Fear In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Masque Of Red Death

Death and sorrow has entered everyone’s life at some point, but it can definitely have different effects on us. Edgar Allan Poe’s two short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Haunted Palace” both deal with death and evil, which raises a question, how has evil effected Poe in his life to drive him to write pieces of writing such as these. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a man taken over by insanity and killing an old man because of it. “The Haunted Palace” is about this beautiful Palace that was then taken by evil and turned into a place of sorrow. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Haunted Palace” both are acutely unalike, but have alike themes and meaning of symbolism.

To begin with, Romantic and Gothic writers used imagery to appeal to the senses of the audience and put them in the story with the characters. The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6). This quote makes the audience visualize a person dressed up as a deadly disease; the person, dressed like a corpse,

The inevitable is something that can’t be escaped, no matter what the circumstances. Throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, fate is a common topic, and associates directly with his theme. This can be viewed through his protagonist, Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero has cleverly, or so he thinks, isolated himself and one thousand others into his castle, to escape the red death. The Prince uses this isolation as a denial of reality to escape what is truly going on in the world around him. Poe creates a world around Prospero, and uses him and everything in his short story as symbols to piece by piece together a meaningful allegory. Throughout the masterful allegory “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe tools the

In the grim short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842, “The Masque of the Red Death” tells the tale of a kingdom ravaged with disease and a prince’s journey to escape death. Poe hides underlying messages throughout the story, leaving the reader to interpret the true meaning of prosperity and death. Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism and imagery in the form of an allegory to reveal to the reader that death is inescapable, no matter how wealthy you are.

Fear is a natural instinct that could potentially save your life, but that doesn't mean it’s always a good thing. Fear can lead to paranoia or obsession, and then it can engulf your sanity. If you become so fearful in the face of danger it could possibly cause paralysis, cloud your rational thought, or cause you to faint. However, it could potentially save your life by holding you back from irrational acts, making your more alert, or offering restraining from making hazardous decisions. In the stories “The Tell Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Masque of Red Death,” the author, Edgar Allen Poe, uses figurative language, irony and symbolism to teach us that fean can distort the mind, and cause paranoia and obsession,

The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” thought he was hearing the guy’s heart beat after he had killed him. This couldn’t be possible because he cut the guy up and there was no way that his heart could still be beating. He was hearing this “heart-beat” because he was feeling guilty from killing the old man. “...it is the beating of his hideous heart.” The people in the “The Masque of the Red Death” thought they were seeing a masked person at the party that was killing everyone but in my opinion I think they were imaging it. I think they were imaging it because it never describes the person in the story. It just says a masked figure. “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night.” I think the people in these stories both feel guilty, that’s why they are imagining stuff. The narrator from “The Tell-Tale Heart” felt guilty from killing the old man and the people from the Prince’s country probably felt guilty because they tried to get away from the disease and left everyone else out in the

Throughout “Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe inserts symbolism that is meant to visually stimulate the reader and to expose the emotions of the narrator at a deeper level. By drawing comparisons to a vulture, beetle, darkness, and the heartbeat, Poe draws us into the story and demonstrates the depth of the young man’s struggle with madness. The symbolism shapes Poe’s view that human nature is fragile and can be easily swayed. Once human’s have their mind set on a particular idea, it is very hard, and nearly impossible, to get them to see things differently. It is a perceptual narrowing whereby the young man skews everything he sees and hears into an omen dictating the old man’s impending

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.

To begin, Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism in his short story to create suspense. The narrator hears the beating of the heart, although it really represents how nervous he is as a result of his crime. An excerpt from the text states, “It grew louder - louder - louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God - no, no! They heard! - they suspected! - they knew! - they were making a mockery of my horror!” This is showing how nervous the narrator felt when the police officers came to make sure everything was normal. He was all right at first, but then his guilt flooded back when he heard a heartbeat, yet he never realized that it was only him hearing it. Also, Poe symbolizes the old man’s eye as the narrator’s flaws and traits. In the story, the text states, “He had the eye of a vulture … for

There are times in life where people do commit a small mistake, or a huge crime, but what really matters is if one will listen to their conscience. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character lives with an old man who has an eye that “resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The story revolves around the main character’s obsession over the eye, and how he got rid of it-- by murdering the old man. Towards the end of the story, the young man confesses to the police about his insane stunt after they searched his house. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe focused on having the reader know more than the secondary character, using description, and using a first-person narrator, to build suspense.

Fear can inhibit you from acting foolishly in the forthcoming. Additionally, horror alerts us of what may soon happen and restrains us from future affliction. By being set in the minds of others during these hair-raising situations, we learn to not go down the wrong path. By doing so, you avoid future misfortune. Nonetheless, fear alters our brain and crams it with horrific ideology. Dread can lead to insanity and causes you to become obsessed. Consternation can lead you to become so overly-obsessed that preposterous ideas begin raiding your head. Symbolism, irony, and figurative language are used in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” to delineate how dread deceives the protagonist's’ mind and how obsession overcomes their mind.

Poe uses irony in his stories to demonstrate how fear can distort the mind and what the result of that fear looks like. In Poe’s story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero locks himself and other wealthy people up in his castle, leaving only the castle to live in: “They resolved to leave any means of ingress or egress…” (57). This is ironic because by locking himself and other wealthy people up in his castle, he secured his death and the death of everyone else he lives with. Prince Prospero’s fear of Death leads him to make these decisions. In the same way, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is ironic in that the old man bars his windows and makes his bedroom dark because of his fear of death, however, death is already inside. The narrator describes

The imagery portrayed in “The Tell-tale Heart” increases the demented tone that the narrator projects as the main character waits to strangle the old man. Every night, for a week, the murderer would “look in” upon the victim as he slept. He describes himself as not being a “madman” but yet being able to “hear things in all heaven and earth.” The use of imagery shows the readers over and over again the reasons for the man murdering his victim. The “pale blue eye” is described in a way that even the audience wants to rid of it. This heightens the sense of insanity as even the readers can relate to the demented man.

Obsession, internal conflict, and underlying guilt are all aspects of being human but when it’s associated with paranoia and insanity it may be just the recipe for the perfect crime as perceived by Edger Allan Poe in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe uses this as one of his shortest stories to discuss and provide an insight into the mind of the mentally ill, paranoia and the stages of mental detrition.

In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe creates strong images of various decorative rooms which have been designed to go from east to west. This is no coincidence, as the rooms seem to imitate the course of the sun from daytime to nighttime, or even the course of human life- birth to death. The first room, coated in the colour blue, represents the freedom and tranquility felt by the guests in the castle. In contrast, the final room, coated in the colour black symbolises the fear and despair felt by the guests in relation to death and its inevitability. This idea is emphasised strongly by the author, as is written, “and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.” (The Masque of the Red Death).