Brandon Cupp
January 1, 1997
English 113
"The Masque of Red Death" and
"The Shawl" are quite similar yet very unalike. The way the authors described the setting set
the traits of the characters' personalities.
In "The Masque of Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe, Prince
Prospero was the main character. In
"The Shawl," by Cynthia Ozick, Stella was a supporting character. Both were greatly affected by the settings
and the details to describe it.
The way the settings affected the characters
were different in some ways. First the
way both characters acted and the setting.
Prospero lived a full life of luxuries which was evident from him being
a prince and owning a magnificent castle.
This castle is where he ran to hide from the Red Death. He was scared of dying. He figured if he isolated himself and his
closest friends he would be safe. Stella
on the other hand was a persecuted Jew in and on her way to a Nazi
concentration camp. Death was
everywhere. She had no fear of it but
she did not want it to come. She just
lived her life trying everything to survive. She had nowhere to hide as
Prospero did. Yet in the end Prospero
had to face death while Stella did not, even though she was in the camp. The attitudes of the two characters and the
setting probably are what kept them alive.
In comparison of the way the setting affected
character, we see they were quite alike also.
Prospero's morbid lifestyle was quite unusual. His room of black with scarlet panes of
glass, his ebony clock with a low dull monotonous chime and the bizarre
masquerade party all show he was unusual and fascinated with the bizarre. Stella's description of ravenous black hair,
the cold weather, and her unfeeling for others made her out to be quite unusual
as well. Also both characters were seen
to be selfish but in different ways. Yet
it is quite similar. Prospero had a kingdom
yet he separated himself from them. He
isolated himself and his closet friends so that they may escape the Red
Death. He was selfish in a way that he
would let everyone else die but he would hide until it was all over. Stella's selfishness was brought out when she
took the life out of the child. She took
her shawl to keep herself warm. She felt
her life was more important than someone else's. The adjectives used to describe the
characters and setting were alike. All
were negative, sometimes deathly descriptions of the clock, the black room,
Prospero, Stella, her thoughts and her environment.
To conclude, the setting in "The Masque of
Red Death" and "The Shawl" has morbid and deathly details that
are similar but they set the characters Stella and Prospero apart in some ways.
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