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How Does The Masque Of Death Affect Poe's Death

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The following Poe stories: “The Fall of The House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Masque of The Red Death”, and “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof Fether” contain themes, characters, and things that reference Poe’s real life experiences, that focus of the darker parts of human nature, most notably for these madness and isolation. Edgar Allen Poe is a poet/story-teller who is known for his more iconic works such as “The Raven” and “The Tell Tale Heart”, which earned him the title of “The Master of Horror”. Poe’s works are heavily influenced by tragic events that have transpired throughout his life-the first being the death of his biological mother who died of Tuberculosis (A disease that affects Poe in multiple instances throughout …show more content…

A house that gives off a soul crushing aura according to the narrator “with an utter depression of soul that I can compare to no earthly sensation in “The Fall of The House of Usher”, or like in “The Cask of Amontillado” were the crypt is full of dead people and under water where Fortunato was encased by someone posing as a friend who before was urging him to go back to express his sadistic nature, “Come, we will go back before it is too late. Your cough --". And a mad house in a dense forest at the base of a mountain that is separated from the rest of society and is under the control of madmen in “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether”, “The area was separated from the rest of society so that the system would be free from intrusion”. In all of these their location is complementary to their madness and builds up the mood and tone for the stories. Poe also builds tension by describing the settings in specific ways using words that build up suspense. In “The Masque of The Red Death” “no pestilence had ever been so fatal” was used to show how dire the situation is. In “The Fall of The House …show more content…

In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator is in conflict with his friend for some unknown reason as he withholds this information, this causes him to take dangerous actions that could be considered mad that make his friend fear for his life, actions like, “I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche”. In “The Masque of The Red Death” the prince isolates himself from the disease that ravages his country which leads him to conflict with the mysterious figure since in reality no one is safe not even a powerful prince regardless of a so-called sanctuary “All these and security within, without was the Red Death”. In “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” the one in charge of the madhouse is mad himself and isolates the building from the rest of the world so people can intrude on his madness or the other lunatics. “He admitted not visitors at all” In The Fall of “The House of Usher Roderick” has been isolated in a gloomy atmosphere that supplements his madness “in this mansion of gloom” this is further shown by him stating the house has some sort of phantasm force. These aspects help Poe develop the themes of his stories which often involve madness conflict and

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569 Words | 3 Pages

One of his major stories is: “The Raven” this story is considered a great American literary work. Poe started to write about death and loss and was very successful with his new theme and style. Some of the most successful stories are: “The Tell Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” These stories show how talented Poe was when his stories focused on horror.

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Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be one of the leading writers of the Gothic Romantic period of literature. One of Poe’s famous short stories, The Fall of the House of Usher, creates a dark and sorrowful atmosphere, with a deep story of connection between brother and sister intertwined within. Poe conveys this atmosphere through powerful and elaborate use of diction, to tie into the overarching theme of tradition. Poe is renowned throughout history for his beautiful and elaborate use of diction and symbolism. He uses copious amounts of description to conjure up vivid scenes in the reader’s mind.

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351 Words | 2 Pages

In "The Masque of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe, Prince Prospero's evolution from fear to bravery in his encounter with the Red Death, Poe captures Prospero's transition from initial fear to bravery or impulse, through irony, visual imagery, and foreshadowing. Initially, Prospero believes himself and his followers to be above the reach of the Red Death, he retreats into his abbey, fortifying its walls and hosting a masquerade ball as if he can run from the Red Death. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” This is ironic because the guests, who believe they can escape death by hiding in the abbey, ultimately meet their demise within its walls during what was supposed to be a festive event.

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The stories “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Man of the Crowd” by Edgar Allan Poe are similar in their setting, mood, main characters, and topics such as symbolism, conflict, and foreshadowing. Poe has a specific writing style that makes his works similar and easily identifiable. Poe tends to write about sickness and death. These topics reflect greatly on his life and show through in many of his works. When Poe was young he was adopted by a rich family, Mr. and Mrs. John Allen; he did not have a very good relationship with Mr. Allen.

