As life progresses people come to the understanding that nothing in life is promised except death. It is inevitable, and it happens in many different ways. Every death is accompanied with an interesting story behind it. In the three works, “The Masque of the Red Death”, “Annabel Lee” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” all written by Poe, death is a big picture in all of his works and the fear of death is something witnessed a lot in his works. In, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prince Prospero, who is a selfish leader, locks himself and other friends out of harm's way of the Red Death. He later throws a party and ironically the Red Death finds its way there. Annabel Lee on the other hand, is a wife, who was madly in love. Annabel was taken …show more content…
Readers are immediately informed about “the ‘Red Death’, and that “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous” (Poe 29). The Red Death is obviously something everyone fears. The Red Death is claimed to make its victims have contortions and bleed from all their pores. Poe’s stories are often gruesome and ultimately end in death. Prince Prospero, shuts himself and some others in a room safe from the Red Death. Selfishly, Prospero is “happy and dauntless and sagacious” (Poe 29). When he has every reason to be fearful and attentive because for him, death is imminent. It seems as if the disease cannot be escaped. Prospero decides to throw a party and somehow unexpectedly the a symbolization of the ‘Red Death’ arrives. The figure is dressed as a corpse, a symbol of death and decay. Prospero grows angry and impatient and run towards the figure, as the figure looks him in the eye “fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero” (Poe 32). Prospero and all of his guest are fatally affected by the Red Death. Prospero’s plan backfires, and his selfish ways has resulted in death for everyone. His inability to deal with the realities of death was the partially the cause of his death. Overall, Prospero seems to think of himself as someone with wealth and status, who believes he is beyond major issues such as the Red Death. The concept that no mortal can avoid the certainty in fate is mainly …show more content…
Death is greatly symbolized in this story, as well as the aftermath of it. The narrator constantly goes on about how much he loves Annabel, and how much Annabel loves him. He verbalizes that they “loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe 27). The speaker is saying their love is more than just normal love, but a love that is divine, righteous and apart from the regular love felt by typical lovers. All good things must come to an end as we know, and a wind comes by, “chilling and killing [his] Annabel Lee” (Poe 27). The speaker is clearly devastated, but it also seems as if the speaker has an obsession with how and why Annabel died. The idea of love and death seem to be linked together. Rather than facing the truth, and accepting Annabel’s death, he services her tomb as a symbol of her death instead of the facing reality of the situation. The speaker seems set on the idea that the angels of the heavens are responsible for her death and “went envying her and me” (Poe 27). He believes that the angels are so jealous of their love that they killed her. Annabel is portrayed in the story as a symbol of perfection and flawlessness. The speaker seems to be taking the concept of love a bit to literally. Annabel’s death could even serve as a death Poe has dealt with in his life, and the story represents the love and pain he felt. All in all, death is a huge concept in this story
In “Annabel Lee”, Edgar Allan Poe, like in many of his stories, describes the death of a beautiful woman. He describes for the reader that the love of him and Annabel Lee was so strong, that the angels in Heaven envied them and this was the cause of her death. It is disputed that the woman named Annabel Lee in this poem, is in real life, Edgar Allen Poe’s wife, Virginia. “Annabel Lee” is a perfect example of how Edgar Allen Poe used romance to illustrate the essence of death. He describes how the love that he had for her was so strong and it ended up causing envy in the angels and they in return took her away from him. The poem illustrates the misery that can be
In both “Masque of the Red Death” and “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, the author uses specific elements to express meaning and to develop a theme. He is portraying the idea that neither love nor death has a limit, no matter what we want to imagine. We have no control of either, especially death. In “The Masque of The Red Death” Poe makes the inference that death is inevitable or inescapable. In “Annabel Lee” he uses the power of two character’s love to show that death is not preventable no matter what you do. Also, he shows that love never vanishes even after death. In both selections, Poe uses rhetorical devices such as parallelism, symbolism, and imagery to draw the reader into the story.
Everyone fears their own death, thus why some people will do anything to escape it. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, this fear is experienced by all. In the story, a prince named Prospero and his people try to elude the Red Death through seclusion and isolation in the prince's abbey. However, no walls can stop death since it is unavoidable and inescapable. Throughout the story, Poe uses symbols such as the rooms, the masked figure, and the clock to convey the theme that no one can escape death.
Poetic Qualities as Signs of Loss in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee”Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem, "Annabel Lee," is a very deep and emotional poem,clearly trying to convey a lot of universal emotion to his reader. During his lifetime, Poe had lost his young wife, his mother, and his stepmother, so in other words, many of the women that Poe had so loved in his life had died, and this was something that had deeply troubled Poe, leading him to an eventual state of depression. In the poem "Annabel Lee," many of these feelings of love and loss that Poe felt towards his wife and other women is all transmitted to the reader.Through the use of various forms of poetic qualities, tone, and imagery, Poe speaks about a universal theme of love and loss, inspired by his own experiences with the women he loved.Throughout the poem Annabel Lee, Poe seems to be utilizing a very dark, menacing,even vengeful sort of tone, and he does this through various means. One of the way he does this is by his word choice. He uses harsh words and phrases like "killing (line 26)," "shut her up,”(line 19) and "dissever my soul" (line 32) to accomplish this. Even though Poe is speaking about his love, he is nevertheless speaking in a very menacing sort of way. The hurt that he feels from her loss has impacted him deeply, he is all consumed by the darkness of her untimely death, as the reader also learns that she was young when she was taken away. This loss has driven the speaker to the point of anger and
Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death.
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are best shadowly and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” (Poe). There is no such thing as having the ability to predict or tame the wrath of death, for all we can do is learn to accept it. In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the main character, Prospero, shows through his arrogant actions that death will forever overpower the human instinct to stay alive. Poe uses symbolism to convey the battle between man and nature through the idea of the masquerade that serves as a fortress against the wrath of the disease, an excuse to disguise the true colors of man, and the honest truth that man will never become immortal.
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.
The story “Masque of The Red Death” and “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe are very high quality and Mischievous books. Throughout each page both stories had many connections regarding love, life, and many emotional outlooks about life. Annabel Lee and Masque of Red death both implied that there isn’t a boundary that can separate true love which was established from the dreadful events that happened in the texts. Edgar Allan Poe expressed a series of connections between the two texts which gave each text a large quantity of similarities which included Love, life, and casualty.
Death is an important theme in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red 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
When it comes to Poe’s characters, most of the characters are unable to handle the severe fear it infests into their minds. Furthermore, I view death as my last hurrah, I choose to escape in a blaze of glory, still if God is not willing although I come face-to-face with without time to do anything, then I hope it is the end of a life that others viewed as honorable. Poe makes death in his stories an insane thing that devours people from the soul outwards. In real life, death is the basically the same just a bit faster than others. Except Poe uses these fronts of horrors to intrigue his readers, in life death is the same as Poe’s stories however without the magical acts. Death in real life comes in forms of cancer,
the Red Death shows the futile attempts by a prince and his guests of a party,
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.
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.
Edgar Allan Poe uses several elements in “Annabel Lee” to express the themes of love and death to the reader. There are several examples of Imagery, foreshadowing, and metaphors in this poem. Love and death are themes often placed together in poetry and literature. In this poem Poe is describing the narrator’s love for Annabel Lee and her death at the same time. His love for her is ironically undying as he stays with her even in her “tomb by the sounding sea.”