“The Masque of the Red Death”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
Short story essay: Violence and Insanity in The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Poetry essay: Emily Dickinson’s “I hide myself within my flower and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee?”
use MLA 9th edition only.
The first step of writing your Research essay is the writing of your Proposal. The purpose of the Proposal is to tell your professor what you are going to write your Research essay on, so that we are “on the same page” before you continue your library research and write your Research essay.
“The Masque of the Red Death” is about a grotesque masquerade party given in a castle by a weird prince for a thousand of his knights and ladies saved from a horrible death by the plague, the Red Death, that is sweeping the country. But in this very dark and deeply ironic story the plague cannot be escaped from no matter how high the walls of the castle are or how strangely the partygoers dress up and act out their fantasies.
(When reading Edgar Allan Poe pay close attention to his use of language to convey the strangeness, mystery and horror of the subject and the characters. His philosophy was that stories should be short so that the drama is intense. He believed that if a story is too long the drama is lost – and sometimes even the storyline – and the reader loses interest. He writes so that you, the reader, are forced into the story, that you are intensely engaged in it, that you are part of that strange and sometimes horrific world. This is part of Poe’s great appeal and popularity. When you see horror movies, even if they are not based on a Poe story, the fear, excitement, and even the pleasure that you (or some people) get is part of Poe’s influence on the makers of these movies. The same is true of mystery movies, which can involve strangeness, intrigue, murder, and romance.)
Your Proposal is a 1–2-page Word document that is made up of three parts:
1. A Summary (half page) stating the literary work(s) you are going to discuss and summarizing your argument. For example,
you might want to write an analysis of a theme(s) or character(s) in the text.
Or you might want to write a compare-and/or-contrast essay that focuses on an aspect(s) of different texts. Here, you will explain in your own words what your Research essay is going to be about.
2. A basic Outline with your Thesis Sentence followed by a bullet list of the main points of your essay. This Outline will help you to “stay on track” when you write your Research essay, and it gives your professor a good idea of the logic and flow of your argument. The Title of your Research essay should align with your Thesis Sentence, so by writing your Thesis Sentence in this Proposal you have a very good idea what the Title of your Research essay will be.
3. A working Bibliography of the secondary sources you will be using for your Research essay. Provide at least three secondary sources in MLA format 9th edition only. You can add the rest to your final Bibliography on the essay’s Works Cited page which is at the end of your essay.
Example of a Proposal
1. Summary:
The Garden of Eden and the hill of Calvary where Jesus Christ was crucified are two powerful areas of experience in the love poetry of Emily Dickinson. These two apparently opposite religious experiences are closely related in her love poetry as necessary forces of desire and fulfillment. Eden and Calvary are at the same time sources of pleasure and pain in Dickinson’s vision and experience of love, even though she never married, and her love life is a mystery. Eden is a source of pleasure that is painful, and Calvary is a source of pain that is pleasurable: both are intensely enjoyed by the poet. I will examine three of Dickinson’s poems: “Come slowly – Eden!” “Wild Nights –Wild Nights!” and “That I did always love.”
2. Outline: Thesis Sentence:
In this essay, I argue that the Garden of Eden and the hill of Calvary where Jesus Christ was crucified express a religious experience of love and passion in Emily Dickinson’s poems “Come slowly – Eden!” “Wild Nights –Wild Nights!” and “That I did always love.”
I Introduction
II Analysis of “Come slowly – Eden!”
III. Analysis of “Wild Nights –Wild Nights!”
- IV. Analysis of “That I did always love”
- V. Conclusion
3. Bibliography (for your Works Cited page)
MLA 9th edition format. Alphabetical order Lundin, Roger. Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998. Stonum, Gary Lee. “Emily’s Heathcliff: Metaphysical Love in Dickinson and Brontë.” The Emily Dickinson Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, April 2011, pp. 22-33. Zapedowska, Magdalena. “Dickinson’s Delight.” The Emily Dickinson Journal, vol. 21, no.1, March 2012, pp. 7-14.
Your Proposal should be 1-2 pages
Assignment Content
Top of Form
Assignment (Proposal for your Research essay): In preparation to write your Research Essay, you will first write your Proposal. It will have three parts:
– a Summary (half page) stating the literary work(s) you are going to discuss and summarizing your argument (interpretation).
– a basic Outline with a Thesis sentence followed by a bullet list of the main points of your essay.
– a Bibliography of the secondary sources you will be using (note: Provide at least three secondary sources. You can add the rest to your final Bibliography on the essay’s Works Cited page).
** Your Research essay should only be on stories and poems that we have read in this course. Your Research essay should notbe an extension of a previous essay. At the top of your Proposal state the texts that you wrote on for your Essay on a Short Story and your Essay on Poetry assignments.
–. Your Proposal should be 1-2 pages.
