Humorous Humor Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Dark Hearted

Poe: Lighthearted Humor in a Darkened Heart Edgar Allan Poe, the dark hearted author! When speaking of Poe, readers would most likely associate him as a dark and dreary author. His uses of vivid, shadowy imagery and themes of death and despair lurk within the minds of his audiences. Poe, however, subtly injects his works with humor that may not easily be spotted by the human eye. Why exactly would Poe inject humor into his horror stories, since they aren’t comedies? To begin, the use of humor in darker toned writings helps an author open up to their audience more easily... Perhaps through the use of quick one-liners or through an entire scene of ridiculousness, the author can brighten a reader up only to smack them in the face with horror. Poe is also an author who uses more wild scenarios instead of more realistic and relatable scenes of terror. For instance, in Poe’s â€Å"The Masque of Red Death†, Poe uses a constantly ticking clock as a way to eerily depict time counting down to the point of death. This can be viewed as a way to constantly make the reader feel uncomfortable, but it can also make the reader feel humored at the concept of a clock trying to be creepy. In The â€Å"Masque of Red Death†, the Prince follows a masked figure throughout his ceremonial chambers during a party. When he finally corners the figure, he falls dead alongside his party guests. This is subtly humorous as he could only try as hard as he could to keep his party perfect, only to suffer the ultimateShow MoreRelatedANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesmore subplots that reinforce by contrast or parallel the main plot. Some novels even contain a double plot, as in Thackeray’s â€Å"Vanity Fair†, where we are asked to follow the careers of both the selfish adventuress Becky Sharp and the innocent, good-hearted Amelia Sedley. As Amelia’s fortunes sink, Becky’s rise; then follows a reversal in which Amelia’s rise is paralleled by Becky’s slow but inevitable decline. Selectivity In deciding how much plot to include in a given work, how much emphasis to give