Preview

Analysis Of The Masque Of The Red Death By Edgar Allen Poe

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
857 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of The Masque Of The Red Death By Edgar Allen Poe
Before reading The Masque of the Red Death, knowing that it is by Edgar Allen Poe the reader can infer that it had the possibility to be depressing and gory. Then, when you read the title, it is confirmed that the theme will be similar to most of his other writings. Although it may not be as disturbing as Poe’s “The Black Cat” where eyes are being gouged out, it still has it’s gruesome moments. The Masque of the Red Death is about a prince and his castle hiding from the red death which kills you within thirty minutes and there is a lot of blood. Since they are in seclusion for so long Prince Prospero decides to throw a party. This party has seven different colored rooms representing the stages of life, including the black room which is death.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In The Crucible and The Masque of the Red Death, both authors utilize symbolic illness to portray an outbreak of something terrible in society. The novel and short story both provide instances of symbolic illness throughout each of them.…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe contains a single major message which is that no one can escape disease and death. This message is underlined by the overall dark and ominous tone that is presented throughout the work. Poe's choice of words he used is very dark and horrific as well, which also lets the reader feel the works underlying message. In regards to symbols, the giant ebony clock represents the passage of time and the sound it makes when it chimes causes the party to stop and become nervous. Through the ebony clock, Poe pairs the opposites of the macabre with a grand party. Another symbol used is the mask every party goer wears, which…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Masque of the Red Death" Poe uses a representation of the "evil red death" to…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Masque of the Red Death” story response Throughout “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe , he shares his ideals on the inevitability of death through the main character in the story, Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero embodies three of the deadly sins such as, pride, greed, and sloth. In the story Prince Prospero says “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.”…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood" (1). Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the macabre; his very stories injecting fear into the hearts of his readers. Poe's life was filled with tragedy, as several of the important women in his life, including his wife and daughter died at a young age. He utilized poems and books to express that tragedy. The short stories, "The Black Cat," and, "The Masque of the Red Death," both written by Poe, enhance the theme of fear. "The Black Cat," was about a narrator who had gone crazy and was so overcome by guilt that he went to extreme measures including…

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, the color of the most eastern and most western chamber are significance to the message of the story. In Roppolo’s Literary Criticism, he explains, “To Blair, as to many others, there is ‘allegorical signification’ in the seven rooms, which, ‘progressing from east to west—from blue to black—connote the seven ages of man from the blue of the dawn of life to the black of its night.’” The message Poe presents is that no living thing can avoid its fate of death no matter how it tries to protect itself or escape it. The blue most eastern chamber represents the birth of dawn and the black velvet and red most western chamber depicts death and night, demonstrating that as Prince Prospero and the guest run through…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death“ is a very gothic laced story resembling humanity. Poe uses the allegory of a Masquerade Ball in a castle and all of its attendees as a sample to represent a broad hidden statement about the grimness and blindness of man under all of their face level of partying and bliss. This being the case, results in an unfortunate and untimely demise for them as they are visited by an enigmatic figure. The hidden message in Edgar Allan Poe’s allegory, “Masque of the Red Death,” is that no matter what circumstance that comes at man, he will always be the embodiment of sin awaiting death at the end of his road.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The introduction of Poe's famous short story, "The Masque of the Red Death" illustrates the disease that is gruesomely killing it's victims. There was sudden dizziness, sharp pains, and then profuse bleeding from the pores, lasting about half an hour until killing it's victim. As The Red Death is rapidly spreading throughout the country, Prince Prospero is optimistic and derives a plan. He decides to lock the gates of his palace inviting only a thousand of his peers to be spared from the disease. After five months the Prince throws an elaborate masquerade ball, decorating each room in a certain color. The first chamber was vividly blue, the second was purple along with it's tapestry. The third was green and the fourth chamber was orange, the fifth was white and the sixth was violet. The seventh apartment was the most grotesque of all, decorated in black with velvet curtains. It is the only chamber that the window hue did not correspond with the walls, the window was a scarlet red symbolizing blood. "Death cannot be barred from the palace...it is in the blood, part and parcel of our humanity, not an external invader." (Kennedy 111-133.) At midnight an unknown guest appears, dressed as…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Masque of the Red Death” displays the gothic element of a character's motivation caused by fear. Prince Prospero insured his and his guests safety with “The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts” (Poe 430). In order to protect himself and the guests from the contagion he had the doors of the abbey sealed shut. The fear of getting the contagion caused Prince Prospero to seal himself in the abbey. Prince Prospero’s fear is not only shown towards the contagion but towards the masked figure. After he saw the masked figure, Prince Prospero shouted, “Who dares insult us with the blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him - that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise” (Poe 433). Prince…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is an elaborate allegory that combines objects in the story with visual descriptions to give focus to the reader's imagination. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to dodge the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind impenetrable walls of his castellated abbey and lets the world take care of its own. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Visual descriptions in the story are used to symbolize the death that came to a dark, unkind and ignorant prince. Prospero failed to see that death "held illimitable dominion over all."…

    • 353 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Masque of The Red Death” “the Cask of Amontillado” and the pome “Alone” all have similarities such as death, fear and very dark setting. The reason Poe’s stories are similar is because he writes about his own life. Some of his stories are based off his own fears, and some of his stories are about is fears after his wife dies.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Masque of the Red Death is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. A horrible disease…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative, which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified -- have tortured -- have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but Horror -- to many they will seem less terrible than baroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place -- some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When one thinks of the word grotesque, they may begin to think of something disgusting or horrific such as Frankenstein. The literary meaning for grotesque could in fact be “ambivalently abnormal”(jahsonic.com). This is the coexisting of two separate modes, such as comedy and tragedy. The result is a disturbing fiction wherein comic circumstances prelude horrific tragedy and vice versa (georgiasouthern.edu). Edgar Allan Poe may in fact be the father of grotesque literature. Poe not only brings a sense of horror to his poetry, but is able to bring some sort of twisted comedy in as well.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The story symbolizes the inevitability of death, and brings to reality the quote “you can run, but you can’t hide”. The colors presented in “Masque of the Red Death” play a huge role in this symbolism. They create the mood of the story, they represent the stages of life, and they highlight the horror of the last night of happiness. Overall, Edgar Allan Poe carefully depicts the use of colors in his story, and they will forever be recognized as allegorical genius in this iconic tale of greediness, power, and fate. Symbolism can be found in places high and low. Be sure to look closely, and one can reveal a meaning of something they never would have thought…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics