Brandon DeLeon
McCloud
English 2H
November 4, 2013
Avoiding Reality: “The Masque of the Red Death” Analysis
Throughout the gothic horror short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates the struggle of an egotistical prince who refuses to face the inevitable reality of death. Through the downfall of the protagonist, Poe establishes the idea that the inability to face reality often leads to the destruction of the mind. The downfall of the Prince is emphasized by Poe’s use of characterization, setting, and symbolism. In the short story, “Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allen Poe uses characterization to illustrate the psychological destruction of the Prince. Throughout the story, Prince Prospero struggles with
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And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away- they have endured but an instant- and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart” (424). The clock creates the idea of fear and shows the time for sanity running out. Once the clock strikes midnight Prospero’s psychological battle for survival is lost, resulting in the end of his life. The doors symbolism of stages of life demonstrates the downfall of the Prince. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Masque of Red Death” about a wealthy, mercenary Prince’s denial of reality parallels to the modern world we live in today. Society offers humans many ways to escape or hide from reality, allowing a person to view the world from the perspective they want to view it from. While there are natural ways to cope with reality such as listening to music, or getting lost in a novel, human’s tend to overuse the unnatural and rather deadly coping mechanisms such as drugs and alcohol, for they create a chemically altered state of mind. The story, “The Masque of Red Death” is about the psychological struggle of facing reality and the use of the mind to allow a person to feel exempt from it. Poe’s conveys the overall message of using distractions to hide from an inescapable reality can later cause the desolation of the
The standard perception concerning human limitations has it that the potential of humankind knows no bounds. Yet, the cycle of life disproves this recurrent opinion of human potential. Based upon the realistic scope of their own abilities, the phrase, “the sky’s the limit”, are well within the bounds of the timeless concepts of life and death. These ideas are common points amongst works of literature from the American Romantic Period. Moreover, one of the most prominent Romantics is Edgar Allan Poe, who utilizes seemingly natural attributes of human interactions, and expands them out of proportion in order to reveal the gloominess of those said attributes. Poe’s literary works encompass many aspects that are reflective of the Romantic Period; his works include the acknowledgement of nature or setting, emphasis on individuals and groups of people, and elements of the supernatural; such use of Romantic attributes also leads to a plausible interpretation of an indirect rejection of the establishment of religion. The utilization of these qualities appears frequently in Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, which is a fictional account of a burgeoned plague and its multitude of effects on the wealthy survivors. Furthermore, a key point in the short story is the particular choice of setting: a gothic quarantine, which intertwines many Romantic elements. In particular, the quarantine of “The Masque of the Red Death”, is a symbol of human limitations and the
Edgar Allan Poe was a brilliant poet who endured an incredibly harrowing life. It seemed as if everyone he became close to would decease before his eyes. His grim life served as inspiration for his work which take on eerie, nightmarish tones and themes, likely because those disturbing subjects are what he knew best. One of his poems greatly influenced by his life was “The Masque of the Red Death”. Some parts of the poem influenced by his life are Prince Prospero, the red death, and the theme of the inevitability of death.
Most are afraid of this happening, but there is no way they will ever be able to escape it. This happening is death. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is an iconic piece of gothic literature with a dark theme. He uses normal objects in his story such as rooms and hallways and gives them a deeper meaning to connect to the moral of the story. Poe’s short story is heavy with symbols which lead to the ultimate theme of his piece that there is no way to escape the inevitable no matter what your social standing may be. Poe showcases this thought through his many forms of symbolism to support this theme.
During his life, Edgar Allan Poe wrote many classic poems and short stories. Two of his most famous works are “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a man goes to visit his childhood friend and while there witnesses the fall of the Usher family line. “The Masque of the Red Death,” on the other hand, is about Prince Prospero’s attempts to keep death from his abbey and what ensues when death enters. Throughout both short stories, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of The House of Usher,” Poe enforces his theme of the fear of death, by carefully crafting the setting, characterization, mood, and point of view of each piece.
Death is an important theme in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red Death”.
When it comes to reading literature the most challenging yet important task is to understand the purpose of the author's writing. In Romantic era literature understanding the emotions and thoughts that are created in the reader's mind are essential to gaining a clear message that the writer is trying to send. In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” the narrator immediately introduces the “Red Death”; a disease that has been spreading throughout Prince Prospero’s country; killing his people within half an hour of contracting the disease. Throughout the story the author continuously uses diction and syntax to create suspense and evoke a grim tone to the reader. In the “Masque of The Red Death” Poe produces fearful imagery in the reader's mind through creating a supernatural presence in the setting.
Poe was the mad scientist of literature at the time. “The masque of the red death”, is one of Poe’s book. This book is about a rapid disease is spreading through the kingdom. The king “prospero” is happy locked away in his castle, with his wealthy friends, the “masqueraders”. The masqueraders and the King acted like
"Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying." Edgar Allen Poe provides us symbolically with the reaction of man to the pursuance of death that Jean Cocteau described before, in his gothic short story, "The Masque of the Red Death." Prince Prospero symbolizes the optimist who seeks to avoid death. The Masqueraders represent the pessimist-the carefree who seek to forget about death. The Masked Red Death is the ultimate realization and enlightenment of death's power over all-the realist view. Poe's work symbolically demonstrates the attitudes of man through Prince Prospero, the Masqueraders, and the Masked Red
A fascinating short storyteller of all times, Edgar Allen Poe has taken us through the mysterious adventure of “The Masque of the Red Death”. A lot of critics complement Edgar Poe’s work, which is known for being very obscure, strange and puzzling stories of all times. Clearly “The Masque of the red Death” falls into the same gothic category for Poe as it has the same taste. An irrational out breaker ends kills many people, so the elites and the kings are very worried and terrified in this short story. Death had come to everybody everywhere without looking at socioeconomic status.
The hidden message in Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is that death cannot be averted from humans because no matter what we do, our life in this world comes to an extent. In the story, there are two main characters, which are Prospero and the Red Death. There was a sickness in the kingdom that was killing many people. So Prospero decided to have a big party that only the rich can go to. When suddenly appeared the “person” with a costume that was known as the “Red Death”. The people were frightened of that person so, Prospero had chased him down, and discovered that it was nothing. He instantly fell to the grown and died, as well as the others in the party.
Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses
The “Masque of the Red Death” is a short tale of symbolism and allegory. Allegories can help the readers understand concepts that might be too difficult to comprehend otherwise. Everything from the set up of the rooms in the abbey to Prince Prospero's name has an underlying meaning. Poe’s uses of both positive and negative symbols to highlight the fact that no one can hide from death.
“Frail humanity can never escape the ravages of time”. Humans are born and will eventually die; it’s the cycle of life. No one can prevent death, but it does not stop people from trying to prolong life. Fate is inevitably predetermined; death is our predetermined fate. In the allegory “The Masque of the Red Death”, written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842, Poe teaches that death is predestined and that you cannot avoid fate. Poe focuses in on an unusual character, Prince Prospero, who displays strange characteristics in a time of woe. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe uses Prospero’s urge for power, struggle for power, and failure to get power, to enhance the theme of fate being ineludible.
Edgar Allen Poe was an American poet and short story writer, who specialized in the genres of horror and gothic writing. Poe’s work became so influential that he is “…credited with refining the short story form and inventing the modern detective story” (Slova ). In eighteen forty, Poe released one of his more well-known gothic short stories, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe relies heavily upon the use literary devices such as allegories, symbolism, and narration to convey his overall theme of how death and mortality are inevitable.
Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death.