Foreshadowing In The Masque Of The Red Death

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most well-known Gothic writers of all time, and also a master of suspense. One tool he used in his writing is foreshadowing, which is a very prominent literary device in Poe’s writings. Some of these writings include The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of The Red Death, and The Black Cat, in which readers are left wondering, “What happens next?” Whether he is using entire paragraphs to describe a character’s necessity for revenge, or leaving subtle hints in character’s names, many of his stories leave trails up until the very end. These trails leave the reader with a yearning to find out more and have the excitement in their stomachs tamed. As his writing reflects, foreshadowing is the device Poe uses to keep readers …show more content…
The story opens with a detailed description of the Red Death, which is sweeping the kingdom, but then continues to chronicle how Prince Prospero decides to let “the external world… take care of itself” (7). This foreshadowing leads the reader to believe something must happen to break Prince Prospero’s six month fantasy, in which he takes great measures to ensure he and his guests’ security from the Red Death. Suspense is created because it leaves the reader wondering what the climax will have to do with the Red Death, and how the great measures to avoid it will ultimately fail. Another example of foreshadowing is when the narrator mentions that “few of the company were bold enough to set foot within [the seventh chamber’s] precincts at all” (8). The seventh chamber’s decorations did not correspond with those of the other six, with black tapestries covering the walls, yet the window panes blood red. Foreshadowing is created because even going into the vicinity of the room was deemed frightful by all of the guests, which suggests something unfortunate would happen if anyone dared to step foot in the room. This creates suspense because the reader begins to believe something is terribly wrong with this room, as other foreshadowing has suggested. At this point in the story, the reader soon finds out the seventh chamber leads …show more content…
For instance, In “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Masque of The Red Death,” the names of the characters do not directly foretell the fate of the characters. In fact, what happens to the characters in these stories was the exact opposite of what their names would suggest. For example, Fortunato gets tricked, leading him to be trapped and left to die. This shows that Fortunato is not very fortunate, as his name would suggest. This is also seen in “The Masque of The Red Death,” where Prospero ends up not being very prosperous, due to the fact he dies. This unique type of foreshadowing is also seen in “The Black Cat,” where the cat is named Pluto, which is also the name of one of the Greek gods of the underworld in Greek mythology. This is suspenseful because the reader wonders how, unlike the Poe’s other characters, this character will escape death. The foreshadowing is successfully executed in the climax when it turns out Pluto never actually died from his owner’s attempt to murder him via hanging. Another example of foreshadowing is when the narrator tells the reader about how he begins to abuse his wife, and eventually the cat, Pluto. This is an example of foreshadowing because of later events in the story, in which the narrator attempts to murder Pluto and successfully murders his wife. Suspense is created through these events