The Masque Of The Red Death Research Paper

Death always has been the center of attention, the source of debate. Sometimes death represents the fear, and the desperation, whereas it was simply viewed as a preparation for resurrection as, for example, in the Bible. Edgar Allan Poe, one of the greatest American writers, turned his fascination with death to an obsession, and those traits can be easily found on his writings. In his stories, Poe explores his view on death, specifically its inevitability, its visual representation, and its ability to obsess characters.

In Poe’s stories, death is portrayed as an inevitable event, and it is well portrayed in two following stories: “The Mask of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In “The Mask of the Red Death”, Poe well utilizes clock as

Death, which was regarded spiritually, became tangible and seeable by Poe’s special visualizations. For instance, in “The Mask of the Red Death,” Poe precisely shows the description of the Red Death: “He was tall and very thin, and covered from head to foot like a dead man prepared for the grave...the mask which covered his face was so much like the face of a dead man that the nearest eye could not see the difference”(The Mask of Death). By the time of his appearance, readers wouldn’t have known of what who he was, simply thinking him as an unexpected guest. However; in the middle of the story, his identity is revealed as the Red Death itself:”The masquerader whom nobody knew had made himself look like the red death itself! His clothes were spotted with blood, and the mask over his face was covered with the terrible red spots”(The Mask of the Red Death). Also, as “The ubiquity of corpses(often bleeding preternaturally) reminds us, as Freud would much later, that the ultimate source of all terror is death itself”(Bloom2 115). From his appearance, a typical image of preternatural can be drawn on reader’s mind. “Although the preternatural arrives in various shapes-as a demon-horse, a phantom ship, or a reanimated corpse-it commonly dramatizes the interpenetration of life and death,” and the Red Death is a character who fulfills this condition, letting readers know who he is

One of Poe’s most insane characters can be seen in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The main character’s insanity is even shown in the beginning of the story:”Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Is it not clear that I am not mad? Indeed, the illness only made my mind, my feelings, my senses stronger, more powerful”(Tell Tale Heart). His rambling shows that his madness is at the maximum of the level. Ironically, the murderer resembles Poe, in the way that “He had the faculty of detaching himself from the present and of imagining unseen continents”(Bloom3 80). Also, in the beginning of the story, “Our narrator says that the old man’s “vulture” eye was the reason for the murder, but no rational person could see that as a reason for a murder”(McArthur 85). Although his actings and sayings of craziness is shown after his murder, “Tell-Tale Heart” implies that the character was psychotic since the beginning of the tale. However; it is certain that acting of murder caused the main character to be obsessed with what he did, and his insanity which was brought next caused him to bring death to his