Edgar Allan Poe is very great at setting the mood. In some of his poems and stories, he sets a very distinctive mood/feeling that the reader can feel. In, “The Masque of the Red Death” he does this really well. Poe uses the setting, imagery, and tone to help set the mood. The places, colors, and things that go down helped him tremendously in setting the atmosphere for this story.
The author of, “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe, showed in this story that the setting is something that helped him well to show that this was a dark story. In the story Prince Prospero, wanted to avoid death. He wanted to specifically avoid the Red Death (Black Death). He gathered many friends, people for entertainment, and all the resources they needed
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to survive and took the people and things to an abbey. An abbey is pretty much where nuns and monks would go to live. Once they got there they closed the door and locked it up. He believed that if he was to hide from death, then he could escape from death and he would be fine. So they are in an old abbey that has been abandoned, and they are locked in. That’s how Edgar started off and used the setting as help to make it a dark story and set the tone. Another way to set the tone, Poe used was imagery. How did he use imagery? Well In this abbey there were seven rooms. The directions of the rooms went from East to West. The first room was blue, then purple, then green, then orange, then white, then violet, and lastly, black. These colors must stand for something for being all different. Blue room means birth, or the beginning. The purple room means life, or the living. Green means, young or the youth. Orange is like summer or fall, the middle of your life. The white room, is when you are near death, or winter. Violet means darkness, getting sick. Last Black, means death. That’s what I got from reading the story. Another thing he used as imagery is the giant clock with a pendulum. Every hour it went off it made a weird noise and everyone would become silent upon hearing the noise. That’s how Edgar used imagery as a piece to help with the mood. Lastly, Edgar Allan Poe use the tone to set the mood.
The tone in the at the beginning is scared. Why are they scared? Everyone is scared to die, from the Red Death. Then once they arrive in the abbey they feel a sense of safety, they think that they have found the way to survive and avoid death. After that the tone of the story is almost a happy. They have all the food they need, they have people in there to associate with, and the Prince is happy, because he thinks he has beaten death. Then they decided to have a Masquerade party. They are enjoying life, but every time the clock would hit an hour everyone would become silent like I said before. But every room was full of people and partying except the black room. But then at midnight they noticed that someone that wasn’t there before and Prince Prospero is angry with how the new guy is dressed at his party. He orders him to be hanged. He chases him through every room with a dagger then the man turned around and Prospero dropped his dagger and fell dead. It was the Red Death. The people now horrified and scared now that when the man removed his mask there was nothing there. Death had caught up with them. Once the last person in the abbey died, the clock stopped ticking. That’s how the tone was used to help set this mood, it varied, but got darker as the story went
on. The story, “The Masque of the Red Death” written by Edgar Allan Poe is a very dark type of mood. The author was able to achieve this by the things that I explained before. He used the setting, where they were. Then he used imagery, the colors of the room and the way the clock was, they painted the picture and had meaning. Lastly, he used the tone from when they were scared, to happy, to finally dead.
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
All people wish to avoid suffering, and those with wealth usually take too long to realize that they cannot avert it. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe tells the readers of death, and how the upper class deals with it. In this story, Prince Prospero and his wealthy friends hide away in a castle to evade death. This obviously does not work, as death is inevitable, but of course, they attempt to save themselves anyways. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the courtiers, Prince Prospero, and the stranger to symbolize the members of the influential upper class and their habit of using their power to postpone their own impending doom.
The Masque of the Red Death was very serious from the beginning to end. The story never pulled away from the sense of a looming threat. Poe did not waste anytime, he cut straight to the point and set the tone right away. The tone relates to people language and the specific words that he uses to create illusion and imagery. Poe uses different times of words to define his language which is called Old English today. Poe sentences are also short and they are practically identical in the simple structure. Poe is a very different writer than most writers today, he has a unique way about his language.
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 story “The Masque of the Red Death” the title slightly reveals the story. The story is about a fatal disease known as “The Red Death” and Prospero not caring about and dies. Poe writes this story in third person .Prince Prospero knew about the people dying from the disease but he paid it no attention. So one day Prospero decides to throw a masquerade ball. In the ball there are seven rooms. The seven rooms are different colors such as blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. While people are in enjoying the ball, midnight strikes and everyone silently fall to their deaths. Prospero see that everyone is dead and becomes frightened. Prospero runs in a rage and The Red Death catches him and Prospero dies.
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.
...Plessis, Eric H. du. “Deliberate Chaos: Poe’s Use of Colors in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.” Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism 34.1-2 (June-December 2001): p40-42. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 April 2012.
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.
"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 was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death,'" (209). As Edgar Allen Poe set the scene for his story, he also created an ominous mood and a sense of suspense supported by the setting. He details the fun and amusement inside the prince's abbey, in contrast to the horror and doom outside, and the reader's curiosity is piqued, because such bliss cannot be maintained for long. Throughout the story Poe explicates and changes elaborate environments to build the suspenseful energy and create a strong structure. In "The Masque of the Red Death," setting is employed to organize motives and action, and to focus the reader on the climax. Poe targets the culminating point of his story using rich descriptions of the abbey, the masquerade, and the clock.
The level that the conflict is on plays a big role, bringing together two characters emotions to. Inner and outer conflicts within the Prince, and the Red Death assist in analyzing the theme of death and madness. Prince Prospero’s main conflict is with death itself. The madness of never knowing when death will come for him. The point of view in the story helps the reader to know what a specific character is thinking. Gale states, “Poe carefully chooses his words to paint a picture of unrelieved fear, suspense, and dread.” Poe’s as a special way of writing and using techniques correctly is why this story a is the reason why thousands of people still read it
The Red Death described in the story is a fatal pestilence which causes “sharp pains, sudden dizziness and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution”. (page 386) Once the pestilence hits, the person dies within ½ an hour. Prince Prospero’s motivation is to survive the plague and he believes this can be done by taking his wealth and inviting one thousand of his upper class friends to stay in his palace. In Prospero’s mind the “external world could take care of itself” while he and his friends lived lavishly. (page 386)
The first technique Poe uses in both stories is symbolism, which aids the reader in understanding the theme. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism to aid the reader in teaching the theme that death is inevitable. While explaining the setting, Poe describes a black room with red windows and then begins
In the last text, Edgar Allan Poe creates a very vivid and gruesome theme in his short story The Masque of the Red Death. Poe creates a fictional country that has been struck by a very deadly, devastating disease known as the Red Death, commonly referred to as the Plague. The text focuses on a character known as Prince Prospero. As his citizens are
The theme of life in the story is very pressed with all of the symbolism as hints, like Prospero’s characteristics, the 7 rooms, the clock, and even the masquerade itself. Prince Prospero has characteristics, such as his arrogance and his ignorance. As it states “It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.” At the time this story takes place, the bubonic plague is going around, and Prince Prospero is ignorant enough and throws a social event in his castle. Just because he is royalty, does not mean that death won’t get him. Death will eventually consume everybody; like everybody is in this huge gumball machine, each one will be popped out at a different time, everybody has their own time and destiny. As Poe states “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.” (452) This proves even the highest or the mightiest of them all are
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “Masque of the Red Death,” is a rather macabre story about a prince, his kingdom, and a particularly gruesome plague called the Red Death. This story very well written; Poe makes great use of the many literary elements seen in it. Among other literary elements, Poe uses irony, the setting of the story, and allegories to bring “Masque of the Red Death” to life.