Characteristics of Writing Style in “The Masque of Red Death” and “The Cask of
Amontillado”
Che-Han (Hanes) Hsu
Mr. de Groof
Grade 11 English Literature
1/09/2017
Hanes 34
Written by the renowned and celebrated American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe, the
short story “The Cask of Amontillado” is known as one of the most outstanding examples of
Gothic writing in the Romantic Era. Through initial reading that is not in depth, some people
may argue that each of Edgar Allan Poe’s works of literature are substantially different from
each other, each possessing a style and uniqueness that cannot be imitated. However, through
meticulous analysis of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of Red Death,” mutual
similarities in Poe’s one of a kind characteristic in writing can be observed. It can be said that
Poe draws experiences from his haphazard and forlorn life as inspiration for his peculiar
writing characteristics, which is ultimately shown in the two thrillers mentioned above.
Despite being one of the most widely know writers in his time, Edgar Allan Poe suffered
from a hard life, which ultimately affected his writing characteristic. By the age of three, Poe
was left as an orphan along with his older brother, William, and his younger sister, Rosalie,
due to the death of their mother and the desertion of his father (Biography.com;
Encyclopedia.com). Luckily, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, a successful
Scottish-born tobacco merchant and his wife (Carlson). Though Poe was never actually
adopted by the Allans, he took on the name of Allan as his middle name after moving in with
them (Encyclopedia.com). From a young age, Poe was educated by the best private
academies, but because of his abhorrent relationship with John Allan, Poe’s living expenses
as well as financial support were cut short, which resulted in him dropping out of the
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University of Virginia in 1826(Poetry Foundation). Before dropping out, Poe was forced to
resort to result to gambling to cover his for the inadequacy in financial support. Upon
returning home, Poe was informed that his fiancé Sarah Elmira Royster cheated on him and
was engaged to someone else. To cope with this lose, Poe moved to Boston, where he was
then learned that Frances Allan was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had
taken his mother’s life. Following the death of Frances, Poe cut ties with John Allan, later
moving on to marry his cousin Virginia (Encyclopedia.com). Poverty-stricken, Poe’s only
support was his young wife who passed away in 1847, leaving him in grief and misery.
Nevertheless, he continued to write until he finally died in Baltimore on September 27, 1849
(Biography.com).
Acknowledging his unforgiving life, Edgar Allan Poe uses his experiences in life to
further aid him in his literary works. Throughout his life, Poe faced multiple traumatic events,
ranging from the death of his mother, to the death of his wife. His wife, whom “I [He] loved
as no man ever loved before,” repeatedly burst blood vessels in her final years. Through this
he claims that “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity” (Onion). In a twist of
events, Poe then says that “[I] nearly abandoned all hope of a permanent cure when I found
one in the death of my wife.” It was during this exact period when he wrote the celebrated
poem “The Raven,” which he drew to his wife’s illness as inspiration. Other distressing
events also contributed to his writing of the Gothic style, which includes aspects such as
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tormented narrators (which is a direct reflection of Poe himself), premature burial, ironic
names, strange setting, and gloomy atmospheres.
As has been noted, Poe draws inspiration from his life as material for his stories,
essentially implementing them as his distinctive characteristic in writing. The fundamentals
of his writing are what one calls as Gothic literature. Contrary to beliefs, Gothic isn’t simply
a style where there is a specific trait that every Gothic writing possesses, but instead is more
like a family of texts and stories (Bowen). Every Gothic writer has his or her own styles and
preferences; in the case of Edgar Allan Poe, he took the textbook materials-medieval settings,
castles, ancient houses, and aristocratic corruption-and added sophisticated psychological
state related matters into discussion (Mullan). In the two stories, “The Masque of Red Death”
and “The Cask of Amontillado, instances of Edgar Allan Poe’s eccentric style in Gothic
literature is clearly displayed.
