Fear In Poe's The Masque Of The Red Death

The Masque of the Red Death is a short gothic horror story. Overall is about a prince who thinks he is invincible, while having a party one night a mysterious guest appears and all the party-goers are very frightened of him. In the end this red death man kills the prince along with many other people at the party. This story became more horrific because the setting was in a castle, there was supernatural elements, and there was revenge. The Masque of the Red Death depicts the not so good aspects of human nature; that being selfishness, fear, and power. These are all things many witness almost daily, either by watching television or being outside. Although there are many good aspects of human nature, like being kind courageous and doing the right thing, this story written by famous author Edgar Allan Poe in 1842 uses anger, fear, and greed to illustrate how some humans that don’t do the right thing get led down a dark path.

“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” (Poe). Edgar Allan Poe was an American author and poet during the 1800’s (anb). He is known for his gothic style of writing, and tragic tales. Poe has written famous pieces such as The Raven (1845), The Black Cat (1843), and The Tell Tale Heart(1843). But one of Poe’s stories, The Masque of the Red Death (1842), relies heavily on themes of death, pestilence, human nature, and religion. Through these themes and symbolism, Poe explores the darker side of humanity and the meaning behind life.

Many people go through horrors in their life. However, most don’t record them in the way Poe did. From a young age Poe experienced death in his family. As Poe lived his life, he started using his feelings and life experiences in his work. He based his feelings in his poems such as Annabel Lee and Alone. He used his life experiences in his works such as The Masque of the Red Death and The Black Cat. Though Poe had a few other works such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven; they did not portray much of his life experiences and feelings like these ones did. Poe’s themes of death, insanity, and emotion through eyes in his works reflect the actual themes in his life.

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. 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.

Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.

“The Masque of the Red Death” is an allegory, symbolizing the journey from life to death, proving that death is inescapable for everyone. This is shown through the symbolism used by Poe, not only in characters,

In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the terror spreading throughout the guests of the party helps it seem as if the Red Death was slowly forcing itself into the masquerade. The masked figure within the story is described as “…unutterable horror” (Poe, 452). The vivid descriptions within the story produce anxiety and cause unease for the guests, adding to the underlying fear of the current red death pandemic. A quote that builds a lot of suspense is “…turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer” (Poe, 452). This chase forces the guests to freeze because a confrontation is about to happen. 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

Edger Allen Poe is an incredible author of horror. His story, The Masque of the Red Death, was an amazing chiller about a party that was ended by a disease. Throughout the kingdom a disease is spreading from citizen to citizen, killing each one who possesses it so the king invites those closes to him to a party where no one can leave and will be safe from the disease but yet in hindsight they were locking themselves in with the disease. Throughout the course of this hair-raising story, several symbols are represented to array Poe’s theme of death. Symbols such as the seven colored rooms, the clock, and lastly the Red Death are all symbols that are displayed to help get Poe’s notion across.

In The Masque of the Red Death, the setting helps the reader get the sense of fear, terror and dread. This is because, the isolation of the abbey makes the reader feel frightened, since they are isolating themselves from the rest of the world. If something was to go

The Masque of Red Death is an allegory for the conflict between humans and nature, life and death.

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most known attributes is his use of fear in many of his stories. He used words and images to instill the fright into his readers. He strung together scenarios that happen to his characters that encapsulates real fears that a reader could have. Poe would use fear in his stories in multiple ways. A story could relate around a certain fear. The way Poe sets up his story with the tension could create a fearful atmosphere. He did not just focus on portraying a narrator with a certain fear, he would use language that would make the reader feel fear. He packed in images of darkness and horror in order to create these atmospheres that presented fear in many different ways.

Descriptive scenery or imagery is used throughout literature for a variety of purposes. It can be used to paint a mental picture of the setting, to portray symbols, or even to relay themes. The authors Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allan Poe exemplify the use of the same technique, descriptive scenery, to deliver different purposes. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe both use imagery in order to characterize characters and foreshadow events. However, one also used this same strategy as a way to deviate from reality, while the other used it as a way to face reality.

Fear can be very advantageous when it comes to surviving. Fear inhibits you from doing risky actions that can put you and others in danger; it keeps you cautious and careful. Even though fear helps you when surviving, fear can harm you in life. Fear can cause paranoia that keeps you from enjoying life. You start to obsess over minimal things leading to hallucination. 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.

“It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.” This is said by the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Once evil enters the mind and is welcomed and given permission to rule, it will control and direct one's actions. The theme in both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque Of Red Death” is death, whether it be intentional by humans or inevitable because of mortality. The similarities and differences in these stories are they both have death that kills innocent people, one story is more realistic and the other symbolizes death, and lastly both stories have people imagining something.

We could analyze each character’s reaction by looking into Gothic elements. The quotation “I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations;…” (1843, Poe) shows how guilt overtook the narrator, and as a result he is talking in a heightened tone. The narrator is displaying Gothic traits of an unreliable narrator, who is oppressing himself to not confess his evil deeds, until he finally does. The tension in the story is drastically building up, making the readers anxious to think whether the narrator will admit the truth or not. In the Masque of the Red Death, on the other hand, guilt does not really capture Prospero and he reacts insolently to death. A passage from the story depicts how the protagonist is annoyed; “It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers,…“(1842, Poe). Here, the protagonist shows Gothic characteristics of “a distressed character”. This is because the character cannot overcome his stress. This trait allows the readers to make a connection to a real life example, where they are trying to discard something that is annoying them. Prospero is constantly under pressure because he thinks that he can outwit death, but knows deep inside his heart that it will find him one day. The Gothic conventions successfully captures each character’s way of conceiving