Reader-Response to The Masque of the Red Death
Some major concepts of reader-response criticism, as discussed by Ross Murfin in The Scarlet Letter: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, are these: (1) reading is a temporal process in which the reader lives through the experience of the text and (2) the experience that the reader undergoes may mirror the subject of the story. One reader's experience of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe can exemplify these two concepts.
In one sense, the temporal process of experiencing this story is like that experienced in reading any story. There is nothing remarkable about the fact that we are in suspense throughout the story, led through the action, ignorant as the characters are of the outcome. We experience what happens to the revelers in Prince Prospero's palace just as they experience it. We know of the threat of the Red Death--as they know it, from the very beginning; we are led through the palace, gaudy room by fantastic turning, as if we were there; we see the masked figure and are no more cognizant of what is behind the mask than the story's characters are.
Yet the extent to which our temporal process is reflected by the story and that our actions in reading it are related to the subject of the story goes even deeper. Certain oddities and gaps in the text bring our reading process closer to the center of the story. First are some puzzling incongruities, like that Prince Prospero is "sagacious" but abandons his dominions when they were "half-depopulated," hardly sagacious in the ordinary sense of the term as it might be used for a ruler. Another is the strange recurrence of the tolling of the ebony clock--a tolling which we ...
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...he Red Death, was, in fact, in their midst. By identification, as we actively seek our own meaning for what is behind the mask, what we find is guided to some extent by what the characters find--Red Death. Not only does the ebony clock toll for us, but the Red Death disrupts our revelry in the barbaric splendor of the story/palace.
Sources Cited:
Murfin, Ross C. "What is Reader-Response Criticism?" The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. Boston: Bedford, 1991. 252-260.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 9th ed. vol. 1. New York: McGraw, 1998. 1281--1285. 2 vols.
http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/masque/
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/poe852-des-.html
Authors use various styles to tell their stories in order to appeal to the masses exceptionally well and pass the message across. These messages can be communicated through short stories, novels, poems, songs and other forms of literature. Through The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven, it is incredibly easy to get an understanding of Edgar Allen Poe as an author. Both works describe events that are melodramatic, evil and strange. It is also pertinent to appreciate the fact that strange plots and eerie atmospheres are considerably evident in the author’s writings. This paper compares and contrasts The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven and proves that the fear of uncertainty and death informs Edgar Allen Poe’s writings in the two works
6. Murfin, Ross C. "What is Reader-Response Criticism?" in The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Bedford, 1991.
In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, sensory detail and symbolism not only to build suspense, but also to convey the idea that an individual can not hide or run away from death which becomes closer as time passes on. Throughout the story Poe uses imagery details to create suspense in the story. For example when the author is describing the disease that has taken many lives he describes the unfortunate event as, “ Blood was its Avator and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood. One can understand that in the story the tragic death of someone might occur as tragically as the disease is described. Accordingly, as the story progresses the deep shade of the color red is evident in many areas to represent symbolism.
In the "Masque of the Red Death," the first sentence, "The Red Death had long devastated the country," sets the tone for the whole story. Poe describes the horrors of the disease, stressing the redness of the blood and the scarlet stains. The disease kills so quickly that one can die within thirty minutes of being infected with the disease. To create a frightening effect of the revulsion of this disease, Poe uses words such as "devastated," "fatal," "horror of blood," and "sharp pains and profuse bleeding." In summary, the story relates the prince, trying to be safe and away from the horrible death, invites a thousand friends to be in seclusion in his abbey away from the disease. During a celebration , a masked ball at the abbey - with incredible described rooms and moods - a surprise masked intruder causes death to all.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death” Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. ED. Edgar V Roberts and Robert Zweig. Boston, Longman: 2012. 516-519.
In the short story “ The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to express ideas to develop his theme and characters. “ The Masque of the Red Death” tells a story of prince Prospero who locks his friends and himself in a castle to escape the Red Death, a deadly disease. Much to Prospero’s dismay, in the end, the deadly disease causes them to perish. Poe uses the dark room to reveal Prospero’s unusual character and reveal that death is always there and cannot be avoided.
If you did not have personification in the story then the entire story would not work. Edgar Allen Poe has based this entire story just on personification. It is crazy to me on how it works though. If i had to write something I could not do it. A good example of personification in the story is when Prince Prospero figured out who the masked figure who had never been seen before was. When he said “Then summoning the wild courage and despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements, and corpse like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.” This part of the story is describing the Red death in a person looking form even though it is a disease, which is a big part of personification in this story. Now if that wasn't apart of the story then the entire story would be as interesting as it is now. That is why I love this
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Mask of the Red Death." The Works of Edgar Allen Poe. Ann Arbor, MI: State Street Press.
A short story entitled “The Masque of the Red Death” is a wonderfully written story of many types of language. The author Edgar Allan Poe narrated this story from the perspective of himself. One reason the story was written by focusing on feelings was to get the reader to maybe relate to the characters even if only slightly.
In the story, “Masque of the Red Death” it covers six months during the Red Death.It takes place in a castle which has seven different colored rooms.In the beginning of the story it describes the main character prince Prospero as happy,fearless and wise. Towards the end of the story a new guest appears to the party and everyone is scared and Prospero goes from being happy to mad and in the end the new guest kills Prospero and everyone dies because he was the Red Death. The message in this analogy ,”The Masque of the Red Death “ by Poe is life passes by so quick that you don't realize what's going on until it's your time to die.
and the Red Death to reveal the true character of Prince Prospero, to suggest the
Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is an elaborate allegory that combines
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading & Reacting & Writing. 4th ed. Boston: Earl McPeek, 2000. 388-423.
Prince Prospero, Miss Emily and Jay Gatsby desire to prevent the draining of time and try to make time stop at or return to a moment of happiness. However, all three characters are ignorant of their surroundings and hurt or disturb many people during the process. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal” compared to the Red Death, who kills half of Prince’s Prospero’s kingdom (Poe 1). Carelessly, Prince Prospero decides to leave
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his masterful writing on all aspects of mortality, but his famous short story “The Masque of the Red Death” proves to be more than a simple story about death. While it is about death, Poe’s short story can be read and applied as a cautionary tale whose purpose is to illustrate a worthy way to live and die by portraying the opposite of both. This interpretation comes about when the story is viewed through the lens of New Criticism. This viewpoint shows how the story uses its formal elements converge to create one complex theme. Poe’s short story develops its theme through the use of paradox, tension, irony and ambiguity, all of which come together to identify