Preview

Irony In The Masque Of Red Death

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
232 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Irony In The Masque Of Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to help his readers understand that everything isn’t what it seems. In the story, “The Masque of Red Death”, Poe has the setting in Prince Prospero’s castle, where he holds a masquerade ball for thousands and thousands of guests. Poe prints, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (61). The irony that Prince Prospero has is that he believes he can escape the Red Death, but in the very end, he is killed by the terrible disease. The narrator’s fear of the disease has lead him to hold a masquerade ball to get his mind and all his guests minds off the fact that death is near and coming for them. In the story, “The Tell Tale-Heart”, Poe has the setting in the old man’s house.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, is an amazing piece of Gothic Literature. It’s genre can mostly be interpreted as a Horror or short story. There are multiple settings to this story, the first one is the narrator's. In the home him and an old man are living together. The other setting is an prison/insane asylum where the narrator is telling the story.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters do not. The entire story is based on dramatic irony, given that the audience knows from the beginning that Montresor is plotting his revenge and poor Fortunado does not. A more specific example is the line where Fortunado says he will not die of a cough. The audience knows that he will endure Montresor’s revenge soon. When the characters first meet in the beginning of the story, there is also dramatic irony because Fortunado obviously thinks fondly of Montresor and is happy to see him. It is a very hectic and festive event, and Fortunado probably thought he was very lucky to chance upon Montresor and given the opportunity to help out a friend and sample some very expensive wine. The audience has the foreknowledge however, that this wasn’t a joyous occasion and that Fortunado was about to meet his untimely demise. Poe’s use of dramatic irony allows the audience to be a part of Montresor’s plan and gives a glimpse into his dark…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Masque Of Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe, Poe uses imagery and symbolism to create an allegory that communicates to the reader the idea that nobody is able to escape death. In the story, Prince Prospero and his royal friends seclude themselves away from a plague called red death that is killing every poor soul it comes in contact with. As the royals entertain themselves with a masquerade, red death himself arrives at the party, finishing up of what's left of human civilization. Now the first thing that is found that creates imagery and symbolism is a line in the story that says,”While the chimes of the clock yet ran, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale”.(Poe pg.5) This shows a symbol of a black grandfather…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!”.(Meyer,743). Another way Poe uses Irony would be when the character talk to one another. For example, when Montresor first tells Fortunato that he does not want him to go taste the Amontillado. ““Come, let us go.” “Whither?” “To your vaults.” “My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an engagement. Luchesi——” “I have no engagement;—come.” “My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre.”(Meyer,740). while speaking to Fortunato, Montressor expresses his worries about Fortunato’s health , yet in the back of his mind the sole desire to kill Fortunato starts to ignite. By Monstressors actions and words, the reader can’t really get a clear Image of what he plans to do, because of the way that he leads Fortunato into the Catacombs Is by telling him “Come, let us go.” “Whither?” “To your vaults.” “My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an engagement. Luchesi” “I have no engagement;—come.” “My friend, no. It is not the…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Masque of the Red Death” story response Throughout “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe , he shares his ideals on the inevitability of death through the main character in the story, Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero embodies three of the deadly sins such as, pride, greed, and sloth. In the story Prince Prospero says “Who dares” -- he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him -- “who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him.”…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Numerous artists, such as William Shakespeare and Richard Connell, used irony to entertain and engage their audiences. In the well-renown Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare used irony and foreshadow to strategize the story line of the tragedy. Various successful authors and directors use irony to make their story-line more appealing to their audience. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses the three types of irony: dramatic, verbal and situational to the engage readers and keep the theme and story-line stimulated.…

