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The masque of the red death introduction essay
The masque of the red death introduction essay
The masque of the red death introduction essay
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JOSE VALLEJO The Masque of the Red Death [unformatted] Over the course of history, death has played a very integral part in literature, art, and human life in general. Portrayed by any in a very wide array of styles and techniques, one overarching theme that usually comes along with the use of death is the very simple, yet very existential one; “no man escapes death.” This theme is very apparent in the short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. The work is about a strange “plague” that has been overcoming the kingdom of a prince known as Prospero, a prince with a rather ironic and unfortunate name, whom rather than addressing the issue of this plague, decided to isolate himself in his kingdom and “escape” this death that …show more content…
Poe uses the simple, yet effective technique of allotting the main character with a name that foreshadowed their fate. In this case, Prospero, a king whose name is symbolic and allusive to the word prosperity, is the ruler of a country that has been overcome by an unstoppable plague that is quickly and surely killing his subjects. This leads him to recede into the safe isolation of his kingdom, theoretically keeping him safe from the plague. His isolation allows him to prosper and thrive, safe from the death of that has overcome the outside world. For the first half of the piece, his name is very fitting seeing as how he has managed to escape the grasp of this plague, host a massive ball, and keep his health and wealth all too himself while everyone outside of his doors suffered. But very quickly we see his name from being very appropriate, to grossly ironic. A name symbolic of his prosperity and ability to thrive suddenly becomes the situational irony that separates this story of a prince and his ball from the others. Poe creates a major twist in the story when the uninvited guest enters the party. Prospero goes from being the “big man on top”, to being an angry party host trying to get rid of a party-crasher. What Prospero isn’t aware of is that pretty soon his prosperity is going to be cut short and much like …show more content…
Man has always told stories of his attempt of escaping death, but surely enough is met with an untimely fate, and this story is no different. A major symbol of this is a very large pendulum clock that resides in the black room at the end of the hall. Like most large pendulum clocks, this one would produce a loud sound every hour on the hour. In fact, the sound of this clock was so loud that during the ball, every time it chimed, the party would come to a halt and the music would pause until the reverb of the clocks chime came to a halt. This clock is a very clear symbol of death, as intended by Poe. With its constant chiming every hour, reminding the guests that as time passes, death is getting closer and closer. As the night passes, the clock periodically stops the party until the uninvited guest arrives, leading Prospero to stop everything at the wave of his hand. It was midnight when the guest symbolic of the Red Death arrived as stated by Poe; “But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus, too, it happened.” Not only had the clock been counting down the hours until his arrival, but also the time is very significant- Midnight. A time recognized as the ‘witching’ hour by many due to its nature of
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.
Edgar Allen Poe, in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, shows how people may try to outsmart death and surpass it, but in the end they will die since death is inevitable. He reveals this in the book by showing all the people closed up in the abbey that belongs to Prince Prospero. They are trying to escape the “Red Death” and think that they can escape the death by hiding away in the abbey. They manage to stay safe for six months but in the end they all die after the stroke of midnight during the masquerade ball Prince Prospero puts on from the Red Death itself which appears after midnight and leaves no survivors in the end. Poe develops the theme of how no one can escape death through the use of the point of view, the setting, and symbolism.
Towards the end of the story, the people encounter the masked man resembling the Red Death and Prospero chases him through the rooms. When the people follow Poe states “ Then summoning the wild courage of despair a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment.”(10). They avoided the black room all night but when all the chaos happened they threw themselves in the room to find out what happened. Just like they eventually went into the room they were avoiding, they eventually all died. The black room symbolizes death, the room was always they and unavoidable just like death
“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” (Poe, par. 14).” “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripod expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe, par. 14). “He [the Mummer] is a characterological duplicate of both the black chamber and its ebony clock” (Roth, par. 8). “The ebony clock keeps chiming the passing hours as the revelers move closer and closer to the moment of their own deaths” (Zimmerman, par. 12). Poe, Roth, and Zimmerman reveal that the mummer is a symbol of the clock and the tripods in the dark room of death. This relates both fate and time, and because their time was up, fate came to claim them. Poe also states that the Red Death held dominion over all and because the mummer also represents the Red Death, he ends the story by reinforcing his theme that man cannot control fate and fate will rule over all.
