The meanings of short stories attain their value through the plot, characters, setting, writing style, narrator and theme. These six components form an effective story line that gets the meaning of the work across. The short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe is an allegory in which Poe uses symbols to convey a deeper meaning throughout the story. Death is inevitable and no amount of wealth or evasion from your fate can save you. First off, the setting of “The Masque of the Red Death” is quite eerie. The atmosphere throughout is creepy, foreboding and terrifying. Prince Prospero throws a party in his extremely secluded, fortified abbey, which is not only secure from outsiders but no one can leave either which is made …show more content…
The story starts off with a gory description of the Red Death. “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim… the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.” (Poe). The Red Death creates the conflict in the story. It is the cause of the death of more than half of the people in the land and instils a sense of uncertainty for the nobles in hiding. “As a means of self-preservation, and, arguably, the preservation of mankind, the prince isolates himself and other courtiers in a venue where they are supposedly untouchable to the Red Death.” (Santi and Lynn). The prince and friends try to evade the inevitable that they too will die from the Red Death by locking themselves in an isolated abbey. The story’s climax occurs when Prince Prospero confronts the masked stranger at the party and is killed. Eventually, all the others die that night too and this resolution to the story is …show more content…
“The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet --a deep blood color.” (Poe). Here, Poe really lets the reader get an image in their head of the black room and shows how peculiar it is. Also, the he fact the Prince Prospero’s name reflects prosperity is ironic because his kingdom is in ruin and he and all his friends die (Caldwell). At the end, the strange, masked guest who kills Prince Prospero is actually death itself. This is Poe using personification to give death a human-like form. Poe uses the seven rooms of the party suite to symbolize the stages of life. The room furthest east represents birth because of the blue, happy color and the sun rises in the east at the start of a new day. The black room which is furthest west represents death since the sun sets in the west at the end of daylight and its color is dark, evil and mysterious. Poe’s description of the party guests as ones who “out Heroded Herod” is an allusion to John the Baptist in the fact that going too far and greed can lead to death, which the guests of the extravagant party face in the end
In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the location of the rooms represents the cycle of life and death, with the bright blue room all the way to the east, where the sun rises and the day begins, and the black, morbid room all the way to the west, where the sun sets and the day ends. The reader comes to understand that the most eastern room represents the beginning of life, while the most western room
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.
Edgar Allan Poe was famous for his poems, short stories, motifs, themes, etc. After reading three of his most famous works: “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” I found that the “Masque of the Red Death” was my personal favorite. In this story, Edgar Allan Poe enthralled the reader with his entire concept, symbols, and the way he infused history into the interesting and haunting story.
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 "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.
"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 first symbolic mean of death is depicted in the seventh room in the suite. Poe says,
“The Masque of the Red Death” represents the stages of life; everyone in this world will have to pass on; however, Prince Prospero thinks that he can avoid it. Prince Prospero is known as “happy and dauntless; bold and robust; he is also foolish. By Prospero building gates of iron, he believes that he can escape death. The narrator says, “It was then, however, that Prince Prospero maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly though six chambers…He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid
One of the only distinguishable characters of the short story was Prince Prospero. His name obviously represents prosperity in some way or the likes of it at least, however, due to his eventual passing despite being royalty surrounded by expensive accommodations and wealthy companions, the audience will know that his clever and comfortable attempt to evade death was for nothing. This denotes that everyone will die. Regardless his economic and social status, it means nothing in terms of dying. Those societal factors are irrelevant in one’s time of death. Another symbol Poe injects to emphasize the theme is the abbey/fortress the Prince builds. It was an attempt to shield away from the raging plague. The fortress represents an endeavored escape of death, as the extended metaphor. But despite the emphasis that was put into the excessive amount of external protection as well as the glorious amount of partying and riches possessed by the Prince and presumably the upper class, said aristocrats were inevitably killed by time. The failure in living despite the conditions, strategies, and protective location comes to show that in the time of one’s death, their specific location cannot protect them from their expiration. They could simply be at home or in a military base but this changes nothing
As in many of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, the point of view and narration cause the reader turmoil and a sense of being perturbed. The point of view and narration go hand in hand in many of Poe’s stories. Several of Poe’s tales, including “The Masque of the Red Death,” cause turmoil for many readers who attempt to situate the narration and point of view within the story. This in turn causes a sense of disorientation for the reader. In general, Poe’s narration and point of view are one in the same; for the most part they are of an omniscient presence or unreliable character. Yet, in “The Masque of the Red Death” point of view and narration are both. Through the tale, the point of view is of a presence that knows and sees everything; while the
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
Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is based on the supernatural and the unknown. In The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero invites the revelers to come to the castle to party until the danger of pestilence is gone. The party was interrupted by an intruder who was dressed in all black (like the Grim Reaper) and was associated with the plague of the "red death." The reaper killed everyone one by one in the end. The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory. An allegory is symbols that are presented in the story that have two levels of meaning. An example can be the clock in the story. The clock told time and represented the time they had left before they died. There were seven chambers that were different colors, and the last chamber was black, which was the last chamber that represented death. I think the seven rooms symbolized the days until you die and the clock symbolized the time until you died.
Edgar Allan Poe believed that short stories should be composed to achieve a single effect. He argued that every event, character, setting, and plot detail should add to this effect. “The Masque of the Red Death” was so exception to Poe’s beliefs. In the short story, Poe utilizes many elements to highlight and contribute to the single effect.
In The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allan Poe writes about how Prince Prospero holds a masque in a sealed abbey to try to forget about the Red Death. There are seven rooms in the abbey which have matching windows and decorations. A figure dressed as a deceased individual appears in the midst of the masque; Prince Prospero chases him to the scarlet room where he dies followed by everyone else. Edgar Allan Poe once said, “It is my design to render it manifest that no point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition…” Poe placed imagery and symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death to design meaning into the story. This statement is true at least for The Masque of the Red Death. Poe chose have the revelers die in the black and scarlet room and have the rooms go from east to west. It was his intention to use dream language when describing the masque.