The Dark And Gloomy Suspense In The Masque Of The Red Death

An author that exclaims his love for gothic poetry and portrays it through his works is a man by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. His dark and domestic way of writing makes his short stories and poetry mysterious and extremely interesting. He creates an atmosphere of horror that provides a theme of gothic literature to most of his works. His tone is dreary and creepy as if it was taken place in a horror film. The atmosphere given in each film incorporates a dark and gory scene. All of these symbols give off a strong theme of gothic literature and is seen to be how he represented his style of writing. Poes way of writing brought him to be a successful writer, and his works are still used today. The works that he uses the dark type of tone in include, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Edgar Poe creates an atmosphere of horror in his works through his exaggerated tone, symbols of suspense, and haunted or creepy setting.

Poe extremely exaggerated his tone in most of his works. For example, In The Fall of the House of Usher, to describe the house he would include vivid descriptions including ghastly, morbid and made it seem as the story took place in a horror movie. His tone portrays a sad, dark and gloomy mood that establishes the descriptions of the antiquated house. “While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the 'House of Usher.'” This quote shows the tone he uses to create a scene of horror. It reveals the dark and mysterious tone taken place in one of his many works of gothic literature. Poe gives an extensive take on the character's internal thoughts and overall actions in all of his poetry. His tone and structure of each story sends a clear message of fear and horror.

In Poe's poetry, he uses dark and mysterious suspense. His suspense is shown through the various accounts of foreshadowing. He provides known and unknown suspense to make his readers horrified just by reading and not seeing. For example in The Raven he ends the poem with an eerie sense of guilt and shame to the narrator and even himself. The narrator in the poem is trying to escape his sorrow and ends up not being able to. This could potentially be him trying to escape his grief by including suspense and allusions is his gothic literature. An example involves a line from The Raven, “ ‘Doubtless,’ said I, ‘what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster.’ ” The suspense given in this quote shows the disaster that is living within the narrator's mind and proves the horror and pain that the narrator had. He provides quotes that are filled with depression and sadness that give off fear and oppression. Another example of suspense and mysterious endings include Poe's work, The Masque of the Red Death. It provides a plot that is mysterious yet creepy that leaves readers horrified and intrigued by what is so called “The Red Death.”

The setting of Poe's poetry makes a huge impact on the role of horror being present within his literature. The setting and initial background of his stories makes the overall scene horrific and gloomy. The setting in Poe's poetry not only provides an atmosphere of horror, it provides a dark theme within each story. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe created imagery and vivid descriptions to give of a sense that the house was dreadful and fearsome. An example of one of his works, The Masque of the Red Death, includes an intense description of one of the rooms described in the dark and mysterious story. Quoted from The Masque of the Red Death, “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls... But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet - a deep blood color, ' the fear given from the description of this room shows the perspective of horror being put into these poems or stories. The way he attracts his audiences all comes from the initial background and setting of the story to drag his readers in and create a horror factor.

The tone, suspense, and setting completes any story, but in Poe's poetry it signifies the overall horrific theme given in each of his novels. His way of displaying his gothic novels gives elements of fear within each of his literary works. The way he expresses the darkness makes his readers want to read more in suspense and give them a factor of horror. In The Masque of the Red Death, Poe describes a plague and and graphically describes rooms, and a midnight guest with a scary tone and setting. The way Edgar Poe puts twits on stories and novels makes it seem that the horror stories are real and beastly. The effect that he has in his stories makes the exaggerated tone, symbols of suspense, and haunted or creepy setting, elements of horror that are evident in almost all of his stories. The symbols of death provided gives a chill factor to make it seem as no one can escape death and sorrow and that alone is horrific enough.