Legend or the Sleepy Hollow and the Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving are both enthralling writers. They both have unusual styles of writing but they are similar in some ways. The writers are comparable in the use of tone in their works. Irving‘s use of tone in his stories are typically optimistic, yet dramatic. Poe’s uses of tone in his stories are filled with horror and are also dramatic. Poe and Irving use different techniques to develop a complex meaning in their short stories. For instance, elements such as imagery, tone, and irony are placed in these stories contribute to make these stories intense. Imagery is a way of walking a person through mental visualizations, both stories use imagery. Irving is prominent for his use of descriptive imagery; his imagery really gives a true visualization of the story. “ A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half shut eye, And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round the summer sky” (page 1).” Sleepy Hollow is used to describe the real world. Poe uses imagery all over his story The Masque of the Red Death, describing the rooms, the figure and more. For example: “Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid profusion of the golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof” ( page 97). The imagery of both stories certainly gives significant clarification to the stories. The imagery helps develop the stories complex meaning it explains, it also visualizes and elucidates their meanings. The tone of The Masque of the Red Death and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow particularly justify how the stories are written. The tone makes the reader think about the purpose and view of the story. From beginning to end, the tone of "The Masque of the Red Death" has a portentous Gothic and dark penetrating tone throughout the whole story. Poe sets the tone right away just look at the opening lines: The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence