Preview

2 different stories by Poe," Masque of Red Death" & "Fall of Usher House".

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
751 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
2 different stories by Poe," Masque of Red Death" & "Fall of Usher House".
Although The Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher are written in different view points, the fact that each method works well for each story is true because third-person helps to better oversee all the events taking place, first-person gives a heightened sense of intensity, and if each stories' view point was switched then the two stories would not be the timeless classics that they are today.

The Masque of the Red Death, written by Edgar Allen Poe in the third-person point of view, is a horror fiction story where a prosperous and flashy king decides to keep his friends and family inside his of abbey in order to protect them from a Tuberculosis outbreak. The setting is that of a large party; many rooms and people all together dancing, talking, and enjoying themselves. Since the story is written in the third-person, the reader can overlook all happenings and events in the entire abbey and occasionally see things that will happen before they actually do. This can add excitement to stories such as this one. Knowing what is going to happen to whom and how gives a person the will to keep reading and discover what is going to happen next. If the reader knows the outcome, and the characters in the story do not, it makes for an interesting storyline. Just as in The Masque of the Red Death, readers knew that the masked person was there to take all of their lives via the Red Death, but nobody could really be sure of that while the grand party was going on.

The Fall of the House of Usher is another horror fiction story written by Edgar Allen Poe. It is set in a large, decaying, old house where many crazy and creepy things begin to happen, and the fear factor is raised while reading this story due to the fact that Poe wrote it in the first-person point of view. This viewpoint brings out more terror and instills more fear into readers because they feel what the main character or narrator feels. This can send chills up and down readers' spines for the mere

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Both Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Julio Cortazar's “House Taken Over” have similar settings because they both take place in in spooky large houses. However in Poe's story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting is different because it is a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year. By contrast, in cortazar's “House Taken Over” the setting is it is an old house that is spacious and makes creepy noises.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poe's short stories, "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are written in different view points. The view points used helps each story achieve its effect upon the reader. The third-person point of view, helps the reader to foreshadow all the events taking place. The first-person point of view, heightened the intensity of the story itself. If each stories' view point were changed along with the narrators, then the effects intended upon the reader would not have been reached.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most Edgar Allen Poe stories contain a haunting and eerie tone and this short story proves no exception. “The Fall of the House of Usher” revolves around the narrator's childhood friend, Roderick Usher. Roderick suffers from an undisclosed mental illness and Roderick’s sister, Madeline, is near death, when introduced. When Madeline appears to be dead Roderick decides to bury her in an underground vault. The days following this incident Roderick’s normal countenance fades and he goes mad. Afterwards, Madeline escapes from the vault, kills Roderick and the house splits down the middle and sinks into the ground. In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, various critics argue that the story contains supernatural influences demonstrated…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is an elaborate allegory that combines objects in the story with visual descriptions to give focus to the reader's imagination. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to dodge the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind impenetrable walls of his castellated abbey and lets the world take care of its own. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Visual descriptions in the story are used to symbolize the death that came to a dark, unkind and ignorant prince. Prospero failed to see that death "held illimitable dominion over all."…

    • 353 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plague, terror and death swept the country. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal”. In Edgar Allen Poe’s the Masque of Red Death, the author uses setting, imagery and suspense to convey the theme that death is inescapable.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his dark imagery that is present in his short stories. In Poe’s The Masque of The Red Death, he utilizes this technique to introduce the Red Death, who arrives at Prince Prospero’s sequestered abbey and infects the aristocrats with the Red Death, killing everyone. The partygoers were disturbed by the mysterious Red Death and the perverseness of its appearance. The Red Death’s ghastly introduction was, “His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (206). The Red Death appears as it sounds, having a deathly countenance with blood splattered on places. The imagery provides a darker mood to the story, enhancing the reader’s ability…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the most famous authors in American history is Edgar Allen Poe, thanks to his intricate and unsettling short stories and poems. One of the strongest aspects of Poe’s writing style is the allure and complexity of the narrator of the story. These narrators, ranging from innocent bystanders to psychotic murderers, add depth to such a short story and really allow Poe to explore the themes of death and murder which he seems to have an unhealthy obsession towards. Furthermore, he uses these narrators to give a different perspective in each of his many works and to really unsettle the reader by what is occurring throughout the story. The narrators, whether an innocent witness of death as in “The Fall of the House of Usher” or a twisted murderer as in “The Cask of Amontillado” are used by Poe to discuss the themes of death and murder within these stories and, depending on their point of view, give a different take on such a despicable act such as murder.…

