Themes

There are many similar themes in The Demon Lover, The Monkey's Paw and The Masque of the Read Death. I believe that the main theme of all three of these stories is the presence of evil and the hardship it brings to those surrounded by evil. Each story has something horrible happen to the characters. The horrible things that happen are all external conflicting events. Whether it was a bad luck charm, an ex-lover, or a demon like figure, the presence of evil is obvious.

The first story I am going to write about is The Demon Lover. The presence of evil does not show itself in the beginning of the story but evil comes out towards the end of the story when the horrible events begin to happen. The horrible events begin when the "demon lover" writes a letter to Mrs. Dover. The events continue as Mrs. Dover gets into a taxi cab that the "demon lover" happens to be driving and he drives away with Mrs. Dover down a dark abandoned street. These events together show how the evil has gotten involved in the story and caused horrible things to happen to Mrs. Dover.

The second story called, The Monkeys Paw, also has a theme of evil presence. The external conflict is the cursed monkey paw. The whites believe this to be good luck but as their wishes bring nothing but evil their beliefs change. As the Whites wish for three things that they desire and their wishes turn into nothing but disaster. The family gets what they wish for in return they lose something beloved, their son Herbert. This proves the theme of evil as the family learns that there is a cost to forever happiness.

The final story The Masque of the Red Death, this story has a horrible event occur, the red death. The red death is one of the most feared deaths at the time. Every half hour people were dying. They were dying like someone had a flyswatter and were swatting them dead dozens at a time. There was a demon like creature learked in the corner of the black