GUIDE FOR READING
An allegory is a story intended to be read on a symbolic 1ev
In an allegorical story, the characters, settings, and events are
tended to have meanings independent of the action in the surta
story. For example, the palace in “The Masque of the Red Deal
may stand for the entire world. In fact, the entire story can be se’
as a symbol representing a truth about a condition of life.
(1809—1849) was born in Bos
ton, Massachusetts. When
his parents died, Poe was
adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John
Allan and raised in Richmond,
Virginia. In his short life, Poe
wrote a large number of po
ems and short stories as well
as some works of criticism. A
masterful craftsman of the
short story, his stories usually
create a single, horrifying ef
fect. “The Masque of the Red
Death,” which was first pub
lished in 1842, has the eerie
and mysterious quality so
many of Poe’s tales possess.
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In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero tries do’
perately to avoid his fate. What happens seems to bear out this stat
ment: “Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of Ife
beyond what fate has predestined” (Napoleon Bonaparte). Before
you read the story, write a journal entry in response to Napoleor
words. In your journal explore to what extent humans can and ca’
not control their fate.
Knowing the following words will help you as you read ‘T
Masque of the Red Death.”
(mask) n.: A costume
(dis ap r b
ball or masquerade theme
shn) n.: Disapproval (p. 171i
(fan’ taz’m)
(p. 167)
(6 gust’) adj. Imposing
Something apparently se
and magnificent (p. 167)
but having no physical real’
(kan’ d, Iã
(p. 170)
brrn) n.: A large branched
(h bil’
mrt
candlestick (p. 168)
n.: Clothing (p. 171)
L
(pé kan se) n.:
(mum r) n.
A pleasantly sham p quality
masked and costumed persL
(p. 170)
who acts out pantomirP
(ar
besk’) adj:
(p. 172)
Elaborately designed (p. 170)
f
The Masque
of the Red Death
P
Edgar Allan Poe
The Red Death” had long devastated
the cuuittrv. No pestilence had ever been so
fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar
and it aal the redness and the horror of
blood. There were sharp paills. and sudden
dizzifle-, 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 teimination of the disease,
were the tncidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and
dauntless and sagacious. When his domin
ions were half depopulated, he summoned
to his presence a thousand hale and light
hearted fri ends from among the knights and
dames of his court, and with these retired to
the deep seclusion of one of his castellated
abbeys. Thi.s was an extensive and magnifi
cent structure, the creation of the princes
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
3 hammers and welded
1. Avatar t’ tar’) ri. A smbo1 or manifestation of
an uns
2. Ctejj4t4 kas t Ia tid) abbeys 1db eu
.,
3. massy
.‘
is’
i erits
itfl La,tle like t0 (IS.
el oc).. Massie or large.
the bolts. They resolved to leave irleatis tici
tiler of ingress or egress to the sudden
impulses of despair or of frenzy from within.
[he abbey was amply proisioited. With
such piecautions the courtiers might bid
defiance to contagion. Phe 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 improv
5 there were ballet dancers, there
isatori,
were musicians, there was Beauty, there
was wine. All these and security were with
in. Without was 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 thou
sand friends at a masked ball of the most
unusual magnificence.
It was a voluptuous scene, that mas
querade. 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 ldrm a long and straight vista,
while the folding doors slide back nearly to
the walls on either hand, so that the view of
4. ingress rn’ iies) or egress te’ gles) Enteuiu ,)i
lea nig
0
[‘0(1, .slIu
to tot
5. improvsatur1 till pi
eate erses ‘a ithout prr 1005 tiluliClil
itOprol sr. r
Iho .“!asqLw vi the Krci Dr 1im
iv /
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the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here
the case was er’ difiercait as might have
bc cii expected from the duke’s love of the
bizarre, The apartments were so irregularly
disposed that time vision embraced but little
iriore than one at a time. There was a sharp
turn at every twenty or thirty yards. and at
each turn a novel effect. To the right and
left, air the aimaddle of each wall, a tall and
narrow Uotliic window looked out upon a
closed corridor which pursued the windings
of the suite. 1 hese windows were of stained
glass whose color varied in accordance with
the pievailing hue of the decorations of the
chanibci into which at opened That at the
eastern exti enmity was hung. for example, iii
blue
and vividly blue wele its wiudows.
