...The Masque of the Red Death By: Edgar Allan Poe A terrible disease called the Red Death has struck the country. It's incredibly fatal, horribly gruesome, and it's already killed off half the kingdom. But the ruler of these parts, Prince Prospero, doesn't seem to care about his poor, dying subjects. Instead, he decides to let the kingdom take care of itself while he and a thousand of his favorite knights and ladies shut themselves up in a fabulous castle to have one never-ending party. Wine, women, music, dancing, fools – Prospero's castle has it all. After the last guest enters, no one else can get in – the Prince has welded the doors shut. That means no one can get out, either… About five or six months into his stay, Prospero decides to have a spectacular masquerade ball (a ball where the guests where masks and costumes). The setup is weird and wild, just like the Prince who designs it. The ball takes place in a suite of seven rooms, each one dressed up in a different color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The black room, which looks like death, is awfully creepy – it's got dark black walls, blood red windows, and big black clock which chimes so eerily every hour that everybody at the party stops dancing and laughs nervously. Most of the frolicking masqueraders are too weirded out to go into the black room. Anyway, the party's in full swing and everybody's having a wild time when the clock strikes midnight. Everyone stops dancing and falls momentarily...
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...In Aesop’s fable, “The Wolf and the Lamb,” the moral of the story asks the reader to examine the desire for an object—and how we justify our behavior if we cannot obtain that object. This moral is graphically presented through the repeated use of key words to describe the fox’s repeated failure to get what he wants. The fox’s first attempt is foiled as he “just missed” the grapes (35). He attempts “again and again”, running and jumping repeatedly, but has “no greater success” (35). He then becomes disgusted and walks away. These successive descriptions of his failure build to his disdainful comment that the grapes are probably sour (35). The repeated demonstration of fox’s failures and his self-rationalization of why is he walking away—not that he has failed but because he has decided that the grapes are sour and he does not want them anyway—cleverly portrays the moral of the fable: if you can’t get it, blame something else, not yourself. It therefore asks the readers to Aesop’s Fables 3 of 93 The Wolf and the Lamb Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. ‘There’s my supper,’ thought he, ‘if only I can find some excuse to seize it.’ Then he called out to the Lamb, ‘How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?’ ‘Nay, master, nay,’ said Lambikin; ‘if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.’ ‘Well...
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...story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by describing the setting of the scene. “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there were wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death” (Poe 516). Poe is putting the reader in a fun mindset about the Prince’s Abbey but ends it with suspicion. Poe uses symbolism in the setting so the reader can understand the meaning of the story. The Castled Abbey is a secluded place. The prince lures the people in by throwing a masquerade ball. Once you are in there is no way out. “A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall has gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither ingress nor egress” (“Poe 516”). The abbey symbolizes the prince’s power. He has people thinking they’re keeping the “Red Death” outside but, in all reality they are trapped in. The abbey included seven rooms. The rooms were arranged from east to west. East is usually the direction associated with the “beginnings,” and birth, because the sunrises in the east; west (the direction of the sunset) is associated with the endings, and death. ( “Shmoop”). Each room was a different color. The first one was blue ending with the seventh room which was black. These colors symbolize the stages of life from birth to death. “The blue room, which...
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...The Masque of the Red Death Do you think Prince Prospero is a tragic hero, or a fool? Support your opinion with evidence from the text. The short story "Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Alan Poe, essentially, is the story narrating about the human desire to avoid death and the final result of such avoidance. The main character, Prince Prospero is shown as a complete fool by the attitude he has towards his life, kingdom, and other people. We can notice that Poe right away shows Prince Prospero to be fatally flawed by naming him Shakespeare’s term for wealth and the magician from the story “The Tempest" who was a sorcerer and could make the products of his imagination real. Like Shakespeare's Prospero, Prince Prospero in Poe’s story uses his magic to arrange a fairy-tale and fabulous revel. And same as the other Prospero, his carousal is doomed to come to an end. From Prince Prospero’s actions we can infer that he is a terrible person as well as an awful ruler. He doesn’t think about suffering of his people. He behaves like he just doesn’t notice the peasants dying of the plague: “The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think”. The only thing Prince Prospero does in this deplorable situation is dancing, drinking and basically having fun while the dreadful “Red Death” is killing the innocent people of his country: “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned...
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...Angela English 112 July 23, 2013 The Masque of the Red Death Although the disease is running rampant through his country, Prince Prospero remains oddly happy and carefree and invites a thousand of his healthy noble friends to join him in hiding from the disease in his abbey, which he then locks away from the outside world. In each room features a different color, which matches the color of the window: the first room is blue, the second purple, the third green, the fourth orange, the fifth white, and the sixth violet. The seventh room, however, is slightly different in that although the dominant color is black, the windows are blood red. The lights shining through the window from the corridors creates such a ghastly effect in this room that most of the guests avoid the room altogether. In this apartment is also a giant ebony clock, whose pendulum swings ominously and whose hourly ringing is so disturbing that it invariably disconcerts the musicians, dancers, and other revelers, causing everyone to pause until the chimes fade away, at which point everyone nervously resumes their actions. Other than the unnerving seventh room, the ball is boldly and wildly decorated in a way that hints at Prospero's potential madness. All the apartments are crowded except for the seventh, and the ball continues until the stroke of midnight. The entire masquerade ball can be read as an allegory for the...
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...The Inevitability of the Red Death Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death. Like many of Poe’s works, the number of characters in “Masque of the Red Death” is limited; however they all work to reveal the theme. Only three characters, Prince Prospero, the Thousand Friends and the Masked Figure are mentioned. The central figure of the story is Prince Prospero. The author describes him as “happy and dauntless and sagacious” (Poe, 386). His name is used to infer royalty, wealth and happiness, and suggests that the prince is untroubled by the plague and is confident of his survival and the survival of his one thousand friends. Prospero has been described by scholars as a “feelingless ruling prince” (Wheat, 51). This is due to his apparent lack of concern for the people of his land: “The external world could take care of itself” (Poe, 386). Prospero is a flat character as he remains confident in his survival up to...
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...The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar 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. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was...
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...The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe 1. Plot. The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and one thousand other nobles have taken refuge in this walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms that has swept over the land. Victims are overcome by convulsions and sweat blood. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large. They intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut. One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball to entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey. Each of the first six rooms is decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a scarlet light, "a deep blood color". Because of this chilling pairing of colors, very few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room. The same room is the location of a large ebony clock that ominously clangs at each hour, upon which everyone stops talking or dancing and the orchestra stops playing. Once the chiming stops, everyone immediately resumes the masquerade. At the chiming of midnight, the revelers and Prospero notice a figure in a dark, blood-splattered robe resembling a funeral shroud. The figure's face resembles...
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...There are many symbols in the story, “Masque of the Red Death”. Some of these symbols include, the clock, the seven chambers, the red death, and the castle. The first symbol in the “Masque of the Red Death” I am going to address is the clock. The clock is located in the seventh chamber, and as a regular clock, chimes every hour. Every time the clock chimes, the partiers stop and think about death, and the fact that time will eventually run out. The clock represents that time is running out, and that death is coming. The second symbol in the “Masque of the Red Death” I will address are the seven chambers. Located in the castle itself, these chambers run from east to west. The chambers represent different stages of life, the chambers run from...
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...“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe is a dark story about a plague that put thousands of lives in danger. A Prince named Prospero brings one thousand friends into his castle and welds shut the doors to keep the red death out and lift the spirits of the people during the very scary time. In the end though, the red death itself comes into the castle and shows Prince Prospero that no one can escape the plague. The theme of this story is that no matter how rich or powerful a person is, no one can avoid death. This statement is proved in the text with symbols and (characterization)? In “Masque of the Red Death” the ebony clock is a symbol that shows that no one can avoid death. In the story, everyone is dancing and having a good...
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...In the gothic short story "The Masque of the Red Death," Edgar Allan Poe writes about how Prince Prospero’s fear and obsession leads him to an inevitable, psychological death. Through the setting, characters, and symbolism, Poe reveals the message that phobias can cause people to lose their sanity. The setting in "The Masque of the Red Death" symbolizes Prince Prospero's mind and his isolation from the terror that haunt him. The story demonstrates this by taking place in a palace that exists detached from the chaos outside. Everyone in the fortress remains oddly cheerful even though an unruly disease kills people outside the castle walls. In actuality, the villa symbolizes the Prince's mind and his mental solitude from the...
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...The Masque Of Red Death Death is unavoidable. We will all die one day. Nothing can prevent that from happening. Many people are afraid of death because they don’t know what’s coming after death. Many people don't really believe in afterlife because they feel as if there's no God. In the short story,”The Masque of The Red Death,” Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to exude his message, that no one can prevent the inevitability of death. Poe uses the character Prince Prospero to symbolize the conceited belief of the rich. Poe states,” And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated…” What Poe means is while millions and millions of people died while the Prince was inside closed doors not caring about the civilian’s being killed by a disease outside.To put it another way, The Prince stayed inside like he was unkillable and he felt like nothing would happen to him and that the people outside were poor and not rich like him, He was showing no fear while other people died. A sharp line is drawn between a world of life and a world of death. Poe states,” All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death”. What he means is the death was outside, and even though the people inside are supposedly protected by being inside they’re really trapped inside with death all around them. To put it another...
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...Many authors use symbolism to heighten the meaning of their themes and ideas by connecting their symbols to commonly known sources or objects. For instance, within Edgar Allen Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” symbolism is used heavily throughout this short story and are linked to some commonly known material. The “Masque of the Red Death” focuses on a chaotic theme of death and chaos. Poe uses symbolism to portray his theme through the seven chambers in the prince’s home and these rooms together are linked by colors and Biblical references. In “Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to establish the chaotic theme represented through the seven chambers. First Poe had used symbolism within this short story to establish...
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...In a story written by Edgar Allan Poe called “The Masque of the Red Death” we find that we can’t escape from all of our problems. The main characters name is Prince Prospero and he lives in a town that is being taken over by a disease called the Red Death. He doesn’t want to die from this disease and he doesn’t want his friends to die either, so he invites all of his friends into his castle and boards up all windows and doors so that no one could have access to the outside world. Little to their knowing this just insured their death. This story also uses many different examples of symbolism like how the masquerade ball represents how they are all hiding from the Red Death, how the clock at the end of all the rooms represents death, and how the the Red Death appeared in a person’s body but wasn’t really a person. One example of symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death” is how the masquerade ball represents how all these people are hiding from the Red Death. This is symbolism because a masquerade ball is a party where everyone wears mask. The show that they wanted to hide from the Red Death because they didn’t want to die. The masks represent the castle in a way because they locked themselves in a castle to hide from the Red Death as well. Both the mask and the castle were...
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...The story “The Masque of the Red Death” is about widespread death and mixed extreme emotions on the plague. Over half of the population has already caught and died from this plague, therefore people are panicked and trying to hide from dying. Prince Prospero gathers all the rich people to live and hide from the deadly plague in his castle. Prince Prospero bolts himself and the other rich people in his castle with plenty of food and liquids to survive for the longest time possible. They put music, entertainment, family and friends to hide in the castle. There were seven different rooms that all had different meanings and colors in the castle. These rooms were like a big maze. The first room was blue and stood for birth. The second room was...
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