“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
Vocabulary
avatar
pestilence
sagacious
august
contagion
Reading Comprehension
1. What is the Red Death?
2. What happens to the inhabitants of the city?
3. What does Prince Prospero do in response to the Red Death?
4. What are the colors of the different rooms (going from east to
west)?
5. Which room do the guests avoid? Why do they avoid the room?
6. What happens each time the clock rings?
7. At midnight, a guest arrives. Why is Prince Prospero angry with the
guest? How do the guests feel about the presence of this guest?
8. Where does Prince Prospero catch the masked man?
9. What happens to Prince Prospero when he confronts the masked
man? What happens to the guests?
10. Who is hidden beneath the costume?
Short Response
1. An allegory is the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures
and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence1.
Two generalizations about human existence presented in “The
Masque of the Red Death” are the life cycle and man’s inability to
fight death. Identify and describe the symbols found in the short
story that support the two generalizations.
2. As the Red Death plagued his land, Prince Prospero took action.
“The scarlet stains 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…”
The result of his actions benefited no one in the end. If you were
Prince Prospero, what course of action would you have taken?
3. In what other situation might the conflict in “The Masque of the
Red Death” apply?
1
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/allegory