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Irony In The Masque Of Red Death

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Fear, whether it seems like it or not can be helpful. Fear, being a core emotion and all, can save you from danger, trouble, and even prevent harm to you and others. Despite all that, fear can also be harmful. Fear can lead to paranoia, obsession, and never a really full, happy life. Poe uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to depict how fear distorts the narrators’ minds and the result in which happens due to it. Symbolism, an essential part in the “Tell-Tale heart” and the “Masque of Red Death” shows us the events that will soon unfold. For example, this key quote from the “Masque of Red Death” symbolizes the remaining time before death takes them. “At each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to …show more content…
In this quote from the “Masque of Red Death” you can see the irony provoked by fear, “But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture dabbled in blood-and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (60). This is the timely quote of when the Red Death first arrived. It’s ironic as even though the Prince tried so hard to keep the Red Death out and survive he instead ensured the death of him and everyone in the castle. Comparatively the same thing happens in the “Tell-Tale heart”, “ “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!-tear up the planks!-here, here!-it is the beating of his hideous heart!”(78). In this quote the irony is the fact the the narrator gave himself up after prepping so much. This quote matches to that of the “Masque of Red Death” as they both planned and prepped so much for it to only get …show more content…
In this quote from the “Pit and the Pendulum” you see a detailed description and a clue that the narrator is going slowly but, surely insane. “The pit whose horrors had been destined for so bold a recusant as myself-the pit,typical of hell,...”(69). The more detailed the narrator describes it you can see the brink of which they are about to fall off. Coupled with another quote from the story “An outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting into the abyss”(73). This quote shows the narrator’s insanity as he finally starts to lose hope until eventually he gets

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