To expand upon the previous statement, “The Masque of Red Death” is inarguably
representative of Poe’s characteristic Gothic style. The setting, which takes place in the deep
seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” during the reign of the forbidding disease, the Red
Death, is of a peculiar choice that reflects upon Poe’s Gothic style. Furthermore, the
composition of chambers in the abbey itself is also outré in taste. The chambers are
unconventional in structure; traditionally, abbey naves are “the central part of a church
building” and are “rectangular, separated from the chancel by a step or rail, and from adjacent
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aisles by pillars” (Oxford Dictionary), but the abbey’s structure is bizarre, with “sharp turn[s]
at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect.” This outlandish design also
connects the Poe’s tendency to create protagonists with distressed mental illnesses. The
owner of the abbey, Prince Prospero, is said to be “happy and dauntless and sagacious,” but
in reality, he is anything but happy, dauntless, and sagacious. The sharp turns in the
composition of the abbey suggests that Prospero is twisted in his mind, possibly suffering
from mental illnesses due to the devastating destruction that the Red Death brought upon his
kingdom. Also, the prince is far from dauntless, for he shows his fear of death through the
action of seeking refuge in an abbey along with his friends. Moreover, the act of “[bringing]
furnaces and massy hammers and welded[ing] the bolts” of the abbey, is, in itself, a form of
premature burial because everyone, Prospero included, dies inside the abbey, which brings us
to the concept of ironic names. Prospero, as his name suggests, originated from the word
prosperous, which, as defined by Merriam-Webster, means “marked by success or economic
well-being” and “enjoying vigorous and healthy growth.” Nonetheless, the prince is neither
successful in escaping the disease, nor is he experiencing any sort of growth in the enclosure
of the abbey.
Arguably the most a critical part of Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic style, the establishment of
a gloomy atmosphere is also prominent in “The Mask of Red Death.” Specific dictions, such
as, “long devastated,” “seclusion,” “dull, heavy, monotonous clang,” and “constrained to
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pause” are just some of the many words Poe choices to evoke a sense of uneasiness. Further
expanding upon the idea of gloomy atmospheres, Poe also utilizes people’s fear in the
unknown, also known as xenophobia, to bring about the horrifying essence in his writing.
“The Masque of Red Death” demonstrates this in such that it draws upon people’s fear in the
unknown in the end by introducing the antagonist, the Red Death, so suddenly that it leaves a
feeling so suspenseful that the reader’s dies with Prospero as he and his followers fall victim
to the Red Death.
Similar to “The Masque of Red Death,” “The Cask of Amontillado” also displays Edgar
Allan Poe’s sui generis characteristic in writing. The protagonist, Montresor, has been
“injured” thousands of times by the antagonist, Fortunato, and the tipping straw of
Montresor’s sanity was when Fortunato proceeded to insult him. Anguished by the insults,
Montresor then swears to seek revenge, once again resembling Poe’s characteristic of having
tormented protagonists. As part of his revenge, Montresor “accidentally” meets Fortunato
during the carnival and tricks Fortunato into following him into the vaults, which is the
strange choice of setting in this story, alone; it is in the cellar where the gloomy atmosphere is
introduced. The catacombs, as described by Poe, are “damp,” and “white web-work gleams
from these [the] cavern walls.” In addition to the nitre covered cavern, as the two men arrive
at a crypt “the foulness of the air caused our [their] flambeaux rather to glow than flame.”
The diminished light provides the image of two men in the dark with the bones of the
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diseased Montresors, accumulating upon the gloomy atmosphere that Poe strives to create.
The crypt that the two men arrive at turns out to be the final resting place of Fortunato, who is
chained to the wall and walled in with bricks by Montresor as retribution for the suffering
that Montresor endured prior to his revenge. Intoxicated at the time of the burial, Fortunato
didn’t notice anything wrong until it was too late. Ironically, Fortunato is a lot less fortunate
as his name suggests, which literally derived from the work fortunate, meaning “[to bring]
some good thing not foreseen as certain (Merriam-Webster).” Finally, as the last piece of
brick is put in, Montresor’s plan to bury Fortunato alive is carried out, an ultimate act of
premature burial.
Through insightful analyses of the two stories, “The Masque of Red Death” and “The
Cask of Amontillado,” it becomes clear that Poe draws from past experiences as inspiration
for his works, which ultimately becomes his most distinctive characteristic in writing. By
using anecdotes as the basis for his thrillers, Poe is able to create stories that evoke people’s
emotions, indulging them in his phantasm world of Gothic literature. Questionably the most
outstanding writer and critic of all time, Edgar Allan Poe’s life events can be detected through
his words and unique style of writing, making him the fêted and well-loved writer that he is
today.
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