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the stories were hard to understand, “The Fall of the House of Usher” more than “House Taken Over”, both of the authors did a great job at representing the genre of their story. The setting that Edgar Allen Poe presented in “The Fall of the House of Usher” was very bleak, in the short story Poe mentions things like…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Albert Camus The Plague

    • 166 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the 1947 novel, The Plague, Albert Camus presents his story in third person limited omniscient. One example of this point of view is, “That evening, when Dr. Rieux was standing in the entrance, feeling for the latch-key in his pocket before starting up the stairs to his apartment, he saw a big rat coming toward him from the dark end of the passage” (Camus 8). This point of view helps reveal the facts rather than the subjectivity of the characters. The reason for this because the narrator wants to give the reader an objective account. If the story were in a different point of view, such as first person, the reader would not get all of the facts. The narrator would choose what facts he wants to tell the reader so that the reader develops an…

    • 166 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fear is a human characteristic that everyone must struggle with. This theme is a universal one which everyone can relate to however, it is also a difficult one to capture within a short story. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the few classic writers who are able to achieve this feat. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher" is centred around the central idea of the impact of fear on one's life. His parable talks about facing your fears and the self-destruction that can come by allowing fear to run your life. Through his Gothic romantic style of writing, Poe includes elements such as a dark atmosphere, a mysterious setting, and symbolic characters in order to highlight the power and effect of fear on one's life. "The Fall of the House of Usher" addresses the conflict of fear by exposing the fear of the unknown, of restriction and claustrophobia, and of being outside one's comfort zone…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In September 1839, a man by the name of Edgar Allan Poe released his most popular and criticized short story, entitled "The Fall of the House of Usher". In Poe's gothic tale, Roderick Usher has invited the unnamed narrator, a distant childhood friend, to help alleviate his deteriorating house. Roderick and his sister, Madeline, have become ill, and his self-fulfilling prophecy of premature burial comes alive when Roderick's previously buried sister breaks out of the tomb to send into the abyss the unbranched lineage of the house of Usher. Poe once said that "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." Although some say that Madeline is a counterpart of Roderick, she is a manifestation of a supernatural entity set out to destroy the unnatural lineage by exploiting Roderick's one sided and intellectual state. The exploitation can be proven throughout the story through the comparison of the natural, supernatural, and mental aspects of "The Fall of the House of Usher".…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    House Of Usher

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe uses a first-person narrative instead of using a third-person narrative. This is done to give the reader a better sense of reality to the story. If the story was told in third person narrative the bedtime-story aspect would have been lost. Through the story being…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fearing Fear Itself

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Poe begins his story of terror by speaking of how the exterior of the House of Usher looks. After the narrator receives a letter of request from Roderick, he travels to The House of Usher. Upon approaching the house, the narrator sees “the simple feature of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation” (Poe 1). This quote shows that the narrator first sees the house as perceived by the naked eye, not from an eye of a person knowing the story that lay behind it. Details such as “rank,” “utter depression,” and “no earthly sensation” foreshadow the lifestyle of Roderick and his sister, Madeline. Living in a house such as this one could only add to the gloom of one’s life, just as it adds to Roderick’s life. After overlooking his first impression of the house, the narrator “scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (Poe 2). He saw that “its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity” (Poe 2) with “discoloration of ages” (Poe 2). While all of the quotes above display what atmosphere the story occurs in, the second set of quotes, found on page two of the story, show exactly how the house appears. The description of the house this time shows that the house is ancient and discolored from…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe has been called one of the greatest writers of American literature. In 1846, he wrote his "philosophy of composition." In this, he detailed his approach to writing. He believed that in order to write a successful story, one must "excite the reader to tears". He preferred using extremely dark subject matter as a way to show the reader true beauty. in this he also shows a perfect form; every word he writes has a meaning and a purpose. The Fall of the House of Usher, is a perfect example of Poe's approach to writing; the depravity of the subject brings up extreme emotions in the reader, and contrasts the lack of light and beauty to make us appreciate it all the more, and takes extreme care to ensure that every word leads us toward the ultimate effect of the story.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This is one of the most famous gothic stories from one of the masters of the genre and contains many of the traditional elements of the genre, including horror, death, medievalism, an ancient building and signs of great psychological disturbance. The mood of oppressive melancholy is established at the opening of the story and here readers may note an acknowledgement of the appeal of gothic fiction: while there is fear and horror, the shudder is ‘thrilling’ and the ‘sentiment’ is ‘half-pleasurable’.…

    • 2737 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics