Question

1.Poe was a master "wordsmith." Through carefully chosen diction he is able to create a psychological effect on his reader. What effect did his description of "Red Death," in the very first paragraph of the story, have? Quote those details that provoke this response

Answer 1

The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar(1) and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

Answer 2

@agent0smith

Answer 3

Well for one he uses visual effects, such as describing the "scarlet stains" from "profuse bleeding at the pores" and "seizures"; he also describes the symptoms of the disease vividly: "There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness".

I myself think that Poe intended to give the reader a feeling of foreboding and apprehension through such a macabre and painful description.