The whole analysis
A short story under analysis is entitled “The Masque
of the Red Death” and written by Edgar Allan Poe. He was an American
author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered as a part of the
American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales
of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American
practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of
the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to
the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first outstanding
American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a
financially difficult life and career. One of E. Poe’s themes is the question
of death. His famous works are: "The Black Cat", "The Masque of
the Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher", “The Pit and
the Pendulum” etc.
"The Masque of the Red
Death" is the story about the plague which is called the "Red
Death" and it kills people. Prince Prospero hides from it in his abbey.
Once he has a masquerade ball and guests notice a mysterious person. That's the
"Red Death". Prince begins to run away but it chases him and he dies.
And all his guests also die.
Speaking about the title of
the story it’s rather catchy and it persuades the reader to continue his
acquaintance with this intriguing story. Moreover, the first title for the
story was “The Mask of the Red Death” that puts the emphasis on the
mask/costume that the Red Death wears to the ball. But the masquerade itself is what makes the
biggest impression in this story.
The basic theme of the story
is devoted to stating the fact that no man or woman can evade the death. And
many of us resort to extreme measures to postpone entering the “seventh room”
as long as possible.
The idea of the story is to
show that all people are created equal but Prospero and his courtiers abandon
the rank and shut the iron gate of their refuge so that no one from the outside
can get in. “The external world could take care of itself” the narrator says,
reporting on Prospero’s attitude of complacency and neglect. “In the meantime
it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances
of pleasure.
The story is
set in Prince Prospero's luxurious "castellated abbey" (which is just
a fancy way of saying it's an abbey built up with the fortifications of a
castle), hidden somewhere in his kingdom.
The story's
main action takes place in an elaborate suite of seven colored rooms within the
abbey, where Prospero holds the masquerade ball. The suite, which Prospero
designed, consists of seven rooms that run in a line from east to west. Roughly
a line, at least – as the narrator tells us, their alignment is actually rather
irregular, so that from any given room you can only see into one other room.
The most
memorable detail of the suite, of course, is that each room has a different
"color theme." The wall hangings, the decorations, and even the
windows of a given room are all one color. The first room in the suite – the
farthest room to the east – is blue, the second is purple, the third is green,
the fourth is orange, the fifth is white, and the sixth is violet.
The seventh
room – the room farthest to the west – is special. It's hung in all black, but
its windows are a deep blood red. There's also a huge, threatening clock in it,
which eerily chimes every hour and makes everyone's hair stand on end. So
between that and the color scheme, you might as well think of the black room as
the Horrifying Room of Death, which it turns out to be anyway.
Now we can all agree that the suite is seriously cool, but why does
Poe make such a big deal out of it? After all, the story's not even five pages,
yet Poe spends at least a quarter of it just describing the
setting. Why? I believe it's because the setting is the most important
thing in the story. But how could that be? Aren't the really important things
in a story the plot and the characters?
Not in this
case. Remember that Poe's main goal in writing was to produce
an effect in his reader. The effect is what matters: everything that
gets put in the story gets put in for the sake of the effect. And it seems to
us like Poe's most important tool for creating his effect in "Masque of
the Red Death" is the setting. It's all about the atmosphere. And the
setting is what you're most likely to remember about this story, isn't it?
So how does the
setting create the effect Poe wants (most basically, fear)?
Firstly, there's the abbey, which is cut off
from the world. Although it's supposedly safe, the people in it are actually
trapped inside. There's something threatening about that sense of confinement.
If anything should happen, there's no way out. And the suite itself is
buried somewhere deep within the bowels of the abbey. So far as we know, it
doesn't have any windows onto the outside world.
Secondly, we're
not just trapped in any castellated abbey; we're trapped in Prince
Prospero's castellated abbey. And Prince Prospero seems to be insane.
Would you want to be locked up with him? Further, everything about the suite
seems to reflect Prince Prospero's madness: the lack of alignment, the
exaggerated color scheme, the creepy lighting effects, that really ghastly
black room. At the very least that's enough to make us uncomfortable and a
little weirded out. At the extreme – the ghoulish black room – it's actively
frightening.
Thirdly, the color scheme of the suite has to mean something. The black room
practically screams death. Shouldn't the other rooms mean something too? The
rooms symbolize "birth and death" – just about the most profound and
weighty thing you could imagine – and here everyone is having a party? A
party by definition is supposed to be fun and frivolous. Something doesn't feel
quite right about that.
Finally,
there's something else about the setting that feels disorienting. In many
respects, it feels more like a dream world – or a product of madness – than
reality. And on that subject, it's worth noticing something else. We have no
idea where Prince Prospero's kingdom is, or when the story is set. Poe gives us
no clues. It's as if Poe wants to keep us from making any ties to the real
world at all.
From the point of view of presentation the text
is the 3rd person narrative. Poe uses this technique
to make the story more objective and free from any personal attitude for
the readers to evaluate the actions and sayings of the personages and come to
their own conclusions. The contextual type of the story under consideration is
the author’s narrative description.
The characters
we meet in Poe’s literary work are the prince Prospero (the protagonist of the
story) and the figure of the Red Death (the antagonist).
Edgar Allen Poe presents a contrary
gallery of the main characters which entices the reader to speculate. What
draws my attention is the fact that I've found a lot of similarities between
Poe and his character Prince Prospero. The Prince is seemed to be a personification
of Poe in this thrilling story. Edgar Allen Poe is known to be rather eccentric
and odd. He had a taste for macabre and bizarre and we run into the princes'
qualities which coincide with the author's ones. Moreover, like Poe the
character is reminiscent of a young man from a wealthy and distinguished
family.
