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The Masque Of Red Death Analysis

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The Distortion of Fear Everyone possesses the sense of fear caused by bad experiences, desensitization, or an obsession. Fear grants more caution and attention to specific actions. Having caution from fear stimulates your survival instincts. Secondly, having an experience with fear prevents injuries and recurring mistakes. It can also fabricate irrational thoughts in your mind, on top of paranoia, just like the characters in three stories written by Edgar Allan Poe. All the main characters in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Masque of Red Death,” experience fear from odd obsessions and/or punishments. Poe decides to use symbol, irony, imagery, and simile to reveal how these crazy obsessions lead to death or life, …show more content…

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the irony of the text is the old man’s death. The old man’s death was thought to be sarcastic, but the narrator’s intentions were serious. He was going to kill because of his humongous fear of the eye. The author notes, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Page 74). The quote said by the narrator seems to be a meer false threat to the old man, but the unexpected happens, and then the narrator actually takes the life of the old man. The irony reveals that the narrator will kill just to get rid of his fear. This results to the death of the old man and guilt brought onto the narrator. On the other hand, the irony affects the main character of “The Masque of Red Death,” differently. The irony addressed in “The Masque of Red Death,” is that death cannot be avoided, even if you have great affluence, death will eventually come. The fear of death that Prince Prospero possessed caused him to challenge death. Poe states, “There was a sharp cry-and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero.” (Page 61). Since Prince Prospero thought he could avoid death with his riches, death came to him to prove that he could not run away any longer. Prince Prospero then dies in result of the irony of the story …show more content…

It constantly provides caution to different activities and recurring mistakes. Without fear, more people could commit crimes and think it is okay, because they will not fear the punishment that will burden them in the future. On the flip side, fear can distort a person’s mind and have repercussions such as irrational thinking or even death. Fear can resort to paranoia and the lack of sleep. Fear can also restrict new experiences and progress in the world. To have a balance between the positives and negatives of fear, a strong mentality will be needed to prevent desensitization and illogical decisions. While facing fear, there must be a compromise between fear and decisions if not, sanity will be lost and death could occur in extreme conditions. In other words, there must be a balance between emotion and

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