Similarities Between The Black Cat And The Masque Of The Red Death

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“I become insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Edgar Allan Poe is a notorious author for sinister short stories and poems. He strikes his readers with fear instantly and continues to progress his ominous writing style throughout the story. Edgar Allan Poe is not like many other writers due to his rough life. Poe’s wife, Virginia, had tragically died in 1847 and Poe was never the same afterwards. Ever since, he had written about eerie and suspenseful stories. In 1849 Poe mysteriously died which fits his mysterious life and stories. Two of his best writing pieces were “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death”. In both of his pieces he uses a sinister and eerie setting, chilling figurative language, and an unreliable point of …show more content…
If the setting was set elsewhere, the story wouldn’t be as eerie nor would it follow the story as well. This setting started out in a wealthy house and ended up in a miserable tiny house that the narrator could barely afford which symbolized his life falling apart. He eventually killed his wife and was arrested. Also, the setting had a lot of images of black cats which scare people and are used around Halloween time. The setting makes the mood and tone depressing and ashamed. The setting as stated before fell apart which caused depression and insanity in the narrator. Also the narrator was ashamed with how he had let his life fall apart. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the setting is in Prince Prospero’s castellated abbey. Everyone is in one big room for the masquerade ball but in total there are seven rooms in sort of a line. No one could leave the ball because the doors were locked. Also the details of the setting were creepy. The narrator states, “The panes were scarlet –a deep blood color.” This develops the theme of fear. Also the seven rooms are in a line which is creepy. Also, there is no evidence as to when or where the setting takes place which adds to the theme of fear and is creepy. If the setting was to be
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in his stories ‘Metzengerstein’ (1840), ‘Berenice’ (1840), ‘Ligeia’ (1838), ‘The Oval Portrait’ (1842), and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ (1842)” (Poe). Poe had another villain; one that was not a typical gothic villain, this villain was the guilty conscious. These include ‘The Black Cat,’ ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ and the doppelganger story ‘William Wilson’ (1840). In, ‘The Black Cat’ and “The Tell-Tale Heart,’ it is the villains guilty conscious that give away his deed—in both cases the deed is…

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