Examples Of Biblical Allusions In The Masque Of The Red Death

The style of Edgar A. Poe fills itself with biblical allusions, similar characterization, and a reoccurring idealization of females, making his narratives a look at his own life when it comes to how he writes. From castellated abbeys to Nights Plutonian shore, Poes works are replete with biblical innuendos. The major correspondence between his narratives and the Bible would be the many implications to the Book of Revelations in The Masque of the Red Death. Revelations tells of the collapse of civilization through four horsemen, Conquest, Famine, War, and Death. The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal...(Masque 1) expresses the presence of the initial horsemen, better known as†¦show more content†¦Of the seven deadly sins, those of gluttony, lust, greed, and pride are self-indulgent, for a visceral craving for doing what one fancies without restraint fuels these transgressions. This can be seen in the sybaritic Prince Prospero, as his love of luxury and pleasure blinded him from the raging pestilence outside his abbey. Fortunato had a hedonistic existence as a wine connoisseur, priding himself in his knowledge of the drink, such as when he states Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry.(Cask 14) to debase other wine pundits in comparison to himself. William Wilson from the story of the same name was lascivious, attempting to seduce a wedded woman during a Roman carnival. To illustrate another characterization element Poe uses, many of his narrators appear to have idolatry. Egaeus is an odontophiliac, as his obsession with teeth justifies his state of shock when ...there rolled out some instruments of dental surgery, intermingled with thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances that were scattered to and fro about the floor.(Berenice 21). The painter in The Oval Portrait suffers from obsessive love towards his wife, indicating his adulation towards the beauty of his beloved. The narrator of The M an of the Crowd shows fascination in figures he sees outside the coffee shop window he sits behind, going so far as to stalk a man who intriguesShow MoreRelatedHow to Read Lit Like a Prof Notes3608 Words   |  15 Pagesplot or theme or both. Examples: i. Hamlet: heroic character, revenge, indecision, melancholy nature ii. Henry IV—a young man who must grow up to become king, take on his responsibilities iii. Othello—jealousy iv. Merchant of Venice—justice vs. mercy v. King Lear—aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool 7. †¦Or the Bible a. Before the mid 20th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap b. Common Biblical stories with symbolic