CRITICAL LENS ESSAY
Henry Ward Beecher once said, “Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength”, and this statement is true. It means that greatness is not about physical strength, but being aware of one’s individual strengths and using them to achieve success. This quote is proven in the literary works of Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare in The Masque of the Red Death and The Tempest respectively. This quote is valid because the authors use characterization and theme to prove that with great power, comes great responsibility.
In The Masque of the Red Death, Prospero is the ruler of a country ridden with the Red Death. He is a ruler that lives ‘in the moment’ and forgets that he has as much responsibilities as he has power. Prospero neglects his people that were already half depopulated by isolating himself from the outside world for five months in his castellated abbey, and the salt on the injury was when he threw a masquerade with dignitaries gracing the venue. This venue is Prospero’s magnificent palace. The people in the palace are protected from the spreading, ravaging tentacles of the Red Death. Unfortunately, the party is in turn graced with a rather intimidating figure at the stroke of midnight. Everyone at the masquerade are disgusted at the “guest’s” appearance and, almost magically, makes a path for him from which there was previously none. He is described as someone who had the countenance of a stiffened corpse to assume the type of the Red Death. As this figure moved unimpeded to each room such that he was approaching the westernmost room, Prince Prospero in his frustration that such an intruder could upset his party, draws his dagger and goes to challenge the latter head-on. As the intruder reaches the (seventh room ) black room and Prince Prospero reaches to attack him, his dagger falls to the ground the moment the intruder sets his eyes on him , he lets out a sharp cry- with his body also falling dead to the...