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488 Words | 2 Pages

Was Edgar Allen Poe a man both blessed and cursed? According to various biographies written on Poe, some argue that he was the first to develop the popular genre known as “Gothic” literature. Poe bore a natural ability to write horrifying stories and poems that appealed to many people of his time, as well as film makers today. However, many of Poe’s misfortunes and tragedies in his personal life influenced his many dark writings, perhaps foreshadowing his own demise.

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He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is a hypochondriac, is very depressed. "I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.” This quote is showing, “FEAR” emphasizes that it’s the primary feeling Poe is attempting to evoke in this story.

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In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and in Julio Cortázar's short story, “House Taken Over”, both stories use very similar characters to show the terrible effects of loneliness and fear. Poe uses dramatic language and tormented characters to build suspense, while Cortázar uses simplistic language to emphasize how ridiculous fear can be. Poe’s character, Roderick Usher, “[suffers]...from a morbid acuteness of [his] senses” (Poe 10). The author uses negative connotations to describe his characters ailment, but he makes it unclear as to what Usher suffers from, all to create anticipation for the readers. Cortázar does not go into depth describing his characters, but the behavior they portray keeps the audience intrigued.

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In the allegorical story, “The Masque of the Read Death”, Poe, tries to express the human desire to avoid Death. The place and the time of the story portray social ignorance, since in the past death was a taboo that provoked terror in humanity. The consternation causes motivation in issues such as death dissolution or prevention. Poe finds himself motivated by death; in this work, his character Prince Prospero has strange tastes that represent death symbolically and makes a great effort to avoid it. First and foremost, the name Prospero is a metaphor; closely related to wealth and material prosperity.

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Modern artists today generally use images of physical and mental illness in literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, both short stories show the usage of illness, madness, and fear. The narrators in both stories try to convince the readers that the characters are physically and mentally ill. Edgar Allen Poe creates these vivid characters which successfully assist the building of plot and ideas. Poe demonstrates how a person’s inner turmoil and terror can lead to insanity through illustrative language.

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Horrific and mysterious deaths, dark and damp castles, cobweb infested chambers. These demonstrate examples of characteristics romantic writers at the time used in their writing. Romantic writers at the time used these characteristics to imply certain themes in their literature. In “The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero and other nobles lock themselves away in an abbey in beliefs it will keep him safe from the plague hitting their people. The Prince and other nobles feel so comfortably safe that they throw a masquerade, but at midnight a new figure arrived wearing a bloody cape and a mask.

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Edgar Allan Poe, is famously known for creating horrific stories and poems during Romanticism. His stories were extremely different and controversial for the time he had lived in. Differ from King his influences was not from other works of literature, simply because there were no works of horror. Poe created his own new genre that explored the mind and always had a deeper meaning, than just a dark tale. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, he wrote about how the mind cannot work without the body.

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773 Words | 4 Pages

The Masque of the Red Death examines the inevitability of death and showcases humans natural inclination to attempt to prolong the unavoidable. In The Masque of the Red Death the Red Death has plagued the countryside with impending doom and has created a constant threat of mortality. With the Red Death having killed half of the country and the looming threat of mortality, Prince Prospero attempts to seclude himself in an effort to avoid dying himself. “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” (Poe 1). This attempt to avoid death emphasizes Prince

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316 Words | 2 Pages

Reality is merely an outward expression of what we have chosen to accept and focus on in the world, but sometimes our imagination interferes with our ability to distinguish fact from fiction. The Isolation Roderick sustains, contributes significantly to his developing insanity and frailty to differentiate reality from imagination to Edgar Allan Poe's short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Uniquely, the environment in which Roderick confines himself in contributing to his psychological predicament. Even though the house itself is large, Roderick feels almost claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the melancholy atmosphere the house bestows.

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910 Words | 4 Pages

Another theme is the power of the dead over the living. Even when the cat dies he still haunts the narrator after life. This help the madness drive within the characters mind. A barrier is broken between life and death in “The fall of house Usher” the sister rises back in bloodied clothes and “The Fall of the House of Usher” the dead actually comes back to life. “It was …the figure of lady Madeline of House Usher” (Poe 515).

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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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