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Edgar Allan Poe Influences

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The impact of the tragedies in Edgar Allan Poe’s life has undoubtably influenced the subject matter of his works. This, to me, has created one of the best authors of his time. In Poe’s lifetime, and literature, he had been portrayed as sort of a gothic author with themes like jealousy, death, and the fear of death; Symbolisms such as clocks; to the personification of death. Most, if not all, of Poe’s writings are focused around loss and the idea (and reality) of death. Edgar Allan Poe has loved and lost. His choice in works reflects the two, however, it is in that loss that created the beautifully dark author he grew into. According to the article, “Poe’s Life: Who was Edgar Allan Poe?” By Poe Museum, Poe has gone through many trials and tribulations. …show more content…

In, The Masque of the Red Death (p.438-442), Poe uses foreshadowing to paint a picture of how vastly people try to escape certain experiences. “This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion” (p.438). Along with foreshadowing there are also symbols such as a clock and the color red. The clock stands for not being able to escape death. Edgar Allan Poe repeats the phrase “to and fro” (p.439, 440, 441) several times to not only explain the pendulum of the clock, but to explain the motion of the dancers, and the guests in the seven rooms when they were running from death. Poe uses the personification of death to personalize the intimacy of death. “He had come like a thief in the night” (p. 442). The way Poe speaks of death in this particular piece explains to the reader that no one can escape this being that will inevitably catch up and take us all, “like a thief” (p. 442) He explains death by creating an unknown guest. “The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse...” (p. 441) Not only does Poe personify death, but he creates a reality for the clock, “And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock” (p.440) along with bringing death to the clock with the final person in the haven, “And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay” (p. 442). The color

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Edger Allen Poe is an incredible author of horror. His story, The Masque of the Red Death, was an amazing chiller about a party that was ended by a disease. Throughout the kingdom a disease is spreading from citizen to citizen, killing each one who possesses it so the king invites those closes to him to a party where no one can leave and will be safe from the disease but yet in hindsight they were locking themselves in with the disease. Throughout the course of this hair-raising story, several symbols are represented to array Poe’s theme of death. Symbols such as the seven colored rooms, the clock, and lastly the Red Death are all symbols that are displayed to help get Poe’s notion across.

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706 Words | 3 Pages

(87). This part of the story shows that no matter how hard you try or how much money you have, you cannot escape or cheat dead. One last example of symbolism being used in this story is Prince Prospero rushing through the rooms chasing the Red Death. “It was then, however, that Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers….” (87).

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695 Words | 3 Pages

Poe wrote in the “Masque of the Red Death,” “The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men,” (Poe 1). It goes to show to what length people will go to survive. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor's cellar represented the embodiment of death

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495 Words | 2 Pages

In Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, many symbols are used to justify the overall purpose and meaning of the story. These symbols include the ebony clock, the seven chambers, the scarlet and black room, and the Red Death itself. Each of these symbols help characterize the Prince and his guests, along with foreshadowing the overall outcome of the story. First of all, the seventh chamber and ebony clock not only provide a sense of eeriness, but reveal the underlying personalities and outcomes of the characters. For example, Zapf writes, “In the process of the story, of course, the seventh chamber more and more becomes the center of attention, and with it the clock of ebony which symbolizes the structure of temporality underlying and terminating all human

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648 Words | 3 Pages

In the end Poe’s writing represents fear and how it can distort your thoughts and make you take a turn for the worst. Or in some cases, usually more rarely, the better, as in “The Pit and the

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912 Words | 4 Pages

To enhance his allegory of death in “Masque of the Red Death,” Poe expresses a person should not dwell or fear their death through his portrayal of the clock, the mummer, and the tripods. Poe uses the clock to symbolize time passing. During the masquerade, Poe had a clock inside and every came with a more unsettled feeling. This is referenced multiple times throughout the story and the speaker

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356 Words | 2 Pages

The life of Edgar Allen Poe can best be described as was that he was poor and that he had a rough life. His writing is about death and sadness. He wrote about death because he wanted to kill someone. Also, he wrote about his dying wife. The author uses personification and symbolism to create a Dark Mood that reveals a theme that death is never the answer to solve your problems.

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1394 Words | 6 Pages

The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6).

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716 Words | 3 Pages

Poe conveys the theme no one, no matter their resources can escape reality, especially when just shrouding themselves in luxury with the use of an ebony clock, a masquerade, and a stranger. Along with the theme he also teaches a lesson on social classes and the faults within them as well. Throughout the story “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses an ebony clock to symbolize with a ringing of impending doom to symbolize how the Courtiers knowingly left the world for its death

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995 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story Edgar Allen Poe caps off the deaths of everyone with, “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night”(pg.10). This allusion shows that like judgement day, the Red Death swept in swiftly and unexpectedly. The allusion shows that death is a force that will consume even the best of men. Another addition to this thought may be seen in the following source; “The description at the beginning of the text of the peculiar symptoms of the disease which haunts the world of Poe 's story makes it clear that it is no force above, beyond, or in any way

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855 Words | 4 Pages

Though Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories like, The Cask of Amontillado, to his poems like, The Raven, Poe’s shows his writing style to use physical imagery and connotative syntax to show ,imagery in his writing. Throughout his life, Poe had always lived through the most chaotic and evil of time. His parents died while he was 3 years old. After his parents died, he lived with another family member who never accepted him as their own son. Later on in life, Poe had served in the military and at that point he started writing poems.

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

Poe's symbolism is shown in the clock, a symbol of our life passing by, the masquerade, a symbol of distraction, and the masked figure, a symbol of the death we cannot hide from. The story teaches us that cheating death is not something we can do even if you hide from it or ignore it for death will find everybody taking the only life we have. Poe provides excellent forms of symbolism to depict his hidden meanings, making the reader consider what he is describing. Poe's tells a story pointing out that cheating death is impossible no matter the measures you take to prevent

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918 Words | 4 Pages

The clock is black because black symbolizes death, which can mean that the clock could also mean one’s time left until death. The next example is Prince Prospero; his name representing prosperity. By hiding in his abbey and building iron gates, he symbolizes human desire to escape death. As he tries to hide from death, it is ironic that death walks undetected into his abbey that was so heavily guarded. The final example of

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2063 Words | 9 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author; he mainly focused in genres such as short stories and poems. Poe didn’t have much of an academic background in literature but, he excelled in it. Some people believe that his success was mostly due to the fact that his life was very sad, filled by a series on misfortunate events, such as being an orphan, suffering from poverty and being constantly surrounded by death. In his works, Poe portrays narratives that are characterized by their mystery and macabre. The topic of death was ever present in his work, constantly describe with dark moods and somewhat terrifying settings.

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958 Words | 4 Pages

It is fairly easy to miss, as it is only mentioned within a couple sentences, “He had come like a thief in the night,” and, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” Both of these indicate a big presence of religion and the end of the world, as, “He had come like a thief in the night,” is a line in the Bible, when Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians to repent their sins, because Jesus can come at any time. Poe uses both of these sentences to indicate that death can come and strike whenever it wants, therefore, representing the end of the world and perhaps in this case, and that you cannot hide from it as Prince Prospero and his guests

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