    • 84 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” irony occurs throughout the story. For example, irony occurs when the old man locks himself in his home to escape evil only to be killed by someone within. Poe states, “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters had been close fastened, through fear of robbers)…” (524). By looking at this quotation, we can see that the old man feared being robbed, so he placed shutters on all the doors to be safe and to keep thieves from stealing his gold and possessions. Ironically, his caretaker or son was the source of evil, and he lived within his home. His caretaker hated the old man’s evil eye and killed him because of it. So, even though the old man tried to escape death and evil, he died in the…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is a mystery event that happens to all of us and it is one those events that you can hide from no matter what you do. In the story “Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe explains how Prince Prospero locks himself and others in his castle to hide from the plague. Even though the prince hides himself in his castle, he was not able to escape death. He even tried to fight it off ,but made it worse for himself. In the story Peo applies that you can not hide from death or fight it off.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a widespread disease conquers everyone throughout the country, one man hopes to escape the disease by locking himself and many of his wealthy friends in his abbey. “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story about a disease called the Red Death wiping out the country side. Prince Prospero believes he can escape the Red Death by locking himself in his abbey with a thousand of his wealthy friends. To celebrate escaping the deadly disease at the end of the fifth or sixth month, Prospero throws a masquerade ball. The ball takes place in seven different rooms; blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. When the party is in full swing, the ebony clock strikes twelve and everybody stops. Once everybody stops they…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people’s perception of fear comes from negative standpoint, where fear is the evil villain that you try to get away from, but can fear also be helpful? In all good stories, there is always a dilemma, and with the struggle of that problem comes fear, but what truly shows that character’s mental strength or personality is how they handle that problem. In the stories, ¨The Tell-Tale Heart,” ¨The Pit and the Pendulum,”and ¨The Masque of the Red Death,” all of the main characters experience fear, but handle it in very different ways. Whether they use that fear to help them overcome the problem, or their fear results in paranoia. Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism, irony, and figurative language to portray how fear distorts the emotional state…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As a child, everyone is guilty of stealing the last cookie or snatching their favorite colored marker to draw with. This is human instinct, but it is not for survival anymore. Repercussions such as timeout time are often just around the corner after these actions. This greedy acquisition of material goods met with consequences can be attributed to karma. Washington Irving, Stephen Vincent Benet, and Edgar Allen Poe demonstrate these ideas of karma in their respective books, The Devil and Tom Walker, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and The Masque of the Red Death. Romantics value intuition and feeling in order to reach self realization in contrast to rationalists’ value of reason and goods to create a better life. In romantics eyes self realization…

    • 2133 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The inevitability of death: Whether it is by natural causes or by disease, death is a part of existence. In the Edgar Allan Poe story, “The Masque of Red Death”, people are dying from a viciously fast-acting plague. Within thirty minutes of getting the disease, a person is dead. In Robert Kirkmans comic book turned TV series, The Walking Dead, disease is very much a part of peoples every day life. “Walkers,” or people infected, remind the people remaining in this world of the disease. “The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman both show that death will always conquer all through their depictions of death, characters, and the state of the world when the stories take place.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two short stories “A Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and “The Gift of the Magi” by O’ Henry were two short stories that showed the writing skills of their authors. O’ Henry and Poe were two writers from different time periods, but use the same literary techniques in their works. Irony is defined as “a contradiction between expectation and reality” and suspense as “the growing interest and excitement felt while awaiting a climax or resolution.” O’ Henry and Poe used either suspense, irony, or both to make their stories more intense for the readers.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Masque of the Red Death,Edgar Allen Poe tells a story how death is inevitable no matter how secure or careful you might be.In the short story, Masque of the Red Death a very rich prince was in the middle of an epidemic where people just start to get a strange disease.Instead of panicing and leaving to a safer place untouched by this disease he decides to invite his friends over and fortified his house so that no diseased man or woman can get inside and spread the sickness to everyone.But death is inevitable no matter how secure you are or careful you might be.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Symbols are everywhere, embodying meanings larger than life. One can find symbolism in music, literature, and even in decoration! They play huge roles in specific themes or emotions in certain situations. In “Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, death is personified, terror reigns, and tragedy strikes, as he tells a short tale of the infamous “Black Plague” that reigned over Europe in the middle ages, and how death is absolutely inevitable. In the story, Poe used an intense amount of symbolism within the seven colored chambers to establish the mood of the story, the seven stages of life, and to emphasize the terror of the situation.…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays