s an intention to reach to the emotions and further, to do so by way of horror and the grotesque. Poe's imagery is a significant indicator in "Masque" in this regard. Although there are several striking word pictures in the story, and although a dominant image in the story is of very Death itself, an even more powerful image controlling the narrative is that of the self-enclosed fortress that Prince Prospero constructs for himself. It is in this encased environment, which begins as a fortress of protection but ends as a dungeon of death, that the action of the story proceeds. Poe's exploitation of the figure of Death in a black shroud, a familiar personified image in Western imagination, is important as a central preoccupation of Prospero and the masquers. But the extraordinary power of that figure derives from the fact that its own power is experienced in a tightly circumscribed environment.
The story as a whole is an allegory of death, which can be seen as the circumscribed, limited, encased experience of human life. Poe's narrative strategy is to desc
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