The Masque of the Red Death Sabrina T

The Masque of the Red Death Sabrina T. Cindy L. Asma S. Miriam Q. and Adam D.

Story’s Major Events and Main Characters: • Prince Prospero- a wealthy nobleman as well as the ultimate victim to the Red Death. His wealth was irrelevant to the natural cycle of life and death. • The Red Death (Mysterious Guest)-The embodiment of the Red Death. It wore a gruesome mask of the plague as its costume. It brought those who deny their own mortality death. Major Events: • The Prince locks his courtiers and himself in the castle where no one can enter or leave in order to protect themselves from the Red Death, since he thinks this will prevent the red death which is a disease that shoots pains, seizures, as well as bleeding from all the pores, and then death from reaching them. • The prince there lives in luxury and throws parties. Then at one party which was described said that there were 7 chambers of different colors including a black colored one. This room was terrifying as a result of the color in itself as well as having a large ebony clock that chimes out the hour. The prince notice a mysterious guest dressed as the Red Death. When he confronts him in the black room, the guest revealed he was the Red Death himself (literally). Finally the prince dies while the disease enters the castle and as a result all the people died as well. Theme: • Death is inevitable and no matter how hard you deny death with your wealth or power, no one can escape this natural process of life

Symbols There were seven rooms with seven different colors. The seven colors were blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The seven rooms represent the seven stages of life. Blue, it represents birth, purple represents the beginnings of growth, green represents the spring of life (youth), orange represents the autumn of life, white represents age, violet represents darkness and black represents death.

Symbols continuation The ebony clock represents the passing of life and death. The clock was located in the color black room, Poe refers to it as a pendulum that swings to and fro, but each lapse of an hour, the clock makes a noise that surpases the orchestra thus, they stop for a moment as the clock strikes each hour. The clock’s ticking represents what’s left of Prince Prospero’s life.

Setting & Mood SETTING: The story takes place in the newly constructed "castellated abbey" of Prince Prospero. The castle has been boarded up, leaving "means of neither ingress nor egress" in an effort to keep out the Red Death, a plague that has killed half of the population in Prince Prospero's kingdom. The majority of the story's action takes place in the castle which contains seven rooms, each exclusively decorated and lighted with a specific color, the exception being the last room whose black interior is complemented by red windows. Although the narrator never gives a specific time, the events occur most likely during the middle ages as indicated by the existence of castles, a sharp division between nobles and peasants, and the existence of a deadly plague. MOOD: Poe describes the masquerade as "a gay and magnificent revel" in which "the prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. " This creates a blissful mood, and shows that the masquerade was a rather joyful occasion. However, Poe also illustrates how a gigantic ebony clock, located in the westernmost apartment of the abbey, causes "the giddiest to grow pale" with it’s loud and deep sound when the clock strikes each hour. The "uneasy cessation of all things" ; resulting from the sound of the clock creates an unpleasant and apprehensive mood. In the end , Prince Prospero realized that the visitor is death, and his guests dies one by one. This sums up the mood of grim, despair and the certainty of the victory of death against all - no matter how wealthy or powerful.

Conflict In The Masque of the Red Death, the main conflict revolves around trying to confront and, subsequently, escape the personification of Death in this story (the spectral figure who appears out of nowhere during the masquerade). This is especially true for Prince Prospero, who goes from the blue to the black room just to be killed instantly by the figure -- representing his life flashing before his eyes before he dies in the black room. (Blue room = birth, going all the way to the black room = death, and some red for blood. )

Resolution Simply put, no one can escape from the grip of death when it is time (i. e. , when the clock gongs on the hour). Since everyone ends up dying as the timepiece is sounding off, it can represent how everyone’s time is eventually up -- again, especially for Prince Prospero (the figure appears during the gong, he follows it to the black room, and then “he is become death” -- this shows how his time was up too).

Analysis “And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. ” Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” establishes a heartbreaking reality— everybody is going to experience death. He incorporates the sense of oncoming death in the ebony clock, providing a sense of aging and uneasiness among Prince Prospero’s thousands of friends. They know what the clock’s rings represent, and everything is silent and still as if they are trying to freeze time, in other words they are fantasizing that death cannot reach them or is not close to them, but ironically it is. This idea is central to “The Masque of the Red Death. ” Key symbols in this story emphasize its main theme: death is inevitable and real. The seven rooms represent the different stages of life. The distinct colors may represent feelings one experiences in life, or how the warm and cool colors, light and dark colors, illustrate the ups and downs in life. The overall placement of the rooms, starting from the east and ending west, represents the beginning of life to the end of life. The western-most room was the darkest, and the blood color of the panes gave an eerie vibe conveying murder, a traditional aspect Poe likes to incorporate into his pieces of literature, this explains why the people avoided the room the most. “Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that protected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all. ” They didn’t go near the room at all because it represents the final stage in life, death, which they feared the most.

Another symbolic objective represented in Poe’s story would be the Red Death. The Red Death’s appearance causes a change in the atmosphere and the mood in the story. While the people are waiting for the clock to stop chiming in order to feel at ease again, they become aware of the presence of the Red Death, a masked man with bloody vesture, and are full of terror, horror and disgust. The Prince, who is a happy, dauntless and sagacious man, also falters at the sight of the masked figure but is soon filled with rage and orders the courtiers to “Seize him and unmask him. ” With nobody attempting to seize him, the masked man makes his way through the chambers with the Prince following behind, ultimately guiding the prince to his death. “It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry --and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. ” The Prince had died in the most feared room and the Red Death had taken over and killed everyone. “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. ” “The Masque of the Red Death” provided a life lesson that death is bound to happen and isn’t an illusion. The people were scared of death and were always letting it go, treating it like it was never going to happen to them, hence their uneasiness at the sound of the ebony clock, but they failed to realize that they had no control over death even if their fantasies said otherwise. Prince Prospero, who was loaded and secluded the palace to serve as a defense barrier against the Red Death, died first even though he went to the lengths to defend the palace, but death is inevitable and even money can’t save someone from experiencing it. Ultimately, everyone experienced each of the seven rooms, even though they dreaded the last one, and lived every stage of life, with the fear of not having one.

Dark Romanticism is the overall theme of the story, one that revolves around the idea of death, and how it holds “illimitable dominion over all”. Poe chooses to have death take the form of a mysterious figure who has the mask of a hideous corpse and is dripping and covered with blood. As this figure appears, he walks through the seven rooms of Prince Prospero’s extensive castle, each one unique in style and colors and coincidentally fitting to the progressing stages of life. Each room is solely decorated in one color, these being blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The black room with its blood-red windows is the most obvious, symbolizing death. The big, eerie pendulum and its chiming is also associated with death, especially since the visitors fear and grow pale at the sound of it. It is conveniently placed in the black room, which everyone seems to avoid too. On the same note, Poe describes the rooms in such a fashion that it exhibits quite a feeling of dark mystery. As the clock periodically chimes, this could represent a reminder that life passes with time, and continues to grow closer to death. In the end, death is inescapable as Prospero confronts the plagued figure in the black room and dies, with the numerous deaths of guests following. Since death ultimately wins, this makes theme very dark. Together, this grouping of symbolism, descriptive words, feelings of mystery, and theme contribute to the Dark Romanticism of this story.