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Irony In The Masque Of Red Death

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Has fear ever caused you to commit an act you knew was morally wrong? Fear can get a hold of someone and completely change their morals, concerns, or how they feel about certain people. It can cloud your mind and make you think irrationally in certain situations. Fear is a feeling that can harm someone emotionally and physically. In stories such as: “The Tell-Tale Heart”, ”The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Masque of Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe displays the use of symbolism, irony, and imagery to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. A recurring theme in his stories is that the main character acts irrationally or uncharacteristically because he is driven by fear. Symbolism in the “Tell-Tale Heart” represents a certain extent of fear. In …show more content…

The major contribution to irony in the text was Prince Prospero’s acts: “...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”(57). While the rest of his kingdom dies he locks himself and the rest of his friends in his castle. That shows terrible leadership and faith towards his kingdom, which only adds more irony to his name Prospero. His acts intentions were to avoid the Red Death and live longer. However, death is inevitable. He figures his selfish act was “heroism” but trying to save the few people he wants to only secures their death as the Red Death took each of their lives one by one that …show more content…

He is very good at painting a picture with is words. In “The Pit and Pendulum”, the readers visualize the scenes before them and understands the fears and trauma the narrator goes through. The imagery in this story was mostly about fear and the anticipation of what’s to come next. “...stepping with all the careful distrust with which certain antique narratives had inspired me.”(65). Unlike how most people would panic and start wandering, which would probably lead to them falling in the pit. The narrator handles the situation logically and hopefully because of his fear of the unknown and what could be in the room. His careful acts served him right because they led to him overcoming the tortures and punishments. You see the use of symbolism in “The Tell-Tale Heart” used to show the representation of death in the eye. Irony in “The Masque of Red Death” showing Prince Prospero’s failure. And imagery showing how hope and logic leading to success in “The Pit and the Pendulum”. 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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“The Masque of the Red Death” shows an abundant amount of fear. When the country went into fear of the Red Death, “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure . . . All these and security were within. Without the Red Death” (Poe 430). The prince created a safe place for his people.

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The Masque of the Red Death has a lot of symbolism that has to do with the circle of life- such as the different colors of the seven rooms each meaning one stage of life. The stages of life obviously have relations to death, possibly even being centered around it. The thought is just so artistically

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Same Technique, Different Purpose Descriptive scenery or imagery is used throughout literature for a variety of purposes. It can be used to paint a mental picture of the setting, to portray symbols, or even to relay themes. The authors Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allan Poe exemplify the use of the same technique, descriptive scenery, to deliver different purposes. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe both use imagery in order to characterize characters and foreshadow events.

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(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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Poe uses symbolism a lot in his stories to make his writing have a more eerie feeling. ”The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Masque of Red Death” both have symbols that induce fear into the main characters hearts. In The Tell-Tale Heart Poe writes “...for it was no the old man who vexed me but his evil eye “(75).The narrator kills an innocent old man for that hr thought the old man's eyes were judging. Although the old man just had cataracts ,the narrator could not stand the man for his eye he compared looked as vulture's eye. The narrator was afraid of this old man and his “evil eye”.

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Summer Reading and Writing Assignment In “The Masque of Red Death”, a story written by Edgar Allan Poe, there are a lot of literary features used in order to write the story effectively and to create deeper meaning which gives the opportunity for the readers to analyze the text hence making the story a literary text. Even though there are features such as irony used in the story, the main literary features used by the author are symbolism, imagery and descriptive writing. First of all, there are huge amounts of symbolism used in the story where the major one would be the Red Death. Not only does the red death symbolize death itself but it also symbolizes how unavoidable it is.

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Running Head: LITERARY CRITICISM Literary Criticism of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death James Williams Thornwood High School Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19th, 1809. His family had many actors such as his mother. Poe’s father however, was a lawyer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was three years old and then his father abandoned him.

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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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Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Edgar Allen Poe writes about guilt controlling a person’s actions caused by fear. Throughout this short story Poe uses literary devices to make his story. He uses point of view, theme, and symbolism to his advantage to help make the story better when reading it.

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He refers to himself as Death, implying he has all knowledge and power over the old man. The reader becomes filled with dread as the man patiently waits to kill. The imagery portrayed in “The Tell-tale Heart” increases the demented tone that the narrator projects as the main character waits to strangle the old man. Every night, for a week, the murderer would “look in” upon the victim as he slept.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s frightening gothic style poetry and short novels about fear, love, death and horror are prominent to Gothic Literature and explore madness through a nerve-recking angle. The incredible, malformed author, poet, editor and novelist is recognized for his famous classical pieces such as “The Raven”, “Berenice” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, pieces of work that mystically yet magnificently awakens readers with a gloomy spirit. Awakening the subject of madness through written work was viewed as insane during Poe’s times. Yet Poe published some of the worlds most magnificently frightening pieces of literature throughout history. In the following essay I will examine and cautiously analyze

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In Poe’s stories, the main characters experience fear, but they all handle it distinctively. Poe uses irony, symbolism, and imagery to show how fear affects the narrator’s mindset, along with their future.     In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of Red Death”, the main characters try to isolate themselves from evil, but Poe uses irony to show that death is inevitable.

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This shows that he could not control all of the emotions inside of him at that moment like guilt, anger, and remorse; those actions clearly show that the narrator was a character who was revealed to be weak through the use of conflict. Lastly, the example from “Masque of the Red Death” is how Prince Prospero had succumbed to the Red Death after trying to hide from it. This shows a part of his character, it shows that the prince tends to run away from problems. That led to his demise when he could not run anymore and was forced to confront the Red Death.

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“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is an enthralling and terrifying tale of an insane and paranoid Narrator suffocating his own roommate in his sleep. Throughout the story, fear and dread is a common theme. At every twist and turn Poe creates a sense of uneasiness. Using this, Edgar Allen creates fear and dread through the Characters, Conflict, and Suspense, making the “The Tell-Tale Heart” a scary, and captivating story. Edgar Allen Poe creates fear and dread in “The Tell-Tale Heart” through his characters, more specifically the Narrator.

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