ipl-logo

Themes Of Edgar Allan Poe And The Masque Of The Red Death

1167 Words5 Pages
Childhood Tragedies and Poems
From not having a father in his life to losing his mom to Tuberculosis at the age of two and being separated from his brother and sister, one might say that Edgar Allan Poe has had a terrible life. Poe was placed in foster care and later on was adopted by John and Frances Allan. The Allan’s gave Poe a childhood that he had never had before. However, as one might already know, something bad always happens to Poe. Sadly, John disowned Poe after he was discharged from the military for neglect of duty. It might be true that Poe had a terrible life, but all of the tragedies that he endured gave his life a purpose. He was able to use them to write magnificent stories and poems. One might even say that his poems are the mirror his own life. Poe uses the tragic experiences of his childhood as a theme in his works, “Annabel Lee” and “The Masque of the Red Death.”
Edgar Allan Poe’s poems are not like others, they are mysterious and have life stories applied to them. Many of Poe’s writings talk about love and loss, such as his poem “Annabel Lee”. The soul of his writing is based off on love and death of a beautiful young girl named Annabel Lee. Throughout the poem “Annabel Lee” Poe talks about the loss of Annabel Lee “And [how] neither the angels in Heaven above/ Nor the demons down under the sea/ Can ever dissever my soul from the soul/ Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; (Poe, “Annabel Lee” 30-33). Poe is saying that no angels or demons can take away his
Show More
Related
595 Words | 3 Pages

Poe also decides to leave the guests with wonder after the climax by adding “…untenanted by any tangible form” (Poe, 452). The quote proceeds to induce fear within the guests because they are now trapped with an invisible killer. The fear of death is strongly exhibited within the quote “…mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat” (Poe, 451). Death is the ultimate fear for the characters of this party and seeing a close resemblance

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

Poe uses Greek and Roman mythology and Christian biblical references in “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” to express the speaker’s grief, jealousy, and love. Poe uses lots of Greek and Roman mythology in his works. The speaker in “The Raven” says, “Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door.” When we see the word Pallas, we think of

Read More
2469 Words | 10 Pages

Author’s lives inspire their writing in many ways. An illustrious writer, Edgar Allan Poe, experienced continuous sufferings throughout his life. The heartaches he faced transferred into his writing. Poe’s works are dark and traumatic, such as “The Pit and the Pendulum.” He uses the unthinkable and shapes short stories out of them.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

People have always tried to avoid death, but they cannot. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” the characters are trying to avoid the Red Death, but they fail. Every hour an ebony clock chimes indicating that life is passing and death is close. People begin to die every minute once the Red Death enters.

Read More
961 Words | 4 Pages

The speaker’s relationship with his “lost Lenore,” seems to be an unexpected one. Lenore is referred to as an angel, while the narrator is surrounded by ghosts and evil feelings. The feeling of terror which was felt when the narrator opened the door to find “darkness there and nothing more,” could have been reduced had a light been nearby to illuminate the hallway, but the importance of the darkness shows the audience that the lack of religion and prayers of the narrator are taking a toll on him, as the seemingly lack of religious beliefs Poe had also affected his life. Not only did Poe allude to the evil aspects of religions in this poem, but he also threw in a few allusions that make the audience question what Poe’s beliefs truly were. Poe alludes to the Hellenistic story of Pallas Athena in line 41, the narrator points out that this Raven is “perched upon a bust of Pallas,” Poe specifically chose Pallas because she and Lenore relate to each other in the ways that the two of them will only live on in their names.

Read More
311 Words | 2 Pages

I believe Poe, who wrote “The Masque of the Red Death” 200 years ago could have been talking about modern day Ebola. There are many reasons for this. First, Poe would not have known about Ebola, since it didn't exist, and therefore couldn't have written his story based on it. Second, the symptoms in his story for the ‘Red Death’ do not match the symptoms of Ebola. In the story, it says there were “sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution”.

Read More
943 Words | 4 Pages

Poe writes: “But we loved with a love that was more than love…with a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me,” (Poe 193). Poe is alluding to his wife Virginia and using her death as a way to create the character of Annabel Lee who also dies as the narrator blames it on the angels, or seraphs, in heaven that covet their love. Once again, Bloom draws similarities between Annabel Lee and Poe’s life in the way that “Poe curiously blends the natural and supernatural, as ‘chilling and killing’ also suggests the all-too-real circumstances of death from tuberculosis,” (Bloom 2). In the poem, Poe mentions the chilling that killed Annabel Lee. This could be used as an allusion to the illness that took Virginia away from Poe.

Read More
280 Words | 2 Pages

Later, the speaker declares that neither angels nor demons “Can ever dissever my soul from the soul / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (32-33). Euphony occurs throughout the entirety of this quote, in phrases such as “my soul from the soul” and “the beautiful

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

This work can have countless meanings, but ultimately what Poe is trying to prove is that his loved one is lost forever, it 's contrary. Therefore if you will nevermore see your loved one, you are left with a sorrow forever. Here is another abstract example from the poem: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

From not even knowing who he was to being introduced and engrossed in a whole new world which was only known to him and his love, which he now shared with all his readers. The ending of this poem- from my point of view- was tragic yet strangely engaging for the audience. I can only simply accept that their love was not one to be long-lived , as it was forbidden. Although Annabel died in the end I cannot fault the poet, because even though she didn’t live a long life in which I pictured her growing old with Poe, I came to realise it didn’t matter. Poe would still continue to love her as he did before and to me, that was the beauty of it all, that he was able to love her regardless of her death.

Read More
751 Words | 4 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe had experienced a loss multiple times. Poe married his cousin when she was 13, he was 27. Both of Poe’s parents died in 1811 and so he was raised as a foster child. In the poem “Annabel Lee” he talks about how his love Annabel Lee passed away. In the poem “The Raven” he talks about his love, Lenore passing away and The Raven comes to him and is repetitive.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Though Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories like, The Cask of Amontillado, to his poems like, The Raven, Poe’s shows his writing style to use physical imagery and connotative syntax to show ,imagery in his writing. Throughout his life, Poe had always lived through the most chaotic and evil of time. His parents died while he was 3 years old. After his parents died, he lived with another family member who never accepted him as their own son. Later on in life, Poe had served in the military and at that point he started writing poems.

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Poe experienced lots of loss as a young man. He lost multiple people he loved throughout his life. Some most of the important poems he wrote was the “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee”. Poe carried his idea of death throughout these poems to capture his common themes, which was death and loss.

Read More
1553 Words | 7 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most notable poets as he has had many powerful and creative pieces that became very popular. As a young boy he had many problems growing up Poe lost his mother when he was only sixteen and left to fend for himself. Throughout his life he was a hopeless romantic who got into a lot of relationships. One of the most known relationships that he got into was with Annabel Lee in which he had created as his last poem before his unexpected death, Annabel Lee. At the time he wasn’t only mourning the death of Annabel Lee but also the death of his wife a few years back which is the reason that he wrote The Raven.

Read More
2063 Words | 9 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author; he mainly focused in genres such as short stories and poems. Poe didn’t have much of an academic background in literature but, he excelled in it. Some people believe that his success was mostly due to the fact that his life was very sad, filled by a series on misfortunate events, such as being an orphan, suffering from poverty and being constantly surrounded by death. In his works, Poe portrays narratives that are characterized by their mystery and macabre. The topic of death was ever present in his work, constantly describe with dark moods and somewhat terrifying settings.

Read More

More about Themes Of Edgar Allan Poe And The Masque Of The Red Death

Related Topics

Open Document