Garden Of Stubborn Cat Analysis

Symbolism is used frequently to portray a message to the reader without directly saying what it is to the reader and it is a beautiful way to expand the audience’s mind as to what it could possibly mean. Within two heavily symbolic stories, “The Masque of the Red Death,” and, “The Garden of Stubborn Cats,” have deep symbolic messages that both relate and contrast to each other. While “The Masque of the Red Death,” has messages relating to death and the eneviatably of running away from things that are already set to happen, “The Garden of Stubborn Cats,” focuses more on the lack of mystery of the natural world caused by man’s nature to become more in control of things that go around them. But, in comparison, both stories deal with forces that have been personified, things that cannot be avoided, and becoming things that one fears. “The Masque of the Red Death,” has an abundant amount of symbolism that ranges from subtle details, to plain out personification throughout the story. It is extremely ominous and dreamlike, which helps to show it’s dark and death-oriented messages. To achieve the desired theme and mood Poe desired, he uses dream-like settings and use of words to indicate that

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