The Devil In Tom Walker And The Masque Of The Red Death

What is a romantic novel, and what characteristics make it romantic? Well, in the early 1800s, there were two type of thinkers in the world, the rationalist, and the romantics. Some romantic novels include The Devil In Tom Walker by Washington Irving, The Devil In Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét, and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe. The rationalist flocked to large cities where they loved the innovation of industry and the production of new ideas and technology. However, the romantics were quite different. The romantics believed in the beauty, innocence, nature, and imagination. Instead of seeing the positives to large cities, the romantics only saw the poverty, disease, pollution, pain, and suffering. The romantics also believed that there was the dull realities of our world, then there was the supernatural realm, this was where everyone dreamed of being. In these short stories one can see that all of the main characters are struggling with their dull life and proceed to try to alter it for the better. However, when one tries to
The black room is the solitary room that no one at the party dares to enter. When“the clock yet rang it was observed that the giddiest grew pale and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if confused reverie or meditation”( Poe 97). The clock symbolises death and that with every stroke another hour of one's life is gone. This illustrates that one can never know when one will die. But everyone will die eventually, therefore it is inescapable. The clock is a reminder for all of the people who try to deny its existence. The partygoers try to hide themselves from death behind the masks, but that doesn’t mean it is not there. Jabez, Tom, and the partiers lives were worse off because of the symbolism shown in these stories. Each underlying meaning further exemplifies to the reader the romantic aspects of each