Symbols and Irony

In the “Masque of the Red Death” the author Edgar Allen Poe used many symbols and a lot of irony for this haunting short story about King Prospero and the red death.

 In the story there is a very vicious, deadly disease called the red death that is attacking the people of king Prospero. Selfishly the king decides to gather all of his friends who have not yet contracted the disease and throw a huge bash away from the disease.

There are several different strong symbols in this short story, one that stand out and the author goes into good detail about, is the ebony clock. Edgar allan Poe paints a very detailed and realistic picture in your mind of this huge, very prominent dark clock. All the party guests are aware of it, and when it goes off there is almost and sense of doom in the air. All the guests stop what they are doing and only resume what they were doing after the clock stops chiming. When I was reading this it seemed to me like Edgar Allen Poe used the clock like a signal that something bad was to come, like a countdown. 

The black room was another big symbol in “the Masque of the Red Death”. Edgar Allan Poe went into great detail about the 7 different rooms and how each is completley decked out in one single colour. The readers got a sense that the black room was a signal for some bad luck to come and the party guests had that idea too. No one stepped foot in the black room unless they had too. In the end king Prospero was killed in the black room. Therefor I think the black room was also used as a symbol of death.

The masked man who showed up to the party, uninvited and killed the king, I saw as a symbol of Karma. The king deserted his people, and instead threw a huge party. You couldn’t get a better case of karma.

There are many cases of Irony throughout the story. Even the Kings name is kindof ironic seeing Prospero is so close to the word Prosperous meaning successful and doing well. The big use of irony in the story was that the king threw a party to keep death out and death showed up uninvited. I don’t feel sorry in the end when all the party guests die of the red death, they deserved it by neglecting the people who were suffering outside. 

“The Guest”- Albert Camus

In  “The Guest” by Albert Camus the main character Daru, was faced with a problem. Daru is a schoolteacher living in a schoolhouse in  (im guessing) Eygpt. They are people who come to Daru with an Arab prisoner for Daru to take to the prison in the next camp over and then leaves the prisoner in Daru’s hands. Daru is faced with a difficult problem and his choice in this matter shows the readers what kind of person Daru is and just what traits he posesses.

Throughout the Prisoner’s stay with him, Daru was a very compassionate host. He could of easily mistreated the prisoner and left him tied up in the corner. Daru chose to be kind to the prisoner and treat him with some what dignity even though Daru knew that the arab had killed someone.

Daru showed that he was a very non-judgemental person too, he heard from the guards that brought Daru that the prisoner was a murderer but Daru instead used that as a chance to ask the prisoner about his past and what happened and then decide what he thought of him.

the Shining houses

The shining houses was a short story about Mrs. Fullerton an eccentric, old lady who lived in an eyesore of a house in a other than that perfect neighborhood. The families that lived in the surrounding beautiful houses thought that Mrs. Fullertons hideous shack and lifestyle needed to be renovated. The families came up with a plan to build a road through her property. The main conflict in the story was man vs. man and in this case the neighborhood families against mrs. fullerton. They also wanted Mrs. Fullerton to conform to their way of living and get up to speed with their society.  There was also a case of man vs. self in the way Mary had to choose wether to do the right thing and stick up for Mrs. Fullerton or to go along with everyone else and sign the petition to get the road built through her property. In the end Mary decided to do what she thought was right and refuse to sign the petition even with the peer pressure of her friends and husband.