The short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe has a thematic perception of how death is inevitable. We first get a glance of this when the story mentions the countless people dying from Red Death. Which doesn 't sound like a disease but more of a malevolent entity. Poe paints a pictureof the death in the story, “scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victims were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men.” This shows the inescapable grips of death that haunts all those it comes across. Even Prince Prospero and his prestige guest couldn 't escape this everlasting truth of despair they sheltered themselves from inside Prospero lofty,”castellated abbey.” Poe …show more content…
Not to mention, this were only poor people in the very beginning. Which has been going on in the country for a lengthy period, which isn 't stated. The pain they endured were inexplicable up until the moments of death. Poe explains this eloquently, “Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” This makes death sound more welcoming. The naiveness of the rich would soon be their downfall. However, Prince Prospero invited friends from among the most prestige to seclude themselves in safety at this abbey. Obviously unconcerned about half his country had depleted due to the Red Death. He supplied entertainment at this megastructure of an abbey, which were wine, ballet dancers and even musicians. He decided to let the outside world take care of itself. This is a very oblivious, apathetic leader. By the sixth week, he was still unconcerned about death raging at his castle …show more content…
This happened numerous times. At midnight, the clock struck again and everyone halted. This time there were twelve strokes sounded by the bell. Before the sound could escape the presence of the revelers, people noticed a masked figure. Chatter had turned into indefinite terror. Some even assumed this figure didn 't exist under it 's ghastly mask resembling a corpse. An assumption amongst the crowd was this mask figure hadto be the embodiment of the Red Death. Poe wrote, “But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood --and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.” This suggest something more sinister, and ominous. Prince Prospero had ordered this mask figure to be apprehended. Everyone was to terrified to make a move. Suddenly, this ghastly figure started to leave. Prince Prospero infuriated charged after it with a dagger. Prospero let out a shriek as the dagger fell on the sable carpet, only to have Prospero follow suit. With the Prince dead, the revelers summoned the courage to seize this fiend. As they attacked this being, they gasped in terror while trying to constrain a intangible
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.
First, in Poe’s life, his biological mom and his biological dad died of Tuberculosis when he was a kid. Later in his life, his foster mom also died from Tuberculosis. Then he went to live with his aunt and married his cousin virginia. In 1847, his wife Virginia then died of Tuberculosis. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, many people die of the Red Death, likely including people that Prince Prospero knew. This relates to the “The Masque of the Red Death” because both Poe and Prince Prospero knew people that died of a deadly epidemic. In addition, the symptoms of these two diseases are also similar. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, the symptoms of the red death include sharp pains, dizziness, bleeding from the pores, and most common symptom, blood stains on the victim’s bodies. Tuberculosis is also similar in symptoms because coughing a lot and coughing up blood are common symptoms. Therefore, this deadly epidemic affected Poe and his writing which caused him to write a story about an outbreak of a disease. In conclusion, the death of Poe’s wife, his gloomy childhood, and Tuberculosis influenced him to write the stories he
Is it possible to evade death during a massive plague that is killing millions? Edgar Allan Poe uses setting, theme and plot in the “Mask of the Red Death” to illustrate that no one can escape death. Death is everywhere either someone dies or experiences a loss in there lifetime. The mask of the red death is an allegory, which means that is a short story with two meanings. The short story uses literal elements such as plot and the colors of the room. It also has a large philosophical meaning like the concept of life and death and the powerlessness of people to evade the grip of death.
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.
Poe is trying to get across to the reader that death will come to all, rich or poor and we should not overlook the needs of those less fortunate. Even though Prospero thought his fortune could save him from the Red Death, ultimately he also was faced with
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.
Poe chooses plague as his tool of death. He takes his time to perfectly describe how enormous threat such a plague can be: “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” Another terrifying fact is that the plague is incredibly quick and therefore there is practically no chance to be cured: “At the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half and hour.” To support the idea of dread, Poe is also describing the process of the horrible and painful dying: “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness and the profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” Moreover we can feel a certain respect to it. The author even calls it by a name “The Red Death” and uses capital letters. He is animating it this way and the reader realises it is not so easy to escape from it.
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
In the novel, The Masque of Red Death, by Edgar allen poe, many visible elements are used to deliver the theme that no human can escape death. Nor the rich or the poor , can prevent such thing. This story is about a country that gets infected with a deadly plague known as the "read death", poe himself experienced how the disease affected people in his life.I believe he used this story to demonstrate his views and feelings towards this fatal disease.The plague causes death within 30 minutes of being infected . In the story , there lived a prince named Prince prospero, with little compassion , that takes refuge in a magnificent palace with his 1000 friends along his knights and dames of his court, where they spend their days partying and drinking as if blinded to what is going on in their country.There were dancers, musicians,bufoons, even wine. The perfect place for majesty.The palace had gates of iron and every door was bolted in. The prince has no care to the people, who are dying , bleeding from pores, living their last days. Instead if the prince even suspected one of them was infected, he automatically would kill them. The prince was a selfish, uncaring, self centered rich ruler who thought his power and money could avoid death. The palace is made up of 7 rooms, all of a different color. There is a blue,purple,green,orange,violet, white and lastly a black one covered with blood. Allegorical elements can be decribed as life or death in this mysterious story. The plague symbolized the death part, and the ball symbolized life. I believe the colors represented the stages of the prince life, legitemanly fnishing in the 7th room where he layed lifeless. The rooms go from east to west , representing the way the sun rises meaning bi...
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
“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). After the mummer kills Prince Prospero, the masqueraders in the abbey perish one by one until the ebony clock runs out and none remain. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses the symbolism of the iron fortress, the masque, and the mummer to reveal the theme that man does not have control over their fate, and they cannot run from death.
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 made a detailed description that it was to take place in one of Prince Prospero’s “castellated abbeys” (1), isolated from the rest of the country where the people in it are trapped inside while the people outside can not get in. He wanted his readers to imagine, “A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron” (1). The abbeys sense of confinement is threatening and everyone both inside and out had no capability to escape death from the plague. The sense of humorous irony is at hand as the Prince is bounded in the castle with the Red Death, the reason why he enclosed himself in the castle in the first place.
In the beginning, the general situation is explained and the broad location of the story is established. While a dreadful disease ravages the countryside, Prince Prospero and his friends lock themselves up to escape and forget the fate of their neighbors. Their plan is easily identifiable, and the audience can certainly relate to their wish to leave the world behind them and exist in a processed utopia. The description of an isolated and hidden abbey reflects the prince's wish for concealment and his indifference to his responsibilities to the commoners. Poe stresses the magnificent height of the fortress walls and the welded iron gates to enforce an image of strength and protection. He also includes the entrapmen...
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