The Masque of the Red Death

Toward Death in the Masque of the Red Death "Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying." Edgar Allen Poe provides us symbolically with the reaction of man to the pursuance of death that Jean Cocteau described before, in his gothic short story, "The Masque of the Red Death." Prince Prospero symbolizes the optimist who seeks to avoid death. The Masqueraders represent the pessimist-the carefree who seek to forget about death. The Masked…

Symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death Poe uses heavy symbolism throughout the story to convey his underlying theme: the inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape death. The prince's name, Prospero, generally denotes happiness and prosperity. The Prince possesses these characteristics yet is faced with a plague that he desperately attempting to avoid. This oxymoron is used to hint that this man of exuberance will soon be faced with tragedy. The fires in each…

to state that this is the first time I have had the experience of reading Poe and as such the reading process was greatly intriguing. The short story I chose was the Masque of the Red Death, which I found to be very dark and vile. From the beginning of the story to the end I found great concentration on the issues of life and death, among other things, which made the story very dynamic for its size. Another point of interest I found in the story was Poe’s concentration on historical accuracy as he…

Reader-Response to The Masque of the Red Death Some major concepts of reader-response criticism, as discussed by Ross Murfin in The Scarlet Letter: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, are these: (1) reading is a temporal process in which the reader lives through the experience of the text and (2) the experience that the reader undergoes may mirror the subject of the story. One reader's experience of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe can exemplify these two concepts…

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…

Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is an elaborate allegory/microcosm 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 seemingly impenetrable walls of his castellated abbey and lets the world take care of its own. However, no walls can stop death because it is inescapable and inevitable. Visual descriptions in the…

Encounters with Death in The Masque of Red Death After reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" (317-22), the reader can only conclude that death is the theme once again in another thrilling horror tale. Other critics such as Patricia H. Wheat, view this tale as a battle between life and death (51-56). Yet, Leonard Cassuto brings an interesting theory to this tale--"According to the narrator's own account, no one survives the Red Death. The only one who(lives) is Death. The narrator…

using illusion or misdirection keeps the reader is suspense throughout this story called "The Masque of the Red Death". Symbolism such as the colored rooms, the impressive clock, the feeling of celebration being at a party all makes this story feel like a fairytale. Poe used this fairytale style and converts it into a nightmare in disguise. In the "Masque of the Red Death," the first sentence, "The Red Death had long devastated the country," sets the tone for the whole story. Poe describes the horrors…

Arrogance Kills Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is a typical dark Poe story, but it contains some unique themes and symbolism. In the story a disease known as the Red Death is ravaging the fictional place where the story is set, and it causes its victims to die quickly and painfully. Even though this disease is spreading rampantly, the prince, Prospero, does not care. He decides to lock the gates of his palace in order to keep away from the plague, ignoring the illness that is ravaging…

Edgar Allen Poe, in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, shows how people may try to outsmart death and surpass it, but in the end they will die since death is inevitable. He reveals this in the book by showing all the people closed up in the abbey that belongs to Prince Prospero. They are trying to escape the “Red Death” and think that they can escape the death by hiding away in the abbey. They manage to stay safe for six months but in the end they all die after the stroke of midnight…