"Masque of the Red Death" & "The Raven" Comparison

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer noted for consistencies in the dark and gothic style in his writing. Poe was a very popular for his short stories and poems which clearly shows his creative brilliance. He was renowned as the master of horror and also known, read, and appreciated for his numerous short stories and poems. His writing is uniquely terrifying and intriguing at the same time, and as well as bring up the question of life and death. In his writing he has expressed a familiar rhythm throughout his work. He uses the theme of death and it is probably related to the death of his young wife "Virginia" or his mother, who died when he was only three. Poe is also obsessed with the theme of color he uses through his writing, to describe simple imagery or to create symbolism. In the short story, "The Masque of the Red Death," and the poem, "The Raven," Edgar Allan Poe uses similar themes of death and uses color excessively to show imagery and symbolism.

It is clear that Edgar Allan Poe was obsessed with the topic of death and it is even more clear that he had an extremely morbid imagination. Poe describes fear and death all throughout his writing. Just by looking at his language, you can tell his intentions were to strike terror into the hearts of the reader. All of his adjectives and adverbs are very dark, sinister, and gothic. He uses his narrators to steadily build the suspense by having them become more frantic as the story progresses. The characters in several of his stories such as the "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Raven" become more erratic as the story/poem progresses. In the raven, the story is about the man who dreads over the death of his beloved wife Lenore. Throughout the story he wants have the ability to see her again and pleads to a raven if he'll let him. The raven itself symbolizes death and declines the characters ever request, although they were not done intentionally. As it said "sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas." (104). The word