...th the impression that Prospero represents Poe’s image of the artist who insists on creating an ideal artwork, but whom is permanently imprisoned by the time-bound nature of life. Poe emphasizes that the artistic effort to transform temporality into spatiality is condemned to failure. Even the seven rooms, which suggest a orderly pattern of static placing, become misshapen into an image of the time span of life when Prospero follows the Red Death through a time-based development from birth to youth to maturity to old age and finally to death. It is when Prospero must confront the reality of the temporality of life that he inevitably must confront the death that life always insists on. “The Masque of the Red Death” should not be relinquished as a simple gothic horror story, but rather should be understood in terms of the aesthetic concept that dominated Poe’s work.
...agraph, the author mentions that the disease had come "like a thief in the night," but this statement is entirely untrue. Poe wrote a cohesive story which acknowledges the fear of trapping oneself in a doomed situation. Ironically, the very place the Prospero built to keep himself safe led to his hideous destruction. However, the audience was never permitted to believe that the prince would escape death, because even Poe's choice of environments reflect the triumph of the plague; the isolation and quarantine of the abbey, the fever and delirium of the masquerade, and finally the progression of time and eventual death. The clock strikes midnight, and with its shadowy expiration, "the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all," (213).
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.
The fear of dying and unavoidable death is what brings this short story together. The reader can gather from Poe’s use of the Red Death and the seven rooms a terrifying insight into how the author feels about death and his loss of family. Poe utilizes Prince Prosper to vessel human happiness, as well as the realization that one cannot block out death; death will always be looming over the shoulder. The ESV Bible reads: “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Poe sets the scene by detailing the horrendous plague that is ravishing the unnamed country. After the disease has killed half of the population of the country, Prince Prospero decides to invite 1,000 of his friends, who are healthy, into seclusion with him in a castle. The location of the abbey is not named either. The absence of the location of the country or abbey makes the reader feel that the story could happen anywhere and makes it more personal. The name of the main character, Prince Prospero, also helps with the setting. Prospero, obviously, implies wealth, prosperity, and a fortunate place in the hierarchy of the system. While most of the country is dying, the Prince wants to lock up himself and his friends and forget the chaos occurring in the outside world. This is the foolish idea of a wealthy person who thinks his status in life and his money can save him from the plague. The s...
Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is an elaborate allegory that combines
In Edgar Allen Poe’s short mystery, “The Masque of the Red Death” the emotions and beliefs from the mid 1800’s are figuratively brought to life through symbolism. Discussing through a fictional perspective about a plague that is referenced as “The Red Death”; the disease potentially was meant to represent Tuberculosis or the Bubonic Plague. Using the seven stages of “life” portrayed through color, Poe illustrates the sense of mystery and the fear of the known. In his short story he displays not only the inevitability of fear through extensive use of remarkable symbolism, but also the different views of that era. During the 1800’s the plague was racing and the medication was not extensive enough to control the diseases, such as; Tuberculosis, Bubonic Plague, even the common cold was lethal. Big cities were not kept as clean as they should’ve been, trash and sewage was not always disposed of properly. Having this in mind, think of how easy it was to become ill. The “red death” is viewed as a mysterious man, never having before been seen in the Prince’s castle; without knowing why, the guests and Prince Prospero begin to fear the unknown man. Though the man shows no sign of harmful intentions, the inevitable fear of the unknown is exposed. Using a thrilling setting to stir the mood, Poe allows the
With this idea Prospero shortly realized a figure dressed in red, with anger he calls upon this figure with little known he called upon his doom. Poe states the selfishness of Prospero; the material reads “The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think” (Poe 1842) Poe’s character of Prospero established the corrupt of society that has made man selfish. The Red death was the justice for Prospero actions, for this death was his prison. Poe’s ending was yet again correct proving that no matter what way you try to conceal yourself from death, death is
At the end of the story, there is an uninvited guest that enters the building. That guest is death; people really do not know when death will come and knock on their door. The narrator says, “He had come like a thief in the night” (Poe 88). The death came like “a thief in the night”; that line about the Red Death sounds familiar. This line is also used in The Bible in Thessalonians 5:4. The allusion refers to Judgement Day; it is when people get judged for every little sin they commit; or the end of the world. Therefore, Poe uses the stranger to represents Judgement Day; Judgement Day can come at any time. Prince Prospero and his guest arrived at their Judgement Day without knowing; this is how death
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
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