The Masque Of The Red Death Research Paper

In the short story, “Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allen Poe uses characterization to illustrate the psychological destruction of the Prince. Throughout the story, Prince Prospero struggles with

Edgar Allen Poe was bone in Boston on January 19 1809 to David and Elizabeth Poe. He lost his parents at the age of two years and had to be adopted by John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan. John Allan was a very wealthy man but he only gave Edgar a third of his school requirements and this alienated him from Edgar. When Allan’s wife dies Edgar also decides to move out because he could not put up with John Allan. Edgar loved poetry from a tender age. He even wrote verses to girls that he developed feelings for. He could have had his first poetry book published by the age of 14 years but there was no support both from his teachers and his adoptive parents. In the course of his life Edgar became an alcoholic and mentally disturbed and this enhanced his writing skills. He created his characters trough imagination to show mystery and adventure.

As a horrible plague (the “Red Death”) devoured any one who stepped foot in its path, “Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless, and sagacious.” (Baym 2007) Prince Prospero invited one-thousand knights, dames, and the pecunious people to stay in his castle to escape the “Red Death”. This left the

Edgar Allen Poe’s chilling short story Mask of the Red Death begins with people dropping like flies, as the king of the land decides to take his close friends with him to live in one of his palaces. leaving his subjects to survive on their own. A puzzling creature known as the Red Death has been terrorizing and killing off people one by one, and no one has a way to stop it. Through characterization of both Prospero and the Red Death, Poe foreshadows Prospero’s eventual death in the end of the story.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. He was born on January 19, 1809, and he died on October 7, 1849. He wrote many famous poems. His most famous poems are the Raven, and The Tell-tale Heart.

To begin with, the Prince and his guests act like a disease in a body by trying to escape death. They try to escape death ithemselves up and away from the Red Death. In the text it says, ‘ “ The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts.” ’ They try to escape death but all of a sudden everyone dies ecause it’s bound to happen. In the text it says, ‘ “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 revelers in the blood- bedewers halls of their revels and died in the despairing posture of his fall.” ’ They try to escape the Red Death just like a disease to escape going away by trying to take over their host which is the human’s body their affecting by trying to fight off the medication or if they happen to take over their host then the

Conflicts affect the mood of the main characters in a story, by expressing the insecurities, Death,” a couple of conflicts are exposed throughout the piece. In the story “The Masque of the Red,” a couple of conflicts are expressed throughout this piece. The conflicts man versus fate and man versus himself are the conflicts that are displayed several times within this story. From major conflicts to minor conflicts, this story clarifies the problems that Prince Prospero faces within himself. In addition to Prince Prospero’s problems with himself, this story also explains the conflict of how death is uncontrollable.

Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death.

Edgar Allen Poe, completely transformed the horror genre with his tales reflecting the psychological depth and insight of the the human conditon not previously seen (Poe Museum, no date). Despite his alignment with the horror genre, he was initially taken in by the romantic ideals of consumption. This is portrayed in one of his early short stories, ‘Metzengerstein’, from 1832, where despite the majority of the story following many gothic conventions, the protaganist’s mother dies of consumption. The narrrator of the story asserts that ‘…it is a path I have prayed to follow…I would wish all I love to perish of that gentle disease’ when referring to the mother’s impending death. The narrator’s desperation to die from consumption is implied through the use of the verb ‘prayed’. This verb has connotations of wishing or hoping strongly for a particular outcome (Oxford Dictionaries, 2017): despite the horrific and drawn out process of the disease that we now understand in the 21st Century, this character still desires it thus reflecting the general insensitivty towards the disease. Although influenced early in his career by the romanticized stance on consumption, he changed his portrayal of the disease completely in his short story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, published in 1842. Very little had advanced in the medical understanding of consumption, but between Poe writing the aforementioned text and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, his own wife had contracted the disease

Death is a terrifying prospect for most people , imagine being face to face with it. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”, the revelers were in this very situation. Prince Pospero’s country was devastated by the Red Death. A plaque that resulted in a painful, gruesome, death. Prince Pospero being the selfish uncaring man he is, locked himself and a thousand of his lighthearted friends in his abbey to hide from the Red Death. After 6 months of seclusion Prince Pospero throws a masquerade to celebrate that they were still free of the Red Death. It was at this masquerade a gruesome mummer appeared shortly before Prince Pospero and all the revelers to died of the Read Death. In this story Poe personifies death through the mummer who

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.

It’s the mid 1300’s, daily life is going as usual, a plague is going around, people start to panic, adults abandoning their children, some people are locking themselves indoors. A vile stench goes into the air. Plague Doctors, with their creepy bird-like masks and creepy blood covered cloak, start walking into town. A sharp pain cuts through the townspeople's bodies as they start feeling weaker and they see that their face is turning very red. Before anyone knows it a familiar body is in the street unresponsive. Edgar Allan Poe took inspiration from the symptoms on people from The Black Death and used it for “The Masque of the Red Death”, such as body color changing after death, dying soon after anyone gets the plague, and more. Edgar Allan Poe took inspiration from The Black Death when writing “The Masque of the Red Death.”

He has a love for everything bizarre and is arrogant enough to try to hide from death. The masked figure has a form like a plague victim and is the embodiment of the Red Death. The setting is in the seven rooms of Prince Prospero's abbey. Because of Prospero’s love of the bizarre, the rooms are colored, crooked, and the windows that they have face into the inside corridors of the abbey.

Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses

There is a terrible sickness spreading throughout their town. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” (Poe 78 ) In the story “The Masque of the Red Death” fear is the main theme. Prince Prospero invites a thousand of his friends to his castle. There are seven different colored rooms in the castle. The guests fill all the different