Fear is an instinct, something that is natural for living things. Fear can be helpful because it creates a feeling of awareness when something to be feared is nearby. Fear can also be harmful as it can create paranoia in those who don't know how to handle the fear. In Poe’s stories, fear is mainly a harmful thing as it drives the characters made to even the point of doing things they wouldn't normally do. In his stories, Edgar Allan Poe commonly uses irony, symbols, and imagery to describe how the main character’s fear will turn against them and ultimately drive them mad to do inhumane things.
Irony is common in stories, specifically gothic stories, to give a lesson or to frighten the reader. In the stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The …show more content…
Poe commonly uses symbols in his stories. For example, “Tell-Tale Heart”. This story has a few symbols that the narrator obsesses over and ultimately leads to his fear taking over. The narrator describes “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold…” (74). Here, the narrator describes the eye that drove the narrator to kill the old man. The eye symbolizes judgment and influence because the eye influenced the narrator to feel feelings toward the old man that he would never feel toward him, hate. He judgment comes from where the old man is dead and the narrator no longer is under its judgment, the judgment that lead the narrator to end the old man's life. “The Masque of Red Death” has symbols as well. The symbol in this story would be the Red Death, which symbolizes death itself. The narrator states “The “RED DEATH” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal or hideous, Blood was its Avatar and its seal-the redness and horror of blood.” (57). Here, the narrator associates the red death with blood which can be associated with death. Towards the end the masked figure infects the remaining survivors with the Red Death which is comparable to death bringing upon itself to the mortal. This is a key point in the story as it hints to the theme that death is unable to be avoided. This is the theme for …show more content…
In “The Pit and the Pendulum” imagery is used to further describe the punishments that the narrator is enduring. The narrator says “... that its nether extremity was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot in length from horn to horn; the horns upward., and the under edge as keen as that of a razor. Like a razor also, it seemed massy and heavy, tapering from the edge into a solid and broad structure above.” (68). Here the narrator uses imagery to thoroughly describe the pendulum. The imagery for the pendulum can show that the narrator is feeling fear during this time even though he seems to remain calm throughout the story. The way he is staying calm is simple. He decides his actions based off of reason and fact, contrary to using his emotions, which from looking at Poe's other stories and even real life occurrences would drive the narrator mad during his time in the
Irony is common in stories, specifically gothic stories, to give a lesson or to frighten the reader. In the stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The …show more content…
Poe commonly uses symbols in his stories. For example, “Tell-Tale Heart”. This story has a few symbols that the narrator obsesses over and ultimately leads to his fear taking over. The narrator describes “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold…” (74). Here, the narrator describes the eye that drove the narrator to kill the old man. The eye symbolizes judgment and influence because the eye influenced the narrator to feel feelings toward the old man that he would never feel toward him, hate. He judgment comes from where the old man is dead and the narrator no longer is under its judgment, the judgment that lead the narrator to end the old man's life. “The Masque of Red Death” has symbols as well. The symbol in this story would be the Red Death, which symbolizes death itself. The narrator states “The “RED DEATH” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal or hideous, Blood was its Avatar and its seal-the redness and horror of blood.” (57). Here, the narrator associates the red death with blood which can be associated with death. Towards the end the masked figure infects the remaining survivors with the Red Death which is comparable to death bringing upon itself to the mortal. This is a key point in the story as it hints to the theme that death is unable to be avoided. This is the theme for …show more content…
In “The Pit and the Pendulum” imagery is used to further describe the punishments that the narrator is enduring. The narrator says “... that its nether extremity was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot in length from horn to horn; the horns upward., and the under edge as keen as that of a razor. Like a razor also, it seemed massy and heavy, tapering from the edge into a solid and broad structure above.” (68). Here the narrator uses imagery to thoroughly describe the pendulum. The imagery for the pendulum can show that the narrator is feeling fear during this time even though he seems to remain calm throughout the story. The way he is staying calm is simple. He decides his actions based off of reason and fact, contrary to using his emotions, which from looking at Poe's other stories and even real life occurrences would drive the narrator mad during his time in the