Named source · 1842

The Masque of the Red Death Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to The Masque of the Red Death by or associated with Edgar Allan Poe, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.

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“There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Meaning & context

Poe’s narrator suggests that even people who treat danger and death as entertainment retain emotional limits beyond which mockery turns into genuine horror.

Source details

The Masque of the Red Death, Project Gutenberg #1064. The sentence appears as the masked figure violates even Prince Prospero’s extreme masquerade conventions by embodying the Red Death; it is Gothic narration inside fiction, not a psychological law.

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