‘Ihe second chamber was purple iii its orna
naents and tapestries, and here the pam
were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fouri’
was furnished and lighted with orange—
the fifth with white—the sixth with viokt.
The seventh apartment was closely shroud I
in black velvet tapestries that hung dii
over the ceiling and down the walls, fallii.i.
in heavy folds upon a carpet of the sane
material and hue. But in this chamber oni’,
the color of the windows failed to correspond
with the decorations. The panes here wu
scarlet—a deep blood color. Now in no one of
the seven apartments was there any lamp or
candelabrum amid the profusion of goldt n
ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or
depended from the roof. There was no light
of any kind emanating from lamp or candle
ihe suite of chambers. But in the
corrid rs that followed the suite, there
stood. (pposite to each window, a heavy tri
t of fire that projected
pod. hearing a brazier
the tinted glass and so
through
its rays
the room. And thus were
illumined
glaringly
prodti’ d a multitude of gaudy and fantastic
appear inueS. But in the western or black
chamber the effect of the firelight that
streamed upon the dark hangings through
the bl& od-tinted panes, was ghastly in the
extreme, and produced so wild a look upon
the counteflaflCeS of those who entered. that
there vere few of the company bold enough
to set toot within its precincts at all.
6. brazier bra’ tlr) 11. A metal pan or bowl to hold
burning als or charcoal,
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 or
chestra were constrained to pause. momen
tarily, 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 whis
pering 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.
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 deco
7 of mere fashion. His plans were bold and
ra
fiery, and his conceptions glowed with bar
baric luster. There are some who would have
thought him mad. His followers felt that he
7. decora Ida kOr’ ,)
ii.:
Ree1uireinent. ol bood taste.
The i’lasque of the Red Death
169
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it
was not. it was necessary to hear and see
and touch him to be sure that he was not.
He had directed, in great part. the mov
able embellishments of the seven chambers,
upon occasion of this great fete; and it was
his own guiding taste which had given char
acter 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 Hema,ai.’
There were arabesque figures with unsuited
limbs and appointments. There were deliri
ous 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. Arid 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 hail 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-frosen as they stand. But
the echoes of the chime die away—they
have endured but an instant—and a light.
half-subdued 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 wan
ing away: and there flows a ruddier light
through the blood-colored panes: and the
blackness of the sable drapery appalis: and
to him whose foot falls upon the sable cdr
pet. there comes from the near clock ol
ebony a mufiled peal more solemnly em
phatic than aia’ which reaches their ears
who indulge in the more remote gaieties 01
the other apartments.
But these other apartments were denst
ly crowded, and in them beat feverishly the
heart of life. And the revel went whirliaagi’
on. until at length there commenced tb
sounding of midnight upon the clock And
then the music ceased, as I have told; and
the evolutions of the waitzers were quieted:
and there was an uneasy cessation of all
things as before. But now there were twelve
stiokes to be sounded by the bell of th
clock: and thus it happened, perhaps, th’ t
more of thought crept, with more of tim
into the meditations of the thoughtfub
among those who reveled. And thus, too, it
happened. perhaps. that before the last ecl
oes 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 sin
gle individual before. And the rumor of this
ne presence having spread itself whisper
ingly around. there arose at length from th
whole compan a buzz, or murmur, expres
sive of disapprobation and surprise—then.
finally, of terror, of horror. and of disgust
lii 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 masquerad
license of the mght was nearly unlimited
but the figure ira question had out-Heroded
H crud. and gone beyond the bounds of even
the prince’s indefinite decorum. There are
9. out-Hei-oded Hrzod: helaed exe”,IeI ju.t
S. Bernuitt: An extlavdgarlt dau b the Fiench
author Victor Hugo.
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Short Stories
hiatt Herud did lii the Ilibli-
Hio laugIitered
innoectit babies, hoping to kill Je’,us
d’
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 com
pany, 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 revel
ers around. 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.
