Personal Narrative: The Red Death

On 09/12/2016, I Deputy Daniel Pruitt was dispatched to 52455 West Highway 16 for an unattended death compliant. I arrived on scene st 6:45pm and meet with Creek County EMS unit 40.

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most well-known authors from the dark romantic age. His story “The Masque of the Red Death” is a short fable about Prince Prospero and the Red Death, better known today as the bubonic plague. The prince is a very rapacious man so when he sees that his kingdom is dying, he chooses to save himself and his companions by bringing them to one of his many castles and simply closing the door on the plague. They continued to live their lavish lives, acting as if nothing was wrong behind the sturdy door of the castle. Then, when Prospero throws a big masquerade, he discovers that an intruder has crashed his party. Out of rage, he goes to stab the man, but, upon reaching the doorway of the room, he drops dead. After a mob of very upset partygoers tears apart the grotesque mask of the intruder, they discover that the “man” underneath is a personified version of the Red Death. Through a psychological lens, one would be able to see the different emotions portrayed through the characters. From beginning to end, “The Masque of the Red Death” brings forth a range of emotions through the characters and their uncontrollable and many times thoughtless actions.

My legs are shaking with pain, but I need to know where I am and what strange things lie outside of that door way. Slowly I am making my way there, I hear people having a conversation just outside. I haven’t a clue what they are saying, it seems to be in some odd language. Finally I’m at the door. Terrified, I grab the knob and start to open it. It squeaks when I swing it open. In the hall I see no one, just white walls with white tile. “What the,” I say to out loud. I could have sworn I heard someone. My eye catches my room number, 387, it has my name on it. I look right and left, but see nothing expect florescent lighting and shut doors. I go to the door across from mine and try to open it. Locked, that’s odd. I try the next one, locked once again. I keep going, now at room 365 I give the knob a turn and it actually comes open. I hesitantly wander into the area. It looks the same as mine, minus the painting on one of the walls. It is an extremely abnormal painting. It depicts an out of the ordinary creature. “Why would this be in a hospital?” I whisper to myself.

Many short stories have an underlying message that the author does not directly convey. Logan Pearsall Smith states, “It is not what an author says but what he or she whispers, that is important.” This means that the reader needs to search for a hidden message within the story, as one might say; there is more than meets the eye. Two stories supporting this quote are “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant. The characters within these stories that gradually relate and connect to the quote are Prince Prospero and Madame Loisel.

Fate is a mysterious force. There are the non-believers, saying that you are responsible for your actions and not controlled by this so called ‘destiny,’ able to change your life at any point you wish to. Demonstrated in stories such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, these tales showcase how a crabby old miser and a mysterious man change the course of their futures. Meanwhile, there are many stories, myths, and even religions that emphasize how fate controls your life; that you are on a predestined path. Edgar Allen Poe seems to share this view on the subject. His short story, The Masque of the Red Death, exemplifies how no matter what you do to protect yourself, fate will find you and do its bidding. Despite his

Prince Prospero loves the bizarre and the august. When having the abbey made he had each of the seven rooms painted a different color. Each of the rooms represents a different color of a person’s life. The first room represents new life, such as a baby being born into the world. The second color is Purple, which represents royalty. This can be compared to the way a child feels as they grow up, they feel like royalty. The third color is Green. This color represents luck and envy, just like many adolescents feel during high school. Orange, the fourth color, represents cautious behavior; just the way adolescents feel when they are transitioning from a life of limited opportunities, to a life of endless opportunities as an adult in college. The fifth color, White, represents peace and purity. This is about the time when adults get married, begin to start their own family, and stop worrying about life so much, and just go with it. The sixth color, Violet, represents old age and knowledge. Many people believe that purple and violet are the same color, however there is a slight difference of the shade in the color. Violet is the

Death is inevitable in the human life cycle, so how does one attempt to avoid it? Symbolism is defined as the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story called, “The Masque of the Red Death.” The majority of people believe he is referring to the black plague that has struck the kingdom. Prince Prospero decides to let the kingdom “peasants” take care of themselves while himself, knights, and chosen women isolate themselves in Prospero’s castle. A little while later, Prospero decides to throw a masquerade ball. During the ball, the red death shows itself and kills the prince first and then everyone else that is present. Symbolism is represented with the colors, objects, and time. Therefore, in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, symbolism is shown in the castle, with the clock, and the seven colored rooms.

