The Masque of the Red Death Group at eNotes

It is not necessarily the revelers that are bad, but Prospero possibly...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:52:03 PST

It is not necessarily the revelers that are bad, but Prospero possibly ordering them to do what they are doing. If they have the means to try to avoid the plague, then they should have that right to do it.

The story tells us that the abbey had been stocked for enough food for...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:48:08 PST

The story tells us that the abbey had been stocked for enough food for all the attendees The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. If the outside world was to take care of itself, and they were so scared of contagion, it is highly unlikely that they actually would have exposed themselves to the outside world, even to get food.

Did Prince Prospero send out provisions each month to make sure they had...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:33:24 PST

Did Prince Prospero send out provisions each month to make sure they had food?

It is inevitable to sense some form of retribution in the end, when you...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:25:56 PST

It is inevitable to sense some form of retribution in the end, when you see that the plague did not forbid one group on the basis of their social and economical status. Yet, it is equally tormenting to feel that, since this is the case, even the reader himself might feel that "he or she might be next". As with Poe's Gothic writing style, the allegorical nature of the story is to connect and feel with every sense, to attain a feeling of fear,...

There are several themes in "The Masque of the Red Death". The central...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:20:13 PST

There are several themes in "The Masque of the Red Death". The central theme is that no man escapes death. The other central theme is that time passes no matter what one might attempt to do thereby causing death to come no matter what. The other theme is madness or insanity. It is insane to have a ball in the middle of the plague ravaged country. Prince Prospero may be the narrator of the story, and as such may also be the madman. Poe is the...

There are several possible themes for this story, depending on which...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:00:21 PST

There are several possible themes for this story, depending on which aspect you choose to emphasize. The most obvious would probably be "Death is inevitable; you can't escape, no matter how wealthy or powerful you are." We see this with Prince Prospero and his partygoers, of course. His desperate attempt to cheat Death, and his willingness to revel in celebration while others are dying, ends with his own submission to the Red Death. Thus, he...

What is the theme of The Masque of the Red Death?

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:49 PST

What is the theme of The Masque of the Red Death?

joj0234, Prince Prospero does not create any rooms. They exist in the...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:05:18 PST

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....

Why does Prince Prospero create a black room with red windows if it...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:47:49 PST

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

jodiezorn234, An allegorical story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:39:41 PST

jodiezorn234, An allegorical story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe seems to play on the theme of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”—a state of mind developed in Europe during the Middle Ages when the Black Plague decimated the population and no one could predict who might be the next to go. In Poe’s era, the epidemic was tuberculosis—an illness characterized by lesions on the lungs that led to...

What is Princer Prospero's character type in The Masque of the Red Death?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:19:59 PST

What is Princer Prospero's character type in The Masque of the Red Death?

Prince Prospero's kingdom had been swept with the Red Death, a terrible...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:37:14 PST

Prince Prospero's kingdom had been swept with the Red Death, a terrible disease that struck without warning and killed its victims within thirty minutes: There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The Red Death left blood upon the bodies of the dead, especially upon their faces. To escape this pestilence, the Prince gathered 1,000 of his friends in his castle and sealed it to the...

In "The Masque of the Red Death," what happens to the Prince and the...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:58:49 PST

In "The Masque of the Red Death," what happens to the Prince and the revellers?

Perhaps it is as simple as this: the wealthy attempted to escape the...

Fri, 29 May 2009 08:47:13 PST

Perhaps it is as simple as this: the wealthy attempted to escape the plague and illness resulting in the deaths of so many commoners by walling themselves away and "partying" while others died. The realization that Death does not discriminate and will equally attack the wealthy as he does the poor is a shocking, but leveling judgment. What if Poe wanted to knock the wealthy down a peg or two? It reminds me of the carvings in the...

And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the...

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:07:49 PST

And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. That quote from Poe's "the Masque of the Red Death" parallels John Donne's Mediation in which the bell tolling indicated death, and Hemingway's "For Whom the Belll Tolls." But in this case it is taken a step further in that the clock stopped tolling in which all existence perished. It doesn't become more finite than that.

Poe sought to inspire both horror and irony with his ending of this...

Thu, 28 May 2009 14:35:02 PST

Poe sought to inspire both horror and irony with his ending of this story. Horror at the sheer numbers of dead, the image of diseased bodies all strewn about the castle, and the final death of the prince who sought to escape from reality. The irony is that by locking himself and his favorites away from the carnage outside of his castle, Prince Prospero doomed all inside to suffer the same fate as those who were excluded. Death is indeed the...

This story is different from many others by Poe in that the initial...

Thu, 28 May 2009 06:22:35 PST

This story is different from many others by Poe in that the initial feeling one gets is of awe and wonder. It is true that Poe was ultimately after the "single effect" thing, but in this story there is an underlying sense of poetic justice, which is not present in his other stories (at least the ones I've read). The Prince and his guests thought themselves over and above the plight of other people throughout the country and their...

This question asks us to look both at Poe and the story, "The Masque of...

Wed, 27 May 2009 19:45:09 PST

This question asks us to look both at Poe and the story, "The Masque of the Red Death". It is no secret that Poe, at the very least, had a fixation on death-largely due to his own life experiences. As his poem "The Conqueror Worm" suggests, death ultimately trumps everything. In "The Masque of the Red Death", prince Prospero dares to celebrate in the face of death because he believes he can escape it. When Death appears in the...

There is no doubt that Edgar Allan Poe wanted to inspire a feeling of...

Wed, 27 May 2009 19:40:57 PST

There is no doubt that Edgar Allan Poe wanted to inspire a feeling of horror in his readers by the end of "The Masque of the Red Death." Poe was a great believer in the concept of "single effect" which means that Poe believed that every character, detail, and incident in a story should contribute to this one singular feeling. I believe Poe's exact words on the matter are as follows: In the whole composition there should be no word...

What feeling do you think Poe wanted readers to have at the end of the...

Wed, 27 May 2009 19:16:42 PST

What feeling do you think Poe wanted readers to have at the end of the story called "The Masque of the Red Death"? Give reasons for your opinion.