“The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Secret Sharer” are both inseparable from their settings. The settings in the two stories were subtle depictions of the personalities of the main characters of the stories. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the keen descriptions of Prince Prospero’s abbey revealed many truths about the prince’s character. The elaborately and vibrantly decorated rooms were symbolic of Prospero’s grandiose disposition, even during the fragile state of his kingdom. The covered windows of the abbey represented his naivete to the severity of the epidemic that was raging in the outside world. Prospero felt that if he stayed indoors, the plague would pass, and he and his constituents would be free to live life as they formerly had.
The location of the story was essential to the development of the plot because the single dark room with a scarlet window symbolized the inevitability of death. It was not until Death itself attended his masquerade ball cloaked in the garments of the grave that Prospero understood that. In “The Secret Sharer,” Conrad uses the setting to emphasize the Captain’s loneliness. At the beginning of the story, the narrator described everything so elaborately and precisely that someone without knowledge of sailing could easily imagine the environment to a certain degree. As the Captain went about the ship to familiarize himself with his surroundings, I got a much clearer understanding of the actual layout of the ship and the names of each part of the ship. Conrad also described the Captain’s quarters in detail.
The Essay on The Secret Sharer Captain Legatt Ship
"The Secret Sharer" The short story "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad centers around a character of a sea captain who is insecure and has great feelings of inadequacy on his fist job as Captain of a ship. In the story the Captain befriends a fugitive by the name of Legatt who is clearly shown to be a figment of the Captains imagination rather than an actual human being. The title of the story ...
Although the Captain did not have his quarters decorated to his liking as Prospero did in “The Masque of the Red Death,” his cabin somewhat reflected his simple, barren character. “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Secret Sharer” are both inseparable from their settings. The settings in the two stories were subtle depictions of the personalities of the main characters of the stories. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the keen descriptions of Prince Prospero’s abbey revealed many truths about the prince’s character.
The elaborately and vibrantly decorated rooms were symbolic of Prospero’s grandiose disposition, even during the fragile state of his kingdom. The covered windows of the abbey represented his naivete to the severity of the epidemic that was raging in the outside world. Prospero felt that if he stayed indoors, the plague would pass, and he and his constituents would be free to live life as they formerly had. The location of the story was essential to the development of the plot because the single dark room with a scarlet window symbolized the inevitability of death. It was not until Death itself attended his masquerade ball cloaked in the garments of the grave that Prospero understood that. In “The Secret Sharer,” Conrad uses the setting to emphasize the Captain’s loneliness.
At the beginning of the story, the narrator described everything so elaborately and precisely that someone without knowledge of sailing could easily imagine the environment to a certain degree. As the Captain went about the ship to familiarize himself with his surroundings, I got a much clearer understanding of the actual layout of the ship and the names of each part of the ship. Conrad also described the Captain’s quarters in detail. Although the Captain did not have his quarters decorated to his liking as Prospero did in “The Masque of the Red Death,” his cabin somewhat reflected his simple, barren character.
