Literary Tone and Mood in Edgar Allen Poe and Shirley Jackson Works

Various authors use specific examples in stories to create a distinctive mood and tone in the plot. Short stories such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" depict distinguishing colors, significance of names and symbolism to enthrall readers. Equally, the authors use settings to make readers try to predict the outcome of the story. Although both authors share common ways on creating the mood and tone, there is distinction that makes the stories stand out on their own.

"The Masque of the Red Death" by Poe is a fine example of a story that illustrates various colors to create the mood and tone of the setting. The story portrays a man, Prince Prospero and several individuals living in a tenable palace at an unknown country to prevent death. The palace contains seven rooms that hold distinctive roles in the outcome of the story. Poe uses the importance of the colors to describe the life progression of an individual. Poe writes,

"That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue-and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries and here the panes are purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the easements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange- the fifth with white- the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries...panes here were scarlet- a deep red color" (2).

Furthermore, the author arranges the room in a significance sequence. To illustrate, the blue room is located in the east, where the sun rises while the black room's location is in the western part of the building, where the sun sets. The rooms' locations give an impact in the story because the east, where the sun rises, symbolizes birth and in contrast, the west, where the sun sets, represent death. Initially, the characters' motives in the story is to prevent death but the essentiality of the colors and sequences of the rooms used by Poe shows how one cannot avoid the ending of the life cycle.