Examples Of Irony In The Masque Of The Red Death

“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.” This quote by Robert A. Heinlein matches the Crucible perfectly because by the end of the story, many people will have died because of ironic circumstances. In regards to this, there are three types of irony that appear in the Crucible; they are situational, dramatic, and verbal.

Irony is the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning, the result of an action or situation, the reverse of what is expected. Irony is definitely essential in these two stories as it develops deeper levels of meaning. Both stories massively use irony. “The Masque of Red death” the whole story is practically irony; even the title foretells you there will be irony in the story. The situational irony is the palace rooms which represent the stages of life, from the first room to the last. Prospero sets up the castle to avoid the plague and he believes he can use his wealth to defend himself against the plague. They shorty realize that they cannot avoid death by isolating themselves in a castle. In the “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” dramatic irony is used quite a few times, first, the character Ichabod Crane desires himself as smart, attractive, and talented in dancing and singing. However the reader is well aware that in fact Ichabod’s appearance is foolish. His dancing is defined as “clattering.” The reader knows more truth concerning Ichabod than he realizes himself. “The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means; and it is a favorite

Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.

The central irony in The Plague lies in Camus' treatment of "freedom." The citizens of Oran become prisoners of the plague when their city falls under total quarantine, but it is questionable whether they were really "free" before the plague. Their lives were strictly regimented by an unconscious enslavement to their habits. Moreover, it is questionable whether they were really alive. It is only when they are separated by quarantine from their friends, lovers and families that they most intensively love them. Before, they simply took their loved ones for granted.

In both “Masque of the Red Death” and “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, the author uses specific elements to express meaning and to develop a theme. He is portraying the idea that neither love nor death has a limit, no matter what we want to imagine. We have no control of either, especially death. In “The Masque of The Red Death” Poe makes the inference that death is inevitable or inescapable. In “Annabel Lee” he uses the power of two character’s love to show that death is not preventable no matter what you do. Also, he shows that love never vanishes even after death. In both selections, Poe uses rhetorical devices such as parallelism, symbolism, and imagery to draw the reader into the story.

Irony is described by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result”. “Ransom of the Red Chief”, as short story written by O. Henry, is full of all types of irony. In this short story a boy, Johnny Dorset, is taken by two kidnappers, Sam and Bill. Ironically, by the end of the story it is the kidnappers who pay ransom to the father. In “Ransom of the Red Chief”, there are many examples of irony which help to enhance the story. Throughout this tale, there are multiple examples of situational, dramatic, and verbal irony.

Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death.

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are best shadowly and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” (Poe). There is no such thing as having the ability to predict or tame the wrath of death, for all we can do is learn to accept it. In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the main character, Prospero, shows through his arrogant actions that death will forever overpower the human instinct to stay alive. Poe uses symbolism to convey the battle between man and nature through the idea of the masquerade that serves as a fortress against the wrath of the disease, an excuse to disguise the true colors of man, and the honest truth that man will never become immortal.

A literary device that is used in The Crucible is allegory. The meaning of allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. The Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism, a period of time where officials were being accused of being a part of the communist party. Arthur Miller published the play during McCarthyism, so when he went to Salem and read the transcripts, he knew something could be made from the transcripts because of its similarity to McCarthyism. In The Crucible, people were being accused of being a witch, but the officials had no proof of it, they just went of someone's word; during McCarthyism, Joseph McCarthy was accusing officials of the US to being a part of the communist party and he had no proof. In both situations, the accusers feed

The next type of noticeable irony in The Crucible is situational irony. This irony is defined as is a difference between what is expected to happen in a story versus what actually happens. One example of situational irony occurred for the accused: the punishment of the "witches". Will they die because they honestly claim they aren't witches or will they live a life of lying about their true witch identity? Goody Proctor was a genuine and honest person, and yet, she died with the truth that she was innocent of witchcraft. Which is truly more important: your desires or common morals? Another example of situational irony takes place in the courts of Act III, the sin of wrong-doing buried in the heart of John Proctor, when he finally admits he

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who believed every single word contained meaning and in his own words expressed this idea in brevity only he is capable, "…there should be no word written, of which tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." (Poe 244). To this effect, Poe drenches his works in symbolism and allegory. Especially in shorter works, Poe assigns meaning to the smallest object, explicitly deriving exurbanite significance within concise descriptions. "The Masque of the Red Death" tells the story of a Prince Prospero who along with his one thousand friends sought a haven from the plague that was ravishing their country. They lived together in the prince's luxurious abbey with all the amenities and

Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses

Throughout the short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses vivid symbolism, structure, and reoccurring details to paint a powerful image regarding the finality and inescapable reaches of death itself. “The ‘Red Death’ has long devastated the country,” yet the Prince Prospero continues to hold extravagant parties for his fellow elite members of society. Rather than merely telling a series of events, Poe carries his readers throughout the many rooms and scenes that hold the Prince’s masquerade, up until the clock strikes midnight and the partygoers can no longer hide behind their façade, and death comes in to take those that thought themselves invincible (Poe 438-442).

Everyone will one day face mortality. This was also true for Prince Prospero in the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to develop the theme of unavoidable death. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, allegory, and symbolism to add dimension to his story and to express the theme that one cannot escape death, no matter how hard one tries.

…interested to discover the conclusion to the captivating novel Perfume. The author, Patrick Suskind, inflicts a sense of sympathy from the readers, to look down on Grenouille in pity, despite the fact Grenouille has murdered many women. The sense of pity may in fact turn into a feeling of venturing on to discover the ending of Perfume.