not very clear compared to Prince Prospero as the prince knows what he wants and what he feels. Poe says, "The Prince …show more content…
Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious". He is very straightforward. Poe also says, "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous". The Red Death's thoughts are vague and hard to understand exact meaning of his thoughts. The use of direct and indirect perspectives will help the story move along better and create suspicion. It helps understanding a text by understanding why things happen the way they do, an example from the story.
The level that the conflict is on plays a big role, bringing together two characters emotions to. Inner and outer conflicts within the Prince, and the Red Death assist in analyzing the theme of death and madness. Prince Prospero’s main conflict is with death itself. The madness of never knowing when death will come for him. The point of view in the story helps the reader to know what a specific character is thinking. Gale states, “Poe carefully chooses his words to paint a picture of unrelieved fear, suspense, and dread.” Poe’s as a special way of writing and using techniques correctly is why this story a is the reason why thousands of people still read it
today. Edgar Allan Poe's short story titled The Mask of the Red Death is a great example of symbolism Poe’s style that he writes with appeals to all five senses and is able to catch the reader's curiosity. When reading it through the first time the story could possibly be a tale of good versus evil. Upon reading it through more carefully you come to the conclusion that the symbolism makes it about more than just a story of good and evil its basically a simple metaphor for life and death.
He shows off his prosperity while ignoring the sick people of his land. Poe unmasked, “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."”(Poe 1). Prince Prospero shuns the Red Death without worries; he mistakenly believes his wealth will protect him from death itself. Unlike the Prince, Goodman Brown falsely assumes that his faith will protect him. The two characters rival in thought and inevitably both pay the price for
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.
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.
When Prince Prospero first sees mummer known as the Red Death “ he was seen to be convulsed in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror of of distaste…” This creates suspense by giving the reader a cold feeling of the presence of a new individual. When the prince realizes that the Red Death is up to no good he decides to take matters into his own hands. Prince Prospero takes a dagger and chases the mummer threw all of the rooms. Suddenly, “There was a sharp cry- and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero.” The reader now realizes that the prince has been murdered by an unknown force which gives the individual an uneasy feeling. In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe creates suspense throughout this short story using symbolism and imaginary, sensory
In the short story “ The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to express ideas to develop his theme and characters. “ The Masque of the Red Death” tells a story of prince Prospero who locks his friends and himself in a castle to escape the Red Death, a deadly disease. Much to Prospero’s dismay, in the end, the deadly disease causes them to perish. Poe uses the dark room to reveal Prospero’s unusual character and reveal that death is always there and cannot be avoided.
In both stories Poe uses similar character traits to convey his message of how overconfidence could ultimately lead to death. Firstly, in “The Masque of Red death”, Prospero dies due to his pride and false belief that death can not touch him because of his high rank. The author exclaims, “And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious” (Poe300). Similarly, in “The Cask Of Amontillado”, Fortunato’s overconfidence and
First, in Poe’s life, his biological mom and his biological dad died of Tuberculosis when he was a kid. Later in his life, his foster mom also died from Tuberculosis. Then he went to live with his aunt and married his cousin virginia. In 1847, his wife Virginia then died of Tuberculosis. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, many people die of the Red Death, likely including people that Prince Prospero knew. This relates to the “The Masque of the Red Death” because both Poe and Prince Prospero knew people that died of a deadly epidemic. In addition, the symptoms of these two diseases are also similar. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, the symptoms of the red death include sharp pains, dizziness, bleeding from the pores, and most common symptom, blood stains on the victim’s bodies. Tuberculosis is also similar in symptoms because coughing a lot and coughing up blood are common symptoms. Therefore, this deadly epidemic affected Poe and his writing which caused him to write a story about an outbreak of a disease. In conclusion, the death of Poe’s wife, his gloomy childhood, and Tuberculosis influenced him to write the stories he
“The Masque of the Red Death” is a short tale about a king who rules a dominion plagued with a disease called the red death. The Prince decides to build a fortress that will hold many of his closest friends and relatives and keep the disease out. The castle in which the Prince and all of his closest friends are inside of, is a magnificent fortress that is lavish and decorated with a variety of colors for each apartment. Poe explains, “That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows.” In this quote, the use of imagery describes the first of seven apartments that hold guests for balls and entertainment. In addition, the last of the seven apartments described is a black room that in itself symbolizes the red death. In this room stands a clock that clangs every hour and when the clock begins to clang. Everything in the fortress seems to stop while the clock clangs. Poe describes the clocks clang very vividly, to set the mood of the seventh room and what it is like. Poe states “Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang.” This example of imagery uses the hearing sense, and it helps the reader understand the mood of the room. Poe wants this room to be creepy, dark, and scary and conveys that clearly through the use of
“The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave.” (page 389). Prince Prospero demanded the stranger to be seized and unmasked, however no one wanted to be the one to do it. Even Prince Prospero was too much of a coward to approach the stranger. The stranger or Red Death, ends of killing the Prince with his dagger and the others as well. Poe describes Red Death as “coming like a thief in the night”. None of us know the day or hour of our own death, but eventually we will all die.
