Throughout the short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses vivid symbolism, structure, and reoccurring details to paint a powerful image regarding the finality and inescapable reaches of death itself. “The ‘Red Death’ has long devastated the country,” yet the Prince Prospero continues to hold extravagant parties for his fellow elite members of society. Rather than merely telling a series of events, Poe carries his readers throughout the many rooms and scenes that hold the Prince’s masquerade, up until the clock strikes midnight and the partygoers can no longer hide behind their façade, and death comes in to take those that thought themselves invincible (Poe 438-442). Within this short story, specific details and repeated …show more content…
Each line, every detail seems to tie into a deeper meaning that carries the reader throughout the story alongside the narrator and partygoers, all the while laden with hints and deeper meanings that progress rapidly toward the awaiting “horror” of death. With the introduction of the story alone, Poe has already set the stage with the background on the horrifying “pestilence” and its effects on the human body. By aptly naming it the “Red Death,” Poe is already conjuring images of the gruesome, painful deaths of history’s great plagues, particularly the black death which nearly shares its name, as well “the redness and the horror of blood” (Poe 438). It is here that the story takes a turn with the introduction of Prince Prospero himself, momentarily placing thoughts of the Red Death on the …show more content…
The clock serves as more than just a decorative element, it “is the relentlessly paralyzing reminder of ‘the Time that flies…’” (Freedman 238). Poe’s repeated mention of the clock and its chimes creates a level of anticipation and anxiety that must mirror what the partygoers are feeling as they are left unable to ignore the fact that time is passing and death is growing nearer. No matter how much wealth or luck these people may have had, they are not above dying. While the partygoers may try to “avoid the black and blood-tinted chamber, the echoes of the clock resound throughout the abbey” and leave each of them with a feeling of uneasiness as they are pulled back to reality (Freedman 238). While the prospect of people dying beyond the walls seemed not to weigh heavily among the party guests, “the chimes of the clock” made even the “giddiest [grow] pale” (Poe 439). The inclusion and repetition of such details as the partygoers’ reactions towards each of the clock’s hourly chimes show that they are finally, though unwillingly, beginning to acknowledge the finality of the death that awaits them. However, whenever the clock’s “sound fades, [the partygoers]
Firstly, The Masque of the Red Death is a short story that dwells on a wide variety of societal issues. On the other hand, The Raven adopts the form of a poem, which is especially notable for its dramatic and melodic properties. The poet uses the refrain of “Lenore” and “nevermore” in order to emphasize the narrators’ troubled interaction with death (Poe, The Works of Edgar Allen Poe). Furthermore, The Raven employs allusion in its attempt to explain the mysteries surrounding death. The poet seeks to know whether there is “balm in Gilead” in reference to the hope of life after death demonstrated in various religious faiths such as Christianity. In The Masque of the Red Death the author addresses death’s inevitability and its wider implication on the society (Poe). The short story addresses the ability of epidemics to wreck havoc on populations. Furthermore, the short story addresses the authority’s selfishness and incompetence when it comes to addressing pivotal issues affecting people. Instead of finding ways of protecting people from further infections, the prince selfishly runs away from the rest of the population. Whereas death finally catches up with everybody regardless of one’s social status, the short story plays a pivotal role in highlighting leadership discrepancies that plague many civilized
The author, Edgar Allan Poe, using illusion or misdirection keeps the reader is suspense throughout this story called "The Masque of the Red Death". Symbolism such as the colored rooms, the impressive clock, the feeling of celebration being at a party all makes this story feel like a fairytale. Poe used this fairytale style and converts it into a nightmare in disguise.
Poe continues to develop his point that no one escapes death through the setting. Not only does he use the exterior and how it was constructed to tell what precautions P...
With the full intention to create an ambiance of fear, Poe uses the scariest portrayal of death you could imagine at the opening to the story. P...
I chose to write about the comparison of two of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. The two stories that I chose to write about are “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Both of these stories create and have a gothic mood to them, which draws you in as a reader. The story of the masque of the red death is written about the black plague that was spreading across Europe at the time, and the story of the fall of the house of usher is written about a sickness or a disease that affects the characters of the story. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story of the “The Masque of the Red Death “, it is narrated by an unknown onlooker within the castle itself. In both stories with the narrator being an onlooker or as an unnamed friend as in “The fall of the House of Usher” forces or draws the reader to feel a part of the story itself. “The Masque of the Red Death” is about a prince who is rich that invites a thousand of his close knights and people of nobility to his castle where he has it sealed up to keep the plague from reaching his guest and his self. Edgar Allan Poe made the rooms of the castle in this story to be bazaar with all seven chambers of the castle different colors that went in one direction from east to west representing a life cycle. The last chamber was colored black with red stained windows that represented the final stage of life or death. The prince and his guest did not dare to enter this chamber because they feared death and were terrified of the idea of it (2012). In this story the prince and his guest think that they are safe and have a masque ball, while at the party they drink and are having a good time not thinking of the plague that is ravishing the country around them nor the poor that are being stric...
