Comparing The Masque Of The Red Death And The Black Cat

Edgar Allen Poe wrote many stories throughout his lifetime, all of which tie to the gothic horror genre. Two prime examples of these stories are The Masque of the Red Death and The Black Cat. Each story provides evidence of characteristics representing the writing type of gothic literature. The stories expose the traits such as unusual psychology, horrible death, dark isolated setting, and exaggerated emotions. All of which create the eerie, dark, or almost demonic tone. The first story being the The Masque of the Red Death displays the attributes of gothic literature through depicting a dark, isolated setting. The story tells of a man of royalty isolating himself and his friends from the horrendous “red death”, a disease sweeping across the world he knows killing everyone affected. Poe explains this by writing; “These retired to deep seclusion of one of his castle abbeys” (1). The description of

The story is of a man distraught and changed from his struggles with alcoholism. He became an abusive husband and pet owner. His wife was disturbed by the acts of violence committed by her husband. Poe describes a scenario of which the wife attempts to stop the man from killing the cat; “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot”(19). The brutal murder of the man’s wife is a prime trait for the gothic composition. The man’s unusual psychological state possessed him to dispose of the corpse by hiding it in the wall of his home. The narrator depicts the scene by explaining, “I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the thing up as before”(Poe 21). Poe graphically fabricates the gory occurrences in this story by the inhumane narrator and his own insanity. The gothic writing piece of The Black Cat gives insight to the horrific thoughts and material produced in that