About "The Masque of the Red Death" -By Edgar Allen Poem

This story aims to create a sense of celebration as well as horror through its use of setting and vivid imagery.

Edgar Allen Poem gives a very detailed description of the setting using all kinds of imagery such as visual imagery when he writes, “blood tinted panes” and “dull, heavy, monotonous clang” which is auditory imagery. These words scare the reader and the reader becomes both afraid of and excited for what is going to happen next. When the author says, “stiffened corpse” he arouses terror in the reader’s heart and accomplishes his aim of frightening the reader.

Even though this story is petrifying, Edgar Allen Poem builds up a setting of festivity. This is done by creating a ceremonial vision in the readers mind using words like “laughter” and “there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was beauty, there was wine”. With this the reader can imagine a scene of partying and that’s how Edgar Allen Poem makes his feeling of celebration clear to the reader, by using imagery to describe his setting.

The use of vivid imagery while forming the setting is highly effective as this makes it easier for the reader to picture the situation or scenario and understand what the author is trying to convey.