Edgar Allan Poe loves to make his readers think. He never fully shows what he means. He hides everything so explicit and secrete. Prince Prospero is the main character and he believes that he’s better than death or can escape it. But, poe illustrates that no one can escape death with a fatal ending. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the symbolism of the black colored clock, the ticking of the clock, and the seventh room to develop the theme of death.
... color red to represent the plague with the fact that the red death is symptomatic of bleeding from the pores. When the prince is going to face the death he shows cowardice which makes him rage with anger."that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice." Time is essential in this story, reminds the people of when time is running out and death is unavoidable. Masque of red death is a gothic literature, with dead, unexplainable mysterious frimes.While him and his guest were safe, his people were dying miserably, it shows a lack of character in his part. Instead of seeing the prince as a cold heartless man, you can also see it as just a scared man not wanting to face reality, leading to creating a imaginary world. When poe bring together both worlds at the end of the story, the poor and the rich, it creates a immediate climax.
Poe paints a dichotomy of bright, varied, and interesting colors contrasting with dark black. These colors blend, even though one may fight and try to protect itself against the other. Using aural as well as visual images, Poe presents to the reader the clock, a symbol for time, which lurks as an enemy waiting to unleash an inevitable horror on the masses. With this inevitable and explosive mixing, Poe paints a picture of happiness, gaiety, and liveliness, that decays into a dark abyss of the last, black apartment.
People always try to play games to evade death but in the end, death always wins. Edgar Allen Poe, in his short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” uses setting and theme to illustrate that death is inevitable. This story is told during a time when the Red Death plague has taken the lives of many citizens in the country. The kingdom ruler, Prince Prospero, holds a masquerade ball for all his friends that have not yet been affected by the plague. Prince Prospero’s castle is filled with drinks, various rooms, dancers, and masqued friends. One masked friend wore a costume resembling the red death and infected everyone in his presence. The masked man looms around the dark room and finds his victims. The setting of the dark room creates a fearful
In Professor Brett Zimmerman’s analysis, I agree in his way of interpreting the theme of Poe’s story. He started by describing an interpretation of another reader (Jean-Paul Weber) about the time theory, “I would like to build on and extend some of Weber’s insights and this strengthen his interpretation about the time and clock imagery and the allegorical nature of that late” (Zimmerman 1). Time is represented by a big clock which rang every hour making everybody stop what they were doing and after it ended, they came back to their activities “while the chime of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale… but when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly” (Poe 209). I believe the clock is a metaphor to the time that is slowly approaching Prince Prospero to die.
This is a symbol of not only how scary the room was, but also of not many being comfortable with the idea of death. The next symbol used in the story is the clock that also resided within the black room. With each passing hour, "there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical” (Poe, 206). The sounds of these bells after each hour brought silence amongst the rooms. This symbolizes the coming of death, and with each passing hour, one is closer to reaching that brink end.
Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, "The Telltale Heart" and "The Masque of the Red Death" are two very different stories. One is about a simple man, perhaps a servant, who narrates the tale of how he kills his wealthy benefactor, and the other is about a prince who turns his back on his country while a plague known as The Red Death ravages his lands. Yet, there are some similarities in both. Time, for instance, and the stroke of midnight, seem to always herald the approach of impending death. Both are killers, one by his own hand, the other by neglecting his country. One seeks peace, the other seeks pleasure, but both are motivated by the selfish need to rid themselves of that which haunts them, even at the expense of another's life. However, the point of this critique will show that their meticulous plans to beat that which torments them are undone by a single flaw in their character - overconfidence.
Gothic horror writers often portrayed death and destruction in their works. Poe was not an exception, as exemplified in his story "The Masque of the Red Death". This tale takes place in a land where a horrific and deadly plague, called the Red Death, ravages the country. Prince Prospero attempted to avoid this plaque by inviting all of his friends to a party in his isolated castle. However, he and his guests "one by one dropped ... in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the
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 exemplifies these two concepts. In one sense, the temporal process of experiencing this story is like that experienced in reading any story.
The short story, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, is set in Prince Prospero’s “castellated abbeys”, where he achieves “deep seclusion” from the outside world. Prince Prospero’s purpose of this was to escape from the “Red Death”, which is described as a fatal disease that “had long devastated the country”. The major events in the story take place in “an imperial suite”, which consists of seven rooms, and the way Poe presents this setting, helps to create an eerie and deadly atmosphere. Firstly, the seven rooms in the “imperial suite” are described in order from “that at the eastern extremity” to that at the western extremity.