Edgar Allan Poe's Story and Death Theme - Essay Example

Edgar Allan Poes Story and Death Theme Poe’s short stories ‘The Masque of the Red Death and The Cask ofArmadillo,’ revolve around various themes; however, one that becomes significantly conspicuous is that of death, which ideally appears in various instances in the plays. In the story, ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ a disease known to the people as the Red Death makes entry into a nation where it kills the residents fast gruesomely, despite the fact that the disease spreads fast. Ironically, the nation’s prince seems impressed with the occurrences, and ignores offering any help to the helpless citizens; instead, he locks the gates to his palace as a means of fending off the plague (Poe 7).

The prince later throws in a party in which he invites several guests and decorates his rooms. During the party, a strange visitor makes entry into the palace dressed in a manner similar to a corpse. When the prince confronts him, the prince dies. Later everyone dies as the Red Death makes entry into the castle (Poe 10). From the story, death makes a significant manifestation.In the story ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ the narrator narrates of occurrences that took place fifty years, and no one has come to realize the actual happenings to date.

In the story, one Fortunato hurts the narrator, who plots revenge for Fortunato’s actions against him. The narrator brings out some wine, which he hid in the graveyard and gives it to Fortunato until he is drunk, and constantly talks of Amontillado, the wine, though the narrator leads him to a hole in some part of the wall, where Fortunato is chained, and the hole filled with bricks. Fortunato begs for mercy from the narrator who later fills the hole with the last brick, leaving Fortunato for death, an occurrence not known to anyone until now (Poe 10).

The narrator is Montresor.In the story ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ death is portrayed in both an irony and a theme. As a theme, death comes out as an inescapable occurrence from which nobody can run. When the prince locks his gates, it happens in an urge of preventing death from reaching his territories. However, when he organizes a banquet, the unexpected happens when death comes and kills all in attendance. Ironically, death comes in at the least expected time after the prince has made all the possible aspects in keeping it out of the castle, killing all in attendance.

Similarly, in the story ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ Poe brings about some element of death by showing the power of the dead over the living. The dead come back to life, from where they play a significant role in building up the storyline. Fortunato’s case is a clear incident in which the dead is brought back to life as Montresor; the narrator states that the occurrences he narrates took place fifty years ago. By extension, the two stories have significance to life from which the two show clearly that despite the state in which an individual lives, the result remains similar, and that is death.

Works CitedPoe Edgar Allan. The Masque of the Red Death. Elegant EBooks, 1842. Retrieved from: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Red_Death.pdf Poe Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Elegant EBooks, 1849. Retrieved from: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Amontillado.pdf