Comparison Of Masque Of The Red Death And Hop-Frog

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The two stories, The Masque of the Red Death, and Hop-Frog were written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1842 and 1849 respectively. The movie adaptation of these two stories was directed by Roger Corman and released in 1964. The film chose a radical approach, mostly because of the added characters, new details, and a different storyline. First of, the characters of Francesca, Gino, Lodovico and Juliana were completely fabricated on not at all based on any character from either story. The only main characters in Masque were Prince Prospero, and in Hop-Frog, it was the jokester king, Hop-Frog, and the dancer. Prince Prospero and the prankster king were molded together for the film, however, he is mostly Prince Prospero, and he even has the same name. …show more content…

Prince Prospero and Juliana were devil worshippers in the film. It made a HUGE difference in the storyline. Juliana was ‘married’ to Satan, and Prince Prospero kidnapped Francesca in the hopes of converting her into a satanist as well. The main plot of the Masque of the Red Death story was Prospero trying to avoid the Red Death and failing, and Hop-Frog was about vengeance. The film was all over the place, with the Prospero’s and Juliana’s satanist lifestyle, Francesca’s attempts to save her father and lover, and the Red Death bidding his time until he can take Prospero. Then there was Hop-Frog’s subplot, but it almost seemed useless in the continuance of the story. Also, in the Masque story, the red death was only mentioned as a human figure at the end, when Poe described him as “tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse. His vesture was dabbled in blood — and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (Poe 3). In the film, the figure of the Red Death was prevalent in the entire story, and it changed the feeling of the sudden appearance of him at the