《红死魔的假面舞会》中的死亡象征(英文)

Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe is a great American writer who plays an important part in literature treasury. This paper attempts to discuss the symbolic death in his famous horror novel The Masque of the Red Death. Poe demonstrates his inimitable fascination with the preternatural aspects of death in various stories, one story in particular clearly evidences this point, that is The Masque of the Red Death. This paper discusses the symbolic death in The Masque of the Red Death, from the language, the main character, the symbols of death in The Masque of the Red Death and some other aspects so as to study the horror and death in Poe’s novels better.

Key words: Symbolism; Death; The Masque of the Red Death

摘  要：埃德加•爱伦•坡是一个在世界文学宝库中占有重要地位的美国作家。本文将研究他的著名的恐怖小说《红死魔的假面舞会》中的死亡象征。坡在他的各种故事中，通过描写死亡的超自然方面展现了其独特的魅力，其中，《红死魔的假面舞会》更是显著地证明了这一点。本文从语言，主要人物形象，小说中的象征着死亡的物品及其他方面来研究《红死魔的假面舞会》中的死亡象征，以便更好地研究坡的小说中的死亡和恐惧。

关键词：象征；死亡；《红死魔的假面舞会》

Introduction
American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s novels play an important part in the literature treasury around the world. The meanings, characteristics and character symbols have caused great attentions. With the growing study and research in Poe’s works and his personality, the modern tendency witnesses an increasing popularity and appreciation that justify his significance and contribution. It is progressively convinced by the modern critics that Poe is one of the greatest literary figures in the U.S., who fathered many things, one of which is the horror novels. Poe’s horror novels are enduringly arresting and everlasting haunting, pervading his uniquely grotesque taste and morbid idiosyncrasy. In his own words, the sole effect of terror that his performance in composition achieves “comes not from Germany, but from the soul.” One of his famous horror stories, The Masque of the Red Death, has been studied by many scholars, both in China and western countries, is the theme of this paper. Following the brief introductions to Poe and the novel The Masque of the Red Death in the first part, the second part will deal with the term symbolism with tracing back to the origin of symbolism with its connotation and the views of the symbolists before Poe, and Poe’s using of it in his works, then the third part copes with a detailed discussion of the symbolic death in The Masque of the Red Death in which Poe has presented readers an absurd story of a company that attempts to escape suspense in vain under the paw of the “red death”. Along with the theme of death, evil is Poe’s another idiosyncrasy. Poe presented horror and death in this novel with many symbols such as the red death itself, the color of rooms, and the black ebony and so on, and Poe’s skillfully using of language helped much.

1  Background information
Since many readers may not be familiar with Edgar Allan Poe and his work The Masque of the Red Death, firstly, this paper is going to give brief introductions of Poe and this novel.
1. 1 A brief introduction to Edgar Allan Poe
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), one of the greatest and unhappiest of American poets, a master of horror tales, and the patron saint of the detective story. Edgar Allan Poe first gained critical acclaim in France and England. His reputation in America was relatively slight until French-influenced writers like Ambroce Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, and representatives of the Lovecraft school created interest in his work.
    Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, whose parents were itinerant actors. His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810. Elizabeth Hopkins Poe died in 1811, leaving three children. Edgar was taken into the home of a Richmond merchant John Allan. The remaining children were cared for by others. Poe’s brother William died young and sister Rosalie become later insane. At the age of five Poe could recite passages of English poetry. Later one of his teachers in Richmond said “While the other boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poems, the boy was a born poet”.