COMMON THEMES IN MASQUE OF RED DEATH, LIGEA, and FALL OF USHER???greenspun.com : LUSENET : The Work of Edgar Allan Poe : One Thread |
hey, i have an essay on finding an insightful common theme in the fall of the house of usher, ligea, masque of the red death, and cask of amontiallo, any suggestions......? THIS ESSAY WILL DETERMINE MY GRADE, PLEASE HELP!!! :) thanx!
-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001
A challenging grouping. Though approached in different ways they share the theme of the fate of death. Though inescapable, each is a challenge to fate. Usher, utterly doomed by heredity and his imminent death shares his last days of decadent art with the narrator. The murderer in Amontillado relates the inexorable process of a crime long since committed. The Masque of the Red Death finds prince prospero unsuccessfully trying to lock out the plague which invades his neverending party. Most of all, it is Ligeia, whose will overcomes death in an awful reincarnation replacing the narrator's second bride. And of course, the horror of it all, in all its forms, the inescapable mastery of death over even a resurrected or triumphant life. Is that enough for a start?
-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001