The Masque of the Red Death

This story is by Edgar Allan Poe: The Masque of the Red Death

The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and one thousand other nobles are hiding in a walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague that has been sweeping the land. The symptoms of the Red Death are awful: the victim is swept by conclusive agony and sweats blood instead of water. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. Prospero and his court are presented as being indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large, intending to await the ending of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure abbey.

One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ballto entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey. Six of the rooms are each decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a blood-red light and velvet curtains; because of this chilling pair of colors, few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room. Also there is a old clock that when chimes every one goes quite, and stops what they are doing. Late into the night, Prospero notices one figure in a blood-spattered, dark robe resembling a funeral shroud, with a skull-like mask depicting a victim of the Red Death, which all at the ball have been desperate to escape. Gravely insulted, Prospero demands to know the identity of the mysterious guest so that they can hang him, and when no-one obeys, pursues him with a drawn dagger through the seven rooms until the mysterious figure is cornered in the seventh room, the black room where the windows are tinted scarlet. When the figure turns to face him, the Prince falls dead at a glance. Enraged, the revelers surge into the black room and remove the mask, only to find both it and the costume empty. To the horror of all, the figure reveals itself as the personification of the Red Death itself, and all the guests suddenly contract and succumb to the disease. The final line of the story ends with: "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

Themes:

Security

Death

Tragedy

Suspense

Fearfulness

Symbols:

The Black room

The Red Death (first image of grim reaper?)

The Abbey

Setting:

The abbey

The Green room

The Blue room

The Orange room

The White room

The Violet

The Black room

The Purple room ( I don’t see much of a difference between the purple and violet)

Most likely on the exam the order of the rooms:

The most eastern room was Blue: it was a vividly blue near the windows

The second chamber was Purple: It had purple tapestries, ornaments, and panes

The third room was Green: Everything was green even the casements

The fourth room was furnished with a light orange

The fifth room was a white colour.

The sixth room was violet

The last and seventh room was Black: It was shrouded in velvet tapestries. Only in this did the carpets not correspond with the windows. The windows were scarlet in a deep red blood colour. In this room there was the old clock that made every one silent.