The Masque of the Red Death Group

Question:

jojo234
jojo234
Student
High School - 11th Grade

Why does Prince Prospero create a black room with red windows if it represents death?

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Posted by jojo234 on Thursday June 18, 2009 at 6:47 PM and tagged with abbey, prince prospero, the masque of the red death.

Answers:


  1. epollock Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    joj0234,

    Prince Prospero does not create any rooms. They exist in the abbey to evoke an erie and deathly scene.

    The black room is the most westerly room suggesting a move away from life. The blue room, in the east, is on the side of the rising sun, an optimistic idea of blue skies and beginnings of new days. On the other-hand, the black room is the direction of the setting sun and the end of the day at midnight, when Death takes over. Propsero's charge of the ghostly figure takes him from east to west, on his dash toward his doom.

    The room with "deep blood" and "ghastly in the extreme" evokes wildness, evil, and is designed to disturb and distress. 

    This was one of Poe's most descriptive and evocative short stories.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/masque-red
    http://www.enotes.com/masque-red/style

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    Posted by epollock on Thursday June 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM