Edgar Allan Poe incorporated his own life into his stories and poems by including his emotions and difficulties with the death of his loved one's, alcoholism, and the afterlife. The death of Poe’s loved ones affected him greatly, and this is shown in many of his poems/stories. In his short story, The Masque of the Red Death, he states, “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall… And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” This is saying that the Red Death, which we can infer symbolizes tuberculosis, is killing everybody, and leaving darkness everywhere. This connects to …show more content…
In the story, the Red Death is everywhere, and sneaks about like a thief. In Poe’s life, it seems like tuberculosis is surrounding and haunting him, and it appears when he least expects, killing the people he holds dearest. This is very similar to what happens in the story, which proves that Edgar Allan Poe includes the feelings of his own life in his writings. His difficulties with alcoholism is also incorporated into his text. A piece of evidence from his short story The Black Cat says, “But my disease grew upon me-for what disease is like alcohol!-And at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish-even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper.”. This shows that the man in this story was an alcoholic, and it lead to him doing dreadful things in his life. Unfortunately, Poe also had a problem with alcohol, and many believe it caused him to ruin his life. He had a habit of becoming drunk, which lead to him being booed when he performed on stage. Once, he even showed up to an important interview for a government job
In ‘’the Masque of the Red Death’’ the feeling the author Edgar Allan Poe is trying to give is he wants the readers to feel scared. In the story there are multiple places that Poe is trying to show that it is scary. For example, ‘’ there were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” This shows that Poe is trying to make it scary because hearing that this sickness could make you bleed at the pores just puts this awful scary image in the readers head. The Red Death is portraying tuberculosis so when people read this they know that this is a real disease and people actually get it so it makes them worry about if they can get it or not. Another example would be “there were twelve strokes to
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.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” and short story “The Masque of The Red Death” Poe illustrates a fear of death. Death has taken away the people he cares about most in his life. As an author of fear and death, Poe's own life was the inspiration for his spine tingling poems and stories. In his poem “The Raven” Virginia was the influence for Lenore, whose death the speaker is grieving. In Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” the red death is a representation of tuberculosis which his wife as well as his mother, foster mother, and brother all obtained and die from.
His entire life Poe was encompassed by the deaths of his loved ones which is why he had a fixation on the subject in his literature. Many of the woman Poe loved died of Tuberculosis, so they literally coughed their lunges out. It was a rather gruesome process. As Socrates said, however, “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” Death is sad, and painful to see, for those still
In the writings “Masque of the Red Death,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and the poem “Alone,” written by Edgar Allan Poe, there are qualities about them that make them similar. Examples of some of these similarities would be isolation, mood, symbolism and death. All of these similarities are common in many of Poe’s writings because of his personal life. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced the deaths of his mother, adopted mother, and wife due to illnesses (Tuberculosis). Because of these deaths, it effected his style of writing, which is depressing, sorrowful and he goes deep into his feelings.
Imagine dancing through the colorful stages of life, birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and such. However, as you progress through life, you can never shake a sense of foreboding lurking behind you. Suddenly, deep, dark, death devours you. Death, everyone faces it eventually. In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the theme is, “You cannot avoid death.” Poe develops the theme by using many different symbols throughout the story.
“Mr. Poe could not possibly send forth a book without some marks of his genius, and mixed up with the dross we find much sterling ore.” — (From a review of Poe’s Tales, September 6, 1845.) In 1845, Poe, 27, and Virginia, 13, married, and were happy for a time. In 1842, Virginia ruptured a blood vessel; the first sign of the ill health that plagued her short life. Poe turned to alcohol to cope with her illness and the stress of his dying wife. Two years later, Virginia died of tuberculosis, and Poe’s own death would follow shortly two years after that.
the Red Death shows the futile attempts by a prince and his guests of a party,
The Red Death symbolizes death and blood. It is Poe’s own version of the bubonic plague or Black Death.”...Who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him…”(3). In the story, Prince Prospero thinks that the Red Death is a masquerader who mocks those who are dying outside of the chamber. However, it is not exactly a natural human being, it is a supernatural being. In the end, Prospero ends up getting eliminated by the Red Death when he runs and tries to kill it with a dagger. “Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” (3). In the story, the Red Death kills in a gruesome and disturbing manner. No matter how protected and secluded you can be, it is impossible for death to be
Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who believed every single word contained meaning and in his own words expressed this idea in brevity only he is capable, " there should be no word written, of which tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." (Poe 244). To this effect, Poe drenches his works in symbolism and allegory. Especially in shorter works, Poe assigns meaning to the smallest object, explicitly deriving exurbanite significance within concise descriptions. "The Masque of the Red Death" tells the story of a Prince Prospero who along with his one thousand friends sought a haven from the plague that was ravishing their country. They lived together in the prince's luxurious abbey with all the amenities and
When the term “isolation” is used, most people think of it as an action performed in solitude. It brings to mind an empty space in which one person resides, far from all others. However, isolation does not always occur in a singular sense. In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, isolation is used by a large population as a means of safety. In “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, isolation occurs among crowds of people and even in the company of someone close to one’s heart. In both aspects, isolation serves to exemplify the broken portions of life. Isolation is a destructive force and as a theme, isolation serves to exemplify a particular viewpoint and worldview while serving as both a cause and effect.
To clarify, Roderick, as well as a young Poe, lived almost alone, with most of his family dead. Furthermore, both men lost a significant woman in their life to an illness, the woman being one of their last living relatives and an important influence on their lives. Additionally, Poe uses the concept of fatal illness in his story, “The Masque of the Red Death”. To summarize, the story portrays a party in which an unwanted guest in a mask arrives. “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe The Masque if the Red Death). With this, Poe makes use of the mask, a symbol used to illustrate illness due to the masks worn by doctors during the plague era. To clarify, Poe uses this symbol of almost guaranteed death and illness in this story to show that, in his experience, illness is fatal, unavoidable, and devastating. So, when Poe writes a character in this story with a deteriorating illness, he is also writing in his own experience with fatal illness.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “Masque of the Red Death”, and Joyce Carol Oates’ story, “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Prince Prospero and Connie are both arrogant characters, but are different when it comes to deciding whether or not to change themselves to save the lives others.
Edgar Allen poe lost his mother, stepmother, and wife Virginia to it. The disease Tuberculosis ruined his life. The disease transitioned into death for his writing. He wrote every story with death involved, some are The Raven, The Black Cat, The Tell Tale Heart, and especially the Mask of the Red Death. The Mask of the Red Death is a complete representation of tuberculosis. The story is symbolic of the stages of life and the time you have in the world before your clock strikes 12, and very much of tuberculosis. In this story the main characters are very rich people along with a king inside of a castle hiding from a plague sweeping through the kingdom killing everyone except for the ones in a castle, but after some time the plague enters the castle and kills them all, this could represent how poe was trying to escape from tuberculosis killing his loved ones but would always lose his loved ones in the
Picture this. The father of modern crime and detective stories, known as Edgar Allan Poe, is sitting down about to write a beautiful piece of writing and BAM! He whisks away into a story of love, death, and just plain out horror; either characters are losing someone near and dear to their hearts or they are plotting to kill. Edgar Allan Poe, at a very young age, lost both of his parents, and later on in life, lost his wife to tuberculosis, so in one way or another, these stories reflect off of his personal experiences. A major theme in Poe’s writings is death. The theme of death is seen throughout the works of Annabel Lee, the Cask of Amontillado, the Raven, and the Black Cat.