THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
Edgar Allen Poe
Being reminded that nobody escapes death just doesn't get any more fun than this. In only
fourteen paragraphs, Poe creates a Gothic wonderland that will give you a serious case of the
spine-tinglies and set your imagination all atwitter. The story's imagery is just as wonderfully
weird and dramatic. The language is so grave and dark it practically screams to be read aloud
by Christopher Lee. And if you're into solving puzzles, the story's got enough allusion and
symbolism to keep you figuring it out for a good long while.
Besides being a horror buff's dream, "Masque of the Red Death" may also have some interesting
things to say about art. In what ways is an artist like a sorcerer? Do art and madness always go
together? Is art above morality? What's the relationship between art and death? Those are all
questions Poe explores through the surprisingly complex character of Prince Prospero.
So read "The Masque of the Red Death," and let yourself discover the fantastic world of Poe and
Prospero's madness. Find out why some have called this Poe's own twisted remake of
Shakespeare's The Tempest. And witness for yourself the mother of all party crashes.
Allegory - ____________________________________________________________________
Symbolism - __________________________________________________________________
Imagery - ____________________________________________________________________
Gothic Literature - _____________________________________________________________
Mask:_______________________________________________________________________
Masque:_____________________________________________________________________
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THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
THE "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had
ever been so fatal, or so hideous. 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. The
scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim,
were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy
of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the
disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When
his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a
thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and
dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of
his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure,
the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and
lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having
entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They
resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden
impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply
provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to
contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it
was folly to grieve, or to think. 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."
Define:
Avatar:_______________________
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_____________________________
_____________________________
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Pestilence:____________________
_____________________________
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Describe the “Red Death” in your own words. What happens to a
person who has it?
Underline the words that seem to
indicate that The Prince Prospero is
insane.
How long does it take for the
disease to kill its victim?
*buffoon – someone hired to act
silly; a clown
Using context clues in sentence
one, what do dauntless and
sagacious most likely mean?
In other words…A terrible disease called the Red Death has struck the country.
It's incredibly fatal, horribly gruesome, and it's already killed off half the kingdom.
But the ruler of these parts, Prince Prospero, doesn't seem to care about his
poor, dying subjects. Instead, he decides to let the kingdom take care of itself
while he and a thousand of his favorite knights and ladies shut themselves up in
a fabulous castle to have one never-ending party. Wine, women, music,
dancing, fools – Prospero's castle has it all. After the last guest enters, no one
else can get in – the Prince has welded the doors shut. That means no one can
get out, either…
What did the Prince Prospero do
after half of his subjects were dead
from the “Red Death”?
What made the Prince Prosero’s castle safe?
What was in the abbey (castle) to
keep the guest happy?
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What does Poe mean by ‘Without was the “Red Death”’?
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
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.
It was a voluptuous scene, that *masquerade. But first let me
tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven --an
imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and
straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on
either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here
the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's
Underline words in the first
love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the
paragraph that indicate the mood
vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn
of the party.
at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right
What is a synonym for
and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window
“pestilence”?
looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite.
*As masquerade is a costume party.
Why do you think the prince
decided to have a fancy ball 5 or 6
months into their seclusion?
How many rooms were set aside
for the ball to take place?
These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance
with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it
opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue --and
vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its
ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was
green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished
and lighted with orange --the fifth with white --the sixth with violet. 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. Now in no one of the seven apartments
was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden
ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There
was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of
chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood,
opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that
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Color each of the rooms.
What color is suspiciously missing?
There were no lamps or candles in
the rooms so how did each of the
rooms get light?
Label the stained glass windows
with a star on the graphic above.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
protected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the
room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic
appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light
that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was
ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances
of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to
set foot within its precincts at all.
In other words…About five or six months into his stay, Prospero decides to have a spectacular masquerade ball (a ball where the guests where masks
and costumes). The setup is weird and wild, just like the Prince who designs
it. The ball takes place in a suite of seven rooms, each one dressed up in a
different color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The
black room, which looks like death, is awfully creepy – it's got dark black
walls, blood red windows, and big black clock which chimes so eerily every
hour that everybody at the party stops dancing and laughs nervously. Most
of the frolicking masqueraders are too weirded out to go into the black room.
It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a
gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy,
monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face,
and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the
clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical,
but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the
musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their
performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased
their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay
company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that
the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands
over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the
echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the
musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness
and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next
chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then,
after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six
hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of
the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and
meditation as before.
What is a “brazier of fire” and
what did they ‘produce’ (in your
own words) on the walls?
What effect did the black room
have upon the guests?
What else was in the black room?
What do you think this item might
symbolize?
Underline descriptive imagery
words.
What did the guests do when they
heard this item each hour?
What did they vow not to do the
next hour?
What did they end up doing the
next hour?
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THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes
of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He
disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery,
and his conceptions glowed with barbaric luster. There are some who
would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was
necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.
Oxmoron – a figure of speech which puts two seemingly
contradicting terms side by side.
