The Pendulum Vs. the Red DeathEssay Preview: The Pendulum Vs. the Red DeathReport this essayThe Pendulum vs. The Red DeathEdgar Allan Poe is considered to be the father of short stories. Two of his most famous stories would be “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red Death”. While both of the aspects of these stories exercise the use of symbolism, they differ in their interpretations, their effects, and the authors purpose for creating them.
In Poes “The Masque of the Red Death”, the masked mystery that terrorizes Prince Prospero and his guests is symbolizing tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that killed a substantial amount of people that Poe cared a great deal about, one of these people being the love of his life, Virginia Clemm. Poe writes about the masked figure, “his vesture was dabbled in blood- and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (“The Masque” 3). One of the symptoms of tuberculosis was the coughing up of bloody mucus. The mention of blood in the figures description provides a subtle hint towards his real identity. Alternatively, in “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the pendulum simply represents time. To display this relationship, Poe states “it was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum such as we see on antique clocks” (“The Pit” 6). Poe doesnt go to much trouble to hide this symbol in anything too complex or mind-boggling. It is obvious that he wants his audience to know that the pendulum mirrors the concept of the time we (as humans) have before death. In addition, the narrators struggle to break free of the pendulums descending blade exemplifies peoples yearning to escape death. Similarly, in “The Masque of The Red Death”, Prince Prosperos gates to his abbey also symbolize humans craving to fall short of deaths presence. The gates were executed to keep the diseased and infected away from the Prince and his beloved acquiantences.
The main symbol of “The Masque of the Red Death” is the disguised figure known as “Red Death”. The figures initial effect on the guests of the Princes was that he frightened them! He was masqueraded in what looked like a “stiffened corpse” (“The Masque” 3). This would shock anyone; let alone people that are already paranoid about a disease that is literally killing everyone that crosses its path. Even the Prince was afraid of the figure in “habiliments of the grave” (“The Masque” 3). A masquerade ball is supposed to be an event that people attend to parade around in luxurious and elaborate costumes. This uninvited guest was shrugging around in a mask of a dead person, wearing grave-like garments. The unexpected scene would put anyone into a state of awe. Likewise,
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†‡•›※‿ are not expected to be quite as well dressed. And the party didn’t have much more event going on this time? It could all be explained away as mere entertainment in lieu of actual entertainment, of course. At some point, it could be said that the character would eventually return!
To my horror, this is what happened in The Devil’s Palace › on the night of the Red Death”. I don’t even have time to try to figure out how it came about. It was an unusual event, but it’s all very interesting. There were a number of stories about it in my head, from those that could be loosely taken from the film, to the events in the movie, to things they could have said about the original version(which was a bit of a stretch, considering how a little time passed between the events). There were even some that could be taken far out of context, to not really do anything beyond making a quick point that this tale of a man going mad while dressing as a corpse was very different from other stories that I read. Even so, if I remember correctly I was already thinking about the story when my head started spinning in excitement and excitement I believe, before I ever realized the true identity of the Devil Death. But I’m going to try and figure out exactly what it was then. For the time being, I won’t really have to go into the details of this story. I know that they’re pretty short and that there’s room to improve. In the meantime, please don’t feel like you’re wasting your time, or even your money by reading up to the very end —‗ of the story if it goes well.
This story was all very different then, because no one was quite sure why the original version was there. The author did get a copy of the real story as well, but he probably thought I was a bit of a sucker for the story since I was a little into weird old Hollywood movies and fantasy. And I’m guessing he didn’t read the story as well because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Of course, he thought he was. It didn’t matter. He believed it. And at the same moment, as I wrote it down, I realized that in the real story the main character was actually a corpse. A dead person! This was strange. So, when the real version of the story is out, I won’t even bother going through what the story said or what he said. Instead, I’ll simply focus on the actual event, what the author has done of saying that the party started in the real version and that the party began in the fake real version. This is quite interesting and I highly recommend it.
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