When the eyes of Prince Prespero 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.
The Nasque
of the
Ned Death
171
‘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 ut
tered 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 delib
erate 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 centers of the
rooms to the walls, he made his way unin
terruptedly, 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
I
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Short Stories
was then. however, that the Prince Pr.o
pero, maddening with rage and the shamt l
his own momentary cowardice, rushed h
riedly through the six chambers, while noise
followed him on account of a deadly terrr
that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a
drawn dagger, and had approached, in ra i
impetuosity, to within three or four feet ,f
the retreating figure, when the latter, having
attained the extremity of the velvet apa
ment, turned suddenly and confronted Ii s
pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and tie
dagger dropped gleaming upon the sal
carpet, upon which, instantly afterward.
fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospei
Then, summoning the wild courage of d’
spair, a throng of the revelers at once thri. a’
themselves into the black apartment, and,
seizing the mummer, whose tall figure sto ci
erect and motionless within the shadow ef
the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable hv
ror at finding the grave cerements’° an]
corpselike mask which they handled with -n
violent a rudeness, untenanted by any ta:
gible form.
And now was acknowledged the prt
ence of the Red Death. He had come like a
thief in the night. And one by one droppt d
the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls
their revel, and died each in the despairiii.
posture of his fall. And the life of the ebori
clock went out with that of the last of tIn
gay. And the flames of the tripods expiree
And Darkness and Decay and the Red Deall.
held illimitable dominion over all.
-
-
-
10. cerements
sir’
uioi’s
ri..
tVrappins or shroud
\1)I\G 1(3 liii SFfFrIox
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-,
w-’at dd you expect from the masked figure?
2. Would you have attended the bafl? Explain.
.
3 Why do Prince Prospero and his followers re
treat to bs palace?
4 Desor be the series of rooms in which the en
tertarrreflt takes place.
5. Expan now the party is disrupted.
6. Compare hfe outside the palace with the life
of the people Prospero brought inside.
7. What do you learn about Prospero from his
desire to keep his palace free of the plague?
8. What mood or effect is created by the colors
and the lighting in the rooms of the ball?
9. Why does the clock have such a dramatic ef
fect on the dancers?
10. Why does the visitor frighten the guests?
11. Explain how Poe builds terror in the story.
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12. Ugo Betti has written, ‘Every tiny part of us
cries out against the idea of dying, and hopes
to live forever.” Explain whether you think Poe
would agree.
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/ING
Li
The connotative meaning of a word is what
the word suggests beyond its literal dictionary
meaning. Authors can use the connotative mean
ings of words to help establish symbols. For ex
ample. the color red connotes blood and death.
Poe uses that connotation in describing the ap
pearance of the masked figure.
1. What are some connotations of the following
colors from the story?
a. green
c. white
b. orange
d. black
2. Find three words or phrases that suggest the
quality of a nightmare.
11
I TH
AND WRITING
Write a key that future readers can use to un
lock the meaning of “The Masque of the Red
Death.” Tell what you believe the various events,
characters, and aspects of the setting stand for,
giving reasons for your assumptions. Then relate
these symbols to the larger lesson Poe is pre
senting. When you revise your work, be sure your
interpretation is clear and makes sense.
OPrioNs
-
In an allegory the characters, settings, and
events are an interconnected series of symbols.
The deeper or symbolic meaning of the story may
contain a lesson about life.
1. What might each symbol from “The Masque of
the Red Death” represent?
a. Prince Prospero
d. the number 7
b. the mnsquerade
e. the clock
C. the masked figure
2. What is te allegorical lesson in the story?
1. Writing. Write an obituary for Prince Prospero.
Include details about his character and the cir
cumstances surrounding his death. You might
also use your imagination to make up details.
2. Art. Imagine that you are the set engineer for
a movie of “The Masque of the Red Death.”
Your supervisor has asked you to design the
set. In your design plans, you must include a
detailed map of the palace. Based on Poe’s de
scription, draw a map of Prospero’s palace. Try
to capture the macabre atmosphere.
The Nasque of the Red Death
1 73