He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven
chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his own guiding
taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were
grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm
--much of what has been since seen in *"Hernani." There were arabesque
figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious
fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful,
much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and
not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the
seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these -the dreams --writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and
causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps.
And,* anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the
velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice
of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of
the chime die away --they have endured but an instant --and a light, halfsubdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the
music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than
ever, taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the
rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of
the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is
waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored
panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose
foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony
a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears
who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.
What does this paragraph tell the
reader about the duke (the Prince
Prospero)?
Underline the oxymoron in this
paragraph. What is the effect?
Who put together the decorations
for the ball?
*“Hernani” was a play that was more known for its audience’s bad behavior than for the play itself.
Look up the meaning of the word
“wonton”. How does using it next
to the word “beautiful” help to create the tone of the ball?
*”Dreams” here means the ball guests
From the underlined portion of the
text, what word/s would you use
to describe the tone of the ball?
What is the connotation of the
word stalked used here and why is
it more effective than another
word that means the same thing?
*Anon - soon
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THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
What do you think “the heart of life” might be?
*Revelled – partied
*Disapprobation – dislike
But these other apartments were densely crowed, and in them beat
feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at
length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And
then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers
were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before.
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, perhaps, that before the last
echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many
individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the
presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no
single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having
spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole
company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and
surprise --then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.
In other words… the party's in full swing and everybody's having a wild time when the clock strikes midnight. Everyone stops dancing and falls
momentarily silent, as usual. Then some of the dancers notice a guest no
one had seen before, wearing a scandalous costume. Whoever the new
guest is, he's decided to dress as a corpse, a corpse who died of…the Red Death. He's so frighteningly lifelike (deathlike?) he freaks everybody
out, and he slowly starts "stalking" through the frightened crowd. When
Prince Prospero sees the ghostly guest, he's furious that someone would
have the nerve to wear such a costume, and orders him to be seized and
unmasked. But no one has the guts to do it, including Prospero himself.
Why were the partygoers so
disgusted by the unknown masked
figure?
*habiliments - clothing
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In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be
supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such
sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly
unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone
beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are
chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched
without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are
equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole
company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and
bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was
tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the *habiliments of
the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to
resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny
must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might
have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
*mummer – a person who goes
to parties dressed in costume.
The party goers were at a
masquerade party in which a lot of
people had on costumes that were
quite racy and gruesome. Why
does this particular “costume” offend them so much?
What is the Prince Prospero’s reaction to the unknown guest?
Why didn’t any of the Prince Prospero’s party guests grab ahold of the unknown guest?
What color room does the Prince
Prospero and his guests first see
the unknown guest?
In what order does the unknown
guest move through the rooms.
Trace his route on the drawing
above.
Why did the Prince Prospero now
decide to attack?
How and where did the Prince
Prospero die?
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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.
When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which
with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role,
stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in
the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but,
in the next, his brow reddened with rage.
"Who dares?" he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near
him --"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him
and unmask him --that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise,
from the battlements!"
It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince
Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven
rooms loudly and clearly --for the prince was a bold and robust man,
and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.
It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale
courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing
movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the
moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately
step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless
awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the
whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so
that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and,
while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres
of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the
same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the
first, through the blue chamber to the purple --through the purple to the
green --through the green to the orange --through this again to the white
--and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made
to arrest him.
It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage
and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly
through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a
deadly terror that had seized upon all. 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. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment,
and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless
within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at
finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled
with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.
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 revellers in
the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing
posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of
the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness
and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
THE END
In other words…The Red Death masquerader passes within a few feet of the Prince
and starts to walk through the rooms, heading toward the black room. Prospero loses it
and runs after him in a rage, drawing his dagger as he approaches. But just as
Prospero reaches the edge of the black room, the corpselike guest suddenly whirls
around to face him, and Prospero falls to the ground, dead. The shocked crowd throws
itself at the guest, only to discover in horror that there's nothing underneath the mask
and costume. The Red Death itself has come to the party. One by one the guests die,
spilling their blood all over Prospero's lavish rooms. The candles go out, leaving only
"darkness, decay, and the Red Death."
1.
What symbols or images of death can you find throughout the story?
2.
What is the connection between Time and Death in this story?
3.
Why do you think the Prince Prospero chooses to design a room so
suggestive of death, since this is what he and his followers are trying so
hard to avoid?
4. Is the Prince Prospero a good leader? Why or why not?
5. Many critics have said that the colors of the rooms symbolize the stages
of life. If this is the case, what does black symbolize?
6. Can you relate to the Prince Prospero in any way? Why or why not?
7. What is the difference in meaning between these two titles:
“The Mask of the Red Death” and “The Masque of the Red Death”?
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What did the crowd find when they
ripped off the mask and the clothes
of the unknown guest?
Who was the unknown guest?
What does it mean that he had
“…come like a theif in the night”?
What happened to the partygoers?
What do you think the black room
symbolizes?