Rationalism In The Masque Of The Red Death

The small things in life may not seem as important as power and wealth, but in the end your social ranking doesn’t determine someone's whole life. This is seen is the short pieces The masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, The devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Benet, and The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving. In all of these stories the authors all have one major thing in common, they are Romantics. Romantics believed in the use of the imagination and caring about more important things like nature. This group of people formed against the Rationalists, who believed that you should base everything off knowledge and facts. Rationalists held themselves as superior to the Romantics, which heavily influenced the Romantics writings.

This is shown in The Masque of the Red Death, where the main character, Prince Prospero, only invites people of high fortune to stay with him in his castle. The Prince was a wealthy character, Poe solidifies this, “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure”(Poe 96). Making Prince Prospero out to be a rich man was intentional. Poe was acknowledging the outcome of the story, that it wouldn’t matter how much money one has. People with more money were seen as a higher power and were treated with more respect. Romantics were looked down upon in some aspects because they valued other things that seemed less important, such as, nature. In the end Poe proves how people are all the same and will come to an inevitable

Walker told his wife what had happened and the opportunity that had fallen before him. With these intentional risks Irving portrays Walker's wife as a materialistic person, “All her avarice was awakened at the mention of hidden Gold, and she urged her husband to comply with the black man’s terms”(irving 8). Irving reveals that Walker's wife doesn’t care about the consequences and thinks money is the most important thing in life. She was blinded by what she thought she wanted and didn’t think of any other outcome other than becoming rich. People shouldn’t jump to conclusions and should take time to think about decisions because making the wrong one can result in regret. The same theme is captured in Stephen Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster. After Jabez Stone made a deal with the Devil Benet depicts Jabez as being happy as ever, “Pretty soon, he was one of the prosperous people of the country… All in all, you might say the Stone family was as happy and contented as cats in dairy” (Benet 8). Jabez was tired of his bad luck and his failures, and wanted to flourish in his life. He ended up succeeding economically, but mentally he was guilty and didn’t feel right. He was trying to prove his wealth so others wouldn’t look down on him, but he ended up looking down on himself, indicating that money should not define someone. Benet was illustrating people, such as