In the story, “Masque of the Red Death” it covers six months during the Red Death.It takes place in a castle which has seven different colored rooms.In the beginning of the story it describes the main character prince Prospero as happy,fearless and wise. Towards the end of the story a new guest appears to the party and everyone is scared and Prospero goes from being happy to mad and in the end the new guest kills Prospero and everyone dies because he was the Red Death. The message in this analogy ,”The Masque of the Red Death “ by Poe is life passes by so quick that you don't realize what's going on until it's your time to die.
The first symbolic mean of death is depicted in the seventh room in the suite. Poe says,
The literature of Edgar Allan Poe can either be viewed as extremely simple or incredibly complicated, and his short story "The Masque of The Red Death" is no exception. This story can either be viewed as a simple story of horror, with no deeper imbedded meanings, or it can be broken down into many symbols with several possible meanings. Perhaps this story tells of the struggle between man and death, perhaps it speaks of an author's struggles and dreams, or perhaps it was merely written as a tale of horror. Arguments can be made to support all of these overall themes, and there are even more points of view offered about the story that can be explored if someone wishes to find a view with which he or she can better understand or identify.
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 tone that Poe achieves in The Masque of the Red Death is terror, alarm, and overall, horror. Poe wanted his reader to leave the piece not being able to stop thinking about it, to walk away with fear in their mind, bones, and heart. Poe achieves this through the words he uses and how he uses them. Poe’s structural style is very ridged, he does this in order to keep the flow of his writing very strong and smooth. In The Masque of the Red Death he makes each of his paragraphs about one topic, by doing this he is able to choose extremely specific language to coincide with each idea. The other aspect of Poe’s writing that assists in his success is the words he uses, or the colour of his writing. One cannot argue the fact that Poe does not have a sheer talent in the choosing of the words, not a single word is written that does not donate to the over atmosphere of the writing. Poe depends on the vividness and dramatic quality of each of the words he chooses. The way he describes the Red Death as “scarlet stains” which appeared upon the face of the victim to the “scarlet” window pane which illuminated the black of the seven coloured room. Poe’s explicit word choice adds to not only the success of his composition but also adds to the feeling of the
When confronted with the red death “the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all” (Poe 116). Feeling shame, the prince realizes that he could not escape from death no matter what he did. People in rage tend to do things hurriedly and for Prospero this triggers a flight or fight reaction. Before he would flight as he ran away from the red death by hiding in his castle but now he decided to fight it instead, therefore the conflict in Prospero gets resolved once he made a decision. It was only after the Prince’s death did the guests fight the figure as well “Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revelers at once threw themselves into the black apartment ,” (Poe 116) and ended up dying as well. Unanimously they all joined at once to kill the red death and it shows that the revelers having a conflict with the red death as they only go after the Prince is dead because of how afraid they were before. This was the last straw before the guests finally realized the truth about , and it also initiates a fight or flight reaction like Prospero and they decide to fight which ends with their