Comparing The Tell-Tale Heart And The Masque Of Red Death

Fear can be beneficial in various ways, it offers restraint, withholds irrational actions, and it keeps you alert for survival. Although, it can be detrimental in the sense that it can cause paranoia, obsessions, and can cloud rational thought. The best examples of this are the main characters in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and The Pendulum”, and “The Masque of Red Death”. In the stated narratives Edgar Allan Poe shows us how he uses symbolism, irony, and imagery so he can illustrate how it distorts minds, causes fear, and the repercussions of the fear. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and in “The Masque of Red Death” Poe uses symbolism to show how fear can alter minds and the outcomes of the fear. In the quote he is saying how the eye
In the quote in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is saying how the old man was cautious of his surroundings, but even then the narrator was already in there. The narrator states, “I had my head, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out - ‘Who’s there?’”(499). The irony is how he is trying to obstruct anyone’s chance of coming in, but the narrator already is in. This makes him fear the death and evil if he doesn’t escape, which he never does. This shows that even if you try to keep death out it will always find you. In the quote in “The Masque of Red Death” it is saying how people welded the castle closed but death was able to get in still. The narrator states, “The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts” (438). It is ironic how Prince Prospero orders that the doors and windows will be welded but death manages to get inside, which he did not want to happen. The fact that he welds the castle tells us that he is afraid and wants to escape death. The end result however is that he dies along with a the other party