Sometimes I inquired myself how I lived this far in life after we were invaded by the vikings and my siblings killed and captured. As days and weeks go by, a plague appears in Europe, where we lived. People said it originated from ships coming into port that transferred contaminated rats but nobody is sure. The last week in August, both my mother and father got the plague or also known as the Black Death. Their skin soon became black which causes the skin and flesh to die. Two days later, my mom and dad went to another world. I cried for an hour straight, thinking about how I’m going to be to survive. I have nothing. It was a tragedy for me and multitudinous people who lost their loved ones, especially that parents that were

I will never forget my life before the Red Death took over my town. Before the Red Death overtook most of my town, I had a great fulfilled life. I was married to the lord and we were part of royalty. My day started at dawn. Mass and prayers would be made and I would be served by my maids; this is also the time where my maids would help me get my dress on for the day. After breakfast I had discussions about many of things such as tournaments and poetry. My favorite part of the day was when I got to educate the girls who had been sent to my households. When the morning was over and the afternoon began, my noblewomen duties turned into housewifely duties. My afternoon was spent supervising meals and ensuring that stores were sufficient. I

Thinking back, I realize that I'm never going to get my children back. The Red Death has ruined many, many families and taken countless lives. I felt bad for the other families, but it wasn’t until it attacked my family that I realized this disease was awful. The evening that my life changed was just a normal night. I was reading my children a bedtime story when I noticed the swellings on my six year old son’s neck. Alarmed, I jumped from my chair and ran to find my husband. When he came, he noticed that our four year old daughter had the swellings as well, and our nine year old daughter was the only one safe. Grabbing Hildegard, we darted out the door and left our ill children in our old raggedy home. We felt horrible for leaving these innocent young ones behind, but we couldn't save them. We couldn't find a realistic reason to stay, and they were going to die no matter what. Even months later, I still remember that night better than I remember my own last name.

In Prince Prospero’s castle, he had a hallway of seven rooms. The rooms went from one direction to another, starting in the east, changing by color as they went. Poe mentioned, “That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue- and vividly blue were its windows” (84). The symbol of the rooms one and seven represents new life and death. With this, Poe shows how the room started in the eastern extremity, just as the sun rises from the east, and is blue just as blue symbolizes life. Poe also writes, “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung down the walls” (84). In this quote, he shows how the last room was black, which symbolizes death. This last room was in the far western extremity. This shows that this was the last room, and everything must end there. Consequently, many people did not notice the two different colors in the room. The first color of that room was black, which was death. The other color was red which can symbolize blood. Also, the colors of these rooms showed how the death could not be kept out. Above all, these colors the stages of life. Therefore, the colors of the rooms showed what was

My guests grew tired of all of the extravagant halls and small entertainment I had set up for them. Wishing to keep my guests pleased, I threw a masque of great magnificence. I gave my guests tasteful, yet grotesque costumes designed by my own glorious hand and an utterly bizarre ball environment. Within my abbey, I created seven rooms of many hues lit by only a fire’s gleam outside of a corresponding shade stained glass window. The last room, the seventh, I believe, was the most peculiar. I had devised an atmosphere encompassing every shade of black; however, the windows reminded all that entered of the terror raging outside: the crimson, terrific hue of blood as the lightness of the fire could not seep through the darkness of the color of

“The Masque of the Red Death” is a very disturbing story that delves into a concept of life that everyone knows but rather not think about. In the story, it depicts a setting where a plague known as the red death is ravaging a country, where the only safe place from it is in a castle owned by the wealthy Prospero. However, rather than helping the people in the chaotic country, Prospero instead throws a party in order to distract himself and his guests from the plague. So despite all the security in the castle, the plague itself entered and killed everyone presenting the fact that no matter how rich or how powerful you are death will come for you. The story uses characterization to help show the theme, setting to aid that too and imagery

Two years ago I would never have thought that he would be dead now and that she would be happily smitten by somebody else.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” irony occurs throughout the story. For example,irony occurs when the old man tries to keep evil out by barring his windows. Poe writes, “Its room was as black as a pitch with the darkness(for the shutters.)” (page 62,paragraph 4.)By looking at this quotation we can see that the old man was afraid of being robbed. To avoid being robbed the old man put bars on his windows so “evil” couldnt get in. This method did not work because evil is inside the narrator.