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Edgar allan poe masque of red death symbolism
How is death symbolisied in the masque of red death
How is death symbolisied in the masque of red death
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Poe uses Gothic diction to explain the dire significance of the red death, while also creating an ominous mood. Early in the story the speaker introduces the devastation that the Red Death causes. The speaker describes the effects as “So fatal.” (1.1) The word fatal is often used when regarding something that causes death.
Though Poe took the short story in an entirely different sort of direction, some speculate that he got the idea from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Not only did he name the prince “Prospero” like the main character in “The Tempest,” but he also devised the plague from it. In “The Tempest,” the antagonist, Caliban, screams out, demanding the “red plague” kill Prospero. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe refers to it differently, initially saying that the part was “without the ’Red Death,’” (Poe 15).
This story of death works out, because Edgar Allen Poe gives good use to author’s craft. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, symbolism, and setting to create an effective story. In the “Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses description to give imagery.
The narrative follows a prince, throwing a masquerade in his evidently humongous castle. Poe’s choice of using highly elevated words further establishes that the main characters within this story are of the high class. This description is also an indirect characterization of Prince Prospero, as it goes to show his not-so-subtle
The author explained, “The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous,” (Poe 1). You can basically feel and almost touch the suspense especially towards the end when the plot twists
In “The Masque of the Red Death,” written just before his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Poe personifies Death as it enters a costume ball held by a wealthy young man at his palatial quarters and pursues him and his guests. Poe ostensibly might have coupled his personal experiences with death and his pre-estrangement life as a member of a wealthy family to show that no matter who you are, death cannot be avoided. Indeed, in “the Mask of the Red Death,” the uninvited guest takes the life of not only the wealthy Prince but the lives of the other revelers as well. The Red Death was a fictionalized plague; one of its symptoms was causing its victims to sweat blood. In reality, the first sign that Poe’s young wife, Virginia, had tuberculosis was
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," the most important thing is the red death. The first reason why the red death is important is because of how they set the castle up. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story he said, "They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within" (Poe). This quote proves that they locked themselves inside a castle so no one could get in or out, this is important because if the red death spread everyone would die.
The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6).
The courtiers are invited to the wondrous castle of Prince Prospero for avoidance of the Red Death. It is when these dames enter this magnificent structure that one finds their false importance. The courtiers “brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts” of the castle to try to escape the peasants outside contaminated with the Red Death (Poe 83). The courtiers represent a high-class category of a society. This quote connecting to the courtiers shows that members of a high class are supposedly more worthy of life and protection against the destruction of the Red Death.
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.
In contrast, The peasants mean nothing to him because they’re not worth of any value. The ignorance comes from Prospero’s delusional views of the world. As said before, Prospero doesn’t do anything because he looks the world through a different perspective. It ties in with his selfishness because since the Red Death has not affected him and instead ignores the harsh reality and lives in his own fantasy. “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure.
A brave leader gives hope to his people in times of need and does not hide behind walls in seclusion and lets his people suffer and perish. It is unfortunate that Prince Prospero, because of his great fear of death, tries to thwart it by building a fortressed castle and hiding behind these impenetrable walls. He must have thought that hiding and secluding inside his castellated abbey with his chosen friends could have protected him from the Red Death. However, his “castellated abbey” fails, because death is inevitable.
The simile Poe uses is by comparing the red death to a thief. The figurative language of personification and simile of the red death contribute to the tone of the story. The red death is described as, “ He had come like a thief in the night” (Poe 3). This contributes to the tone because Poe gives the story a more ominous sense by giving the red death human characteristics of a thief as well as comparing the red death to a thief that steals.
Despite the belief that one can live forever, death is certain. Edgar Allen Poe wrote his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” with a greater meaning than simply the Red Death, or plague. He wrote this story, symbolizing the stages of life. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the symbols of the hallway, the rooms, and the braziers, to enhance the allegory, and to show how death is inevitable and one can not spend their life worrying about it.
The entire short story can be envisioned as a scary dream. Poe sets the tone of the story in the very beginning, stating, “The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood,” (Poe 3). This sets an emphatically dark and horrific tone for the reader, which carries into the plot of the story.
