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How Does Poe Use Symbols In The Masque Of The House Of Usher

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Symbolism has the potential to deliver a very powerful message, while conveying a hidden and more complex meaning behind the objects, characters, and places presented in a short story. Edgar Allan Poe cleverly weaves symbolic meaning into characters and objects in order to convey the central message of each short story. Symbolism creates a deeper understanding between the reader and message of each short story. In “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe effectively uses symbolism to reinforce theme. Poe uses a shifting color scheme and a clock of ebony in “The Masque of the Red Death” to reinforce the overall theme that death has dominion over all things. The color scheme shifts dramatically in the description of the rooms in the castle of Prince Prospero. The first six rooms are decorated with lively colors; however, Poe’s narrator describes the seventh room by declar-ing, “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls [. . .], but in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet – a deep blood color” (Poe 286). In constructing this room, Poe associates the colors black and red with time and death. The Scarlet, blood color, is used by Poe to emphasize the power death holds, while the gloomy black drapes and carpet create the ominous sense of mourning and grief that death brings. Prince Prospero attempts to block death out; however, the presence of death is felt everywhere …show more content…

By understanding the meaning of each symbol, the reader gains a deeper insight to the overall message of the short story. Poe proves symbolism to be an effective tool to add depth and meaning to the central theme, while still enhancing reader’s

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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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According to Roman Jakobson, “In poetic language, in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified literature.” This quote portrays the meaning that symbolism is the poetic and creative use of elements, such as objects and words to portray the critical details and intrinsic meaning in a piece of literature. In essence, think of yourself a pristine art gallery and you are observing an inspiring, captivating, beautiful portrait, and you see an impeccable phoenix. Although, you capture this perspective someone else may interpret the portrayal of hope and immortality. Moreover, the story Pink and Say, authored by Patricia Polacco offers a superfluity of examples of symbolism that completely adds a definition of meaning to the text in terms of the main characters and plot.

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When an author uses symbolism, a dove can symbolize peace, and a black bird can be the picture of death. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities in a story through motions, words and objects. It evokes a spark in the reader to give them an opportunity to get an insight of the writer’s mind and how they view the world. Symbolism works together with other writing tools to create a deeper meaning in a story like Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin. Baldwin created a big picture with little symbols that he worked in throughout his story.

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All writings, whether fictional or nonfictional, have a purpose. Whether it’s an argument or a theme, the author is trying to convey something. The use of rhetorical devices can help express the author’s point. Then “The Masque of the Red Death,” a gothic short story by Edgar Allan Poe, symbolism and allusion are used to express the theme that death is inevitable. Unlike most, “The Masque of the Red Death” is jampacked with symbolism, the two most prominent being that of the seven rooms and the large ebony clock.

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This example of symbolism was the one that stands out the most. The 7 chambers of Edgar Allen Poe are similar to the 7 stages of life of William Shakespeare. While Prince Prospero is rushing through the

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Beginning with diction: To put it plainly, diction is the overall word choice the author chooses to use within their story to provide a variety of meanings, set particular tones, etc. Edgar Allen Poe’s complex diction further heightens the eerie atmosphere and foreboding suspense that frequently lingers within his iconic Gothic short stories, and are all the more present within Masque of the Red Death. It’s evident that Poe pays attention to connotation and meticulously chooses words that best convey the unsettling imagery that he’s going for, as shown when the narrator was describing the 7th room, “But in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in

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Symbolism expresses many things in a story. One example is that the color blue is found throughout the story itself. It symbolizes tidiness which Granny appreciates a lot. The color is shown everywhere in the story like in a reference of her husband, when she dies and, in this quote “Their eyes followed the match and watched the flame rise and settle in a blue curve, then they moved away from her (Porter, Page 624).

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In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe creates strong images of various decorative rooms which have been designed to go from east to west. This is no coincidence, as the rooms seem to imitate the course of the sun from daytime to nighttime, or even the course of human life- birth to death. The first room, coated in the colour blue, represents the freedom and tranquility felt by the guests in the castle. In contrast, the final room, coated in the colour black symbolises the fear and despair felt by the guests in relation to death and its inevitability.

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An air of gloom, anguish and despair, with a hint of melancholy and a feathery apparition haunting the mind of a young scholar who is burdened by bereaved love and has secluded himself behind his chamber door, in a room full of bittersweet memories. Such is the work of Edgar Allan Poe, specifically, that of The Raven. Published on the 29th of January 1845, The Raven instantly became a hit and Poe’s most famous work. Oftentimes when discussing the gothic genre, many may immediately think of Poe, but in which sense is his work truly gothic? In the Raven, Poe conforms to a plurality of conventions characterised as typically gothic in order to effectively illustrate what effect the loss of a loved one can have on the mind.

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The last example of symbolism is the curse of bad luck that the angel puts on the narrator. The curse is an example of symbolism because some believe that the angel can represent alcohol, so the story is showing how alcohol can ruin your

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The entire short story can be envisioned as a scary dream. Poe sets the tone of the story in the very beginning, stating, “The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood,” (Poe 3). This sets an emphatically dark and horrific tone for the reader, which carries into the plot of the story.

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