Poe Compare and Contrast Essay free essay sample

The stories are different in regards to the characters, because in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death,† the only characters are Prince Prospero, and the â€Å"stranger,† who was the red death. While in â€Å"The Black Cat,† the characters were the narrator, the narrator’s wife, Pluto, and the new cat. These characters make the story different, because in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death,†the character’s are very upscale, and royal, while the characters in â€Å"The Black Cat,† are an everyday family, which is very relatable. None of us have ever been a prince, or a princess, so I find it is easier to connect with â€Å"The Black Cat†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s everyday characters. Another way the characters make the stories different, is how they are actually different species. Although there are humans in both stories, the animal characters in â€Å"The Black Cat,† shake up the story and make it different from all the rest. The text says this about the animal character Pluto: â€Å" and a cat. This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. † Poe 2. The character who shakes up the â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† story, was in fact, the red death character. This is a different character, because you do not know if he is, in fact a real character, or if he is just the disease. At the beginning, the story says, †The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous†. Poe 1. Then, at the end, the death is represented by a masked character. â€Å"The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in bloodand his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror. † Poe 3. The stories are different in regards to the setting, because the â€Å"Masque of the Red Death† story takes place in Prince Prospero’s castle, during the nighttime at a masquerade ball. The story takes place in the 1800’s. My proof of this is, â€Å" e summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys . † Poe 1. The â€Å"Black Cat† story takes place in the narrator’s home, in the 1800’s. My proof of this is, â€Å"I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even wit h difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets. â€Å" Poe 3. These are two very different settings, and make the stories offbeat from each other. The setting of a story is very important because it affects how, and if the events will take place. The setting could change everything in a story. These stories are different in regards to the conflict, because of how the conflict is created, and why there is conflict. In â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† the conflict was caused by a disease. The conflict is caused by the disease, because even though the prince tried to prevent it, the â€Å"red death† took his life in the end. My proof is, â€Å"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. † Poe 10. In the â€Å"Black Cat,† a feline is causing the stories conflict. The unnamed cat caused the conflict by innocently playing with the narrator’s mind, and twisting his emotions. This eventually causes the narrator to try and kill the cat, but instead kills his wife. My proof is, â€Å"One day she accompanied me, upon some household errand, into the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan. † Poe 3. The conflict of a story is what causes the story to be interesting, and have a twist. Ultimately, there would be no story without a conflict. The two stories â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death,† and â€Å"The Black Cat† are not really alike in any ways. Both storys characters, conflict, and setting are all different. That is a good thing though. It is great for stories to be written diversely, and Poe was terrific at doing just that. Edgar Allen Poe was a great man with terrific stories. He had a hard life, and expressed himself fully in his stories. Although his stories were very frightful, Poe was a very insightful man. He was very intelligent, and most of his quotes can still be relatable today. For example, â€Å"Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute. † Edgar Allen Poe.