Essay/Term paper: Masque of the red death

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Composition

In "The Masque of the Red Death", Poe leads one event into

another often. He uses much symbolism, and in the paragraphs below, I will

show you it. In the first couple of paragraphs however, I will summarize

the plot and state the theme.

In this plot, Poe begins by talking about the Red Death, basically setting

the stage for later events in the story. Then, he talks about Prince

Prospero, which tells the reader that Prospero and the Red Death will have a

conflict later in the story. Next, Poe gives a short summary of the

setting, and also mentions that the "Red Death" was not there. After this,

Poe gives a description of the rooms. The first room had blue ornaments and

windows. Poe then makes each room darker until he gets to the seventh,

which is black. This shows that death is coming to Prospero. Also, in the

seventh room, the windows are blood red, which also shows that the "Red

Death" is coming. Also, the ebony clock keeps on ticking, which is slowly

setting up the conflict, Prince Prospero vs. "The Red Death." Also, the

color of the wood is also symbolic. Ebony is black, so again death is

symbolized. At the end, or conclusion, the clock strikes 12, and "The Red

Death" makes its appearance, and kills Prospero. In the plot, I believe

that the talking about the Red Death and Prospero is the introduction,

because it introduced the two big influences in the story. I also think

that the descriptions of the rooms is the rising action, because it gives

the setting for the conflict. The conflict is Prospero trying to avoid the

Red Death, which is man vs. nature.



The falling action in the story is when Prospero is caught by the Red Death,

and the conclusion is that he is dead.

The theme of the story is that you cannot escape death no matter how hard

you try. In the story, Prospero tried to escape it, and look what happened.

In other words, don't try to run away from death, you're only delaying the

inevitable.

In the story, the irony was that the man's name was Prince Prospero. His

last name sounds like "prosperous," which means to achieve success. The

fact that Prospero dies shows that he is not prosperous as his name

suggests; he is in fact unlucky.