evilness. Support for this appears in the tenth line: "He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!" The rest of the poem appeared to be a speech in the intrinsic nature of evil, but Poe was clear to point out his conclusion that death-the corporate silence is not evil in itself: "No power hath he of evil in himself." There is a sense that Poe wanted to emphasize that there are boundaries ("There is a twofold Silence- sea and shore(5)") while at the same time showing that in nature there is very little control ultimately over eventual outcomes ("Newly with grass o'ergrown(7)" ). Finally, there is confusion over whether nature’s control over man or evil’s control over man is winning or losing the battle once “Silence” steps in to assert the ultimate spin on the fate of man.One story, “The Masque of the Red Death” clearly illuminates the chief impressions of horror fear and melancholy that Poe sought to create. “The Masque of the Red Death” takes place during the course of a particularly gruesome plague. The only true character, Prince Prospero, calls together a thousand of his friends to go into seclusion with him at one of his castellated abbeys until the plague has ended. A masquerade is thrown in seven distinct, joining rooms and the guests arrive in their elegant costumes and begin to partake in the festivities. The night is interrupted when a masked presence enters the room dressed in the garments of the dead with the symptoms of the plague of red death. The uninvited guest moves from room to room until confronted by the Prince Prospero in the apartment arrayed in black. Prince Prospero suddenly falls dead at the intruder’s feet and the crowd descends upon the intruder to find that the costume is “untenanted by any tangible form (Poe, Edgar Allan, 1406).” The guests soon begin to die as all acknowledged the presence of the Red Death (Poe, Edgar Allan: The Masque of ...
