The Black Cat Figurative Language Essay

In the "Masque of the Red Death," the first sentence, "The Red Death had long devastated the country," sets the tone for the whole story. Poe describes the horrors of the disease, stressing the redness of the blood and the scarlet stains. The disease kills so quickly that one can die within thirty minutes of being infected with the disease. To create a frightening effect

Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.

This story takes place at a time when a plague has struck the land. Many people think that the Red Death that Poe is writing about could have came from a real life plague called the Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague. That plague wiped out almost a quarter of Europe's population in the middle ages. Poe, through his stories, tries to touch the emotion which humans consciously suppress. This is why Poe personifies death in his story. People more easily relate to death when it takes the form of a person that we can see and touch instead of something inanimate that appears without warning.

“And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” This quote from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque Of The Red Death”connects the fictional fate of Prince Prospero and his subjects to the . . Red Death to the many loved ones Poe’s life is very similar to those in thelost to tuberculosis in the late 1800s. Poe uses personification and allegories to show emphasize the presence of death that theand fear and presence of death is evident present in his work. Poe uses personification and gory phrases to show bring to the forefront the fear of death that possesses everyone clutches .

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous well known writer known for his dark and gothic horror stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and many others. The well-known author had a rough life which dealt with a lot of death, so most of his stories revolve around this idea. In “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses similar themes or darkness to convey tone and conflict throughout the story. His writing style is dark and revolves around one main concept: death. Edgar Allan Poe uses diction and syntax, setting and conflict, and characterization in his writing style to develop his stories.

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous american author who wrote many poems and short stories. His stories almost always have a deeper meaning behind them. In the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe uses a mixture of stylistic elements such as symbolism, diction, figurative language, and imagery to scare the audience, show how being selfish is problematic, and point out the inevitability of death.

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe is an eerie short story about the “Red Death”, Poe’s twist on the Black Plague. This plague swept across an unknown kingdom killing many people as it went. There were sharp pain, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. Poe had two main themes for readers to think about. These themes were proven through five main symbols: The ebony clock in the black room, Prince Prospero in the abbey with his friends, the colors of the seven rooms in the abbey, the format of the hallway and rooms and, Prince Prospero running after death through all the rooms.

The beginning of the short story Edgar Allan Poe uses a metaphor catalog of macabre details usually Gothic fiction (Osipova 25). Edgar Allan Poe comes out with very strong details to how the red death kills the people from the start he has a gruesome tone to the story. This is shown at the beginning to help the tone progress as the story goes on. All the macabre detailing throughout the story helped convey how unpleasant and terrifying the red death is and why Prospero desire to conceal from it. When he decides to take people with him to the palace he thinks that he will be safe however since the red death is all the peoples guilt and fears it goes after them because Prospero fears it the most. “Poe’s use of ambiguity here is masterful; the physical reactions he describes could very well be consistent with terror, distaste, and rage, but they could just as likely be symptomatic of the disease”.(Bennett 46). Poe select to make The Mask Of The Red Death a very terrorizing story conveying that you can't hide from fear because sooner or later it will get you. The way the people feel whenever they get the disease is very crucial to the story because they are being taken over by their guilt. All of the terror that people feel could just be some sign of the disease which is the red death. The narrator plays an important role in The Mask of The Red Death because it is 3rd person which whose everyone's feelings. In the end scene where the Red Death is actually shown as the Grim Reaper is three things omniscient narrator, supernatural being, and the dreaded plague itself (Guercio 76). Edgar Allan Poe changes the point of view throughout the story to give it a different effect and angle to how the tone is set. At the part when the red death uses third person omniscient it shows the people reading the book how important it is. He uses that type of view to show that he is over everyone else. The narrator is the only one that uses third person and the fact that the red death uses it tells everyone that is has a higher value that how they have portrayed him the entire story. It shows its real self in other words takes off his mask to reveal his true power over people.

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

The red death had killed many people in the time of the story. In Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death Poe said "The "Red Death" had long long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or hideous" (Poe). Back in the days the story was written, the red death had killed you within the half hour if you had been contaminated with it. Red death was a big fear in the story.

The themes of death and ignorance come together to show that the only action more foolish than fleeing from death, is ignoring it. “The masque of the red death”, though set on the inside of an excessively elaborate party, shows the imminent and constant threat of death. Setting the tone for this macabre motif, Edgar Allen Poe gives a brief prologue to the action of the story stating that “the "red death" had long devastated the country…no pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous” (Poe 1). Prince Prospero, though seemingly unaffected by the near-utter destruction of his kingdom cannot shake the inevitable demise he sees coming, therefore most of his actions are dictated by his fear of death.

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

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential and important writers of the nineteenth century. He was the first writer to try to make a living only writing. One of Poe’s most popular short stories, “The Black Cat”, is considered horror fiction or gothic fiction which Poe is known for in his books and short stories because it was a popular genre during his days. In Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”, Poe uses a horror fiction genre, a mentally deranged and evil narrator/character, and symbolism of death to make a thrilling story with tons of suspense, drama, and gruesome detail.

In addition, one of the greatest distinctions in Poe’s technique is his choice of “dark” words, which add to the genre of his stories. In both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”, these words portray madness, death, fury, and murder to create fear. For example, when the narrator explains how the old man’s efforts to imagine his fears causeless to be in vain, he says, “All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel—although he neither saw nor heard—to feel the presence of my head within the room” The usage of such disturbing words like “vain”, “Death”, “stalked”, “mournful”,