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Examples Of Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

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The world around you is suffering, but you decide to throw a party. A short story, “Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe delivers a horrific yet familiar story. The Red Death is plaguing the world and killing many. Prince Prospero believes that the plague could and will not reach him if he barricades the doors of his castle. The prince then throws a masquerade with thousands of wealthy people. At first the party is wonderful, then it takes a turn when a mysterious stranger appears. This unwanted stranger is the beginning of the end. To enhance his allegory of The Black Plague in “Masque of the Red Death,” Poe expresses the thought life can often be blinded by your lack of reality through his portrayal of Prince Prospero, Building Alignment/Layout of Rooms, and the Clock. …show more content…

Prince Prospero is the owner of the castle and the one that started the party. Prince Prospero is very blind with the outside world. He doesn’t believe that the “Red Death” could reach him. The author writes, “Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence” (Poe 83). The story shows that Prince Prospero can’t face the reality that he can’t hide from the sickness. He is arrogant because he doesn’t try to keep people away to stay away from the sickness, instead he throws a party that is very inappropriate for the reality in the world. The author writes this to show how it was during the “Black Plague.” Poe writes Prince Prospero this way because some arrogant people didn’t take it seriously enough. Prince Prospero was arrogant and blinded by his lack of the real world which ended up being his

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683 Words | 3 Pages

The entire reason for this party was to defend the king and all those close to him from it, but there is no escaping the disease. The text states, “His vesture-was dabbed in blood-and his brow, with all the features with all the feature of a face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” Poe, 425). The Red Death was a “walking corpse” looking figure that appeared out of nowhere during the course of the party; and how instantly makes his way toward the block room. All those who attended the shindig secretly feared the moving figure as it made its way to the room. The king did not stand for this so he planned to kill the figure, but yet the figure killed him.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the terror spreading throughout the guests of the party helps it seem as if the Red Death was slowly forcing itself into the masquerade. The masked figure within the story is described as “…unutterable horror” (Poe, 452). The vivid descriptions within the story produce anxiety and cause unease for the guests, adding to the underlying fear of the current red death pandemic. A quote that builds a lot of suspense is “…turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer” (Poe, 452). This chase forces the guests to freeze because a confrontation is about to happen.

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351 Words | 2 Pages

In "The Masque of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe, Prince Prospero's evolution from fear to bravery in his encounter with the Red Death, Poe captures Prospero's transition from initial fear to bravery or impulse, through irony, visual imagery, and foreshadowing. Initially, Prospero believes himself and his followers to be above the reach of the Red Death, he retreats into his abbey, fortifying its walls and hosting a masquerade ball as if he can run from the Red Death. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” This is ironic because the guests, who believe they can escape death by hiding in the abbey, ultimately meet their demise within its walls during what was supposed to be a festive event.

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713 Words | 3 Pages

Though Poe took the short story in an entirely different sort of direction, some speculate that he got the idea from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Not only did he name the prince “Prospero” like the main character in “The Tempest,” but he also devised the plague from it. In “The Tempest,” the antagonist, Caliban, screams out, demanding the “red plague” kill Prospero. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe refers to it differently, initially saying that the part was “without the ’Red Death,’” (Poe 15).

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706 Words | 3 Pages

This story of death works out, because Edgar Allen Poe gives good use to author’s craft. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, symbolism, and setting to create an effective story. In the “Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses description to give imagery.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

That's why he was so nervous for the guilt took over him,which exposed him to the cops. The same fear is present is in Masque of Red Death. In Masque of Red Death Edgar writes,” All these and security were within. Without the Red Death “(57).Prince Prospero has been running away from death,and he has tried to hide and escape from hiding in his castle to running away from the red death in the end. Prince Prospero was a tyrant ,for he was letting his people die well his was hiding in his castle.

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1443 Words | 6 Pages

Humans attempt to delay the feared end of life through extremities such as seclusion, distraction, and denial. The Masque of the Red Death showcases the idea that seclusion is used to further push away the end. On the outside, Prince Prospero is the embodiment of fearlessness. With the Red Death at the edges of his shadow, he gives in to his conflicting terror. The prince does his best to avoid the issue of the

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1174 Words | 5 Pages

Everyone dies eventually, even the most famous or rich person will die someday. In the short story, “Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe, the main character Prince Prospero thinks that he can escape the mass spread of the ‘Red Death’, a deadly disease that has spread throughout the kingdom. He throws a party in his magnificent castle and invites all of his friends to hide from the ‘Red Dealth’. The allegory of the story is the mass spread of sickness and shows the problems that Prince Prospero is running from and thinks he can escape because he is wealthy. In this short story, Poe shows the theme that dealth is inevitable and cannot be avoided by portraying Prince Prospero, the Castle, and the Clock.

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914 Words | 4 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe once said, “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.” Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poems, including “The Mask of the Red Death”, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”, are very similar in the way that they have no physical descriptions, dark and deep plots and themes, and they all have similar settings. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prince Prospero invites his family and friends to his castle to escape the red death. When the clock strikes midnight a ghostly figure appears.

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495 Words | 2 Pages

To explain, Zapf writes, “In a parodistic reversal of the Biblical Act of Creation, the seven differently colored rooms, which are arranged from East to West, and in which the masque takes place, are composed in the form of a symbolic teleology of human life which leads from the color blue to the color black, from light to darkness, from creation to destruction.” Zapf realizes that the order and rooms represent human life itself. From rooms blue to black, light to dark, creation to death; this is the course of human life and the outcome of the people at the party. From carefree partiers to dead in the night, the perpetual tick of the clock to the stroke of the hour, rooms light to dark, blue to black, creation to death— each of these things are different yet one in the same. Poe puts the clock and the seven chambers in the story to disseminate piece by piece the overall purpose and theme.

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195 Words | 1 Pages

In everyday lives lots of good and bad things happen, that cannot be avoided no matter what because there meant to happen. Some examples might be car accidents, falling, winning lotteries or doing good on an exam. In the story called “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe shows how the Red Death is just inevitable to happen no matter what. Edgar expresses this by making the setting the story in a gothic tone and dreadful to portray red death.

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1394 Words | 6 Pages

The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6).

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1720 Words | 7 Pages

But one of Poe’s stories, The Masque of the Red Death (1842), relies heavily on themes of death, pestilence, human nature, and religion. Through these themes and symbolism, Poe explores the darker side of humanity and the meaning behind life. “The Masque of the Red Death” is a story about Prince Prospero and his kingdom that

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814 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story “ Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, this story is about a young arrogant prince who is determined to throw a gay masquerade ball in order to avoid the plague as much as possible. ShowingTo show his arrogance, Prosper invited only his royal courtiers from within the castle, and strode through his vibrant and decorated monastery in an attempt to evade the Red Death. During this terrible period, plague was second only to smallpox in terms of outbreak fatalities. Through the psychoanalytic critical lens, the audience will determine the understanding of his arrogance and impatient pride that is displayed through him tussling with death learning that you cannot change the inevitable. The easy sighted topic of this

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918 Words | 4 Pages

The entire short story can be envisioned as a scary dream. Poe sets the tone of the story in the very beginning, stating, “The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood,” (Poe 3). This sets an emphatically dark and horrific tone for the reader, which carries into the plot of the story.

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