Further looking at the character Prince Prospero, the name comes to mind.
Prospero is suggestive of the word prosper, which means to do well, or be
wealthy; it implies good fortune.
And we see that it's really the truth.
He invites citizens "from among the knights and dames of his court"
to be with him in his queer castle. His intent is to evade the death Red Death and
to prevent not even himself but also his guests. But despite being so wealthy,
noble and respected, he still dies.
Another powerful character is, without doubt, The Red Death which
appears at a masquerade ball: "tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head
to foot in the habilements of the grave" strolls through the castle.
"His vesture was dabbed in blood and his broad brow, with all the face,
was besprinkled with the scarlet horrow". "The Red Death had
long devasteted the country". Many interpret the story as an allegory of
life, because all in all it leads to the so called logical end - to the death.
I can't but mention the nameless Prospero's guests. We just know that
they are of noble blood and that peasants are locked out, however they also
die.
Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients:
introduction, exposition, development of the events, climax, denouement, and
conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice
which E. Poe also does.
Introduction
It's the Red Death! To the castellated abbey, quick!
The
story's set up in the first two paragraphs. First, we meet the Red Death, the
horrible, hideous, loathsome disease that's ravaging the countryside. Then we
meet Prince Prospero, whose countryside and peasant folk it is that are being
ravaged. Prince Prospero has retreated to his castellated abbey and shut
himself in with his friends. We're now ready to move on to the main action of
the story. But why do we get the feeling that the Red Death and Prince Prospero
are going to meet up at some point?
Exposition
Prospero throws a masquerade ball
It's
a ball, and what a ball it is! Prospero's decision to throw a masquerade ball
is what kicks off the action of the story, and tension builds as we learn the
details of the party. Every weird little thing we learn about – the strange
layout of the suite, the ghastly look of the black room, the giant clock that
ominously tolls the hour and makes everyone laugh nervously. Then Poe's
descriptions of the wild "dancing dreams" (the partiers) add a sense
of frantic frenzy. Something's got to happen…
Development of the events
He's besprinkled with the scarlet horror!
A creepy new guest mysteriously shows up in a Red Death costume and
starts stalking around. At midnight, no less. At this point, you can cut the
tension with a knife. Everybody's scared, but it's uncertain as to what will
happen. Prospero orders the guest arrested but nobody dares to take a step,
including Prospero himself. The guest makes his way ominously to the black
room…
Climax
Prince Prospero faces death…and dies.
Prospero's charge after the "spectral figure" brings the story
to its highest moment of tension: the moment of epic confrontation, when the
Red Death turns around to face Prospero. It doesn't last long, since Prospero
falls down and dies immediately. Now we're rushing towards the end of the story,
and things do not look
good.
Denouement
Why do these halls suddenly look so blood-bedewed?
Of course we know what happens now: everybody dies. And gets their blood
all over Prospero's beautiful fabrics. The revelers die, the clock dies, the
candles die, and the party's over. And so is the story.
Conclusion
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion
over all"
Need we say more?
In order to portray characters and also to
describe the setting and the main idea of the story, E.A. Poe uses a great
variety of lexical, syntactical, phonetic and graphic expressive means and
stylistic devises. All of them highlight a horrible and at the same time a
tragic atmosphere which is described in the story.
Among lexical expressive means we
can see:
-
Epithets (scarlet horror, august taste,
deep seclusion, voluptuous scene, delirious fancies, gaudy, fantastic appearance, madman fashion) which
are used to characterize the situation in the country and the gorgeous abbey);
-
Metaphors ( the masquerade license of the night, the brazen lungs of the
clock, the impulse of despair, the redness and the horror of the blood) shows
the atmosphere of terror in the story;
-
Similes (the Red Death had come like a thief in the night, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more
aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or
meditation, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians
looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly) describes the image of the Red Death and
the inner world of the secondary characters;
-
cases of personification (And the life of the ebony clock went out
with that of the last of the gay – suggests that the clock was beating like a
heart; once the last reveler died, it had no more reason to live; the
pestilence raged most furiously abroad – personifying the pestilence as an
angry person makes it seem like it is
full of hatred; the courtiers… bid defiance to contagion. The external world
could take care of itself – shows how the wealthy have no feelings towards the
poor and suffering); some examples of personification such as “Time”, “Beauty”,
“Darkness”, “Decay”, “Death” have a symbolic meaning and catch reader’s
attention;
-
periphrasis (the creation of the prince’s own eccentric, yet august taste) is aimed
at revealing the beauty of the castle.
As for the syntactic
expressive means and stylistic devices there cases of
repetition, enumeration and asyndeton in the sentence: “There were
buffoons, there were improvisatori, there ballet-dancers, there were ballet-dancers, there were
musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine” which stress the image of the
castle.
We can see here
numerous cases of irony:
The Prince builds a castle to thwart the Red Death. He
surrounds the castle with a "lofty wall" and with "gates of
iron." The guests "brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the
bolts. They resolved to leave no means of ingress no regress to the sudden
despair or of frenzy within." The fortressed castle fails to keep Death
out and ironically keeps the guests imprisoned after the Red Death's arrival.
The Prince's purpose is to let his guests forget about
death, yet the construction of his Imperial suite, with its "sharp
turns" and "novel effects" do little to comfort them. In
addition, "the seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet
tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the wall...The panes here
were scarlet - a deep color." That
seems a strange way to help guests forget about death, but not as strange as
the ebony clock that rings ominously each hour, causing all to cease their
merry revels.
Elsewhere, Poe also uses effectively phonetic device
alliteration, as in this clause: “His broad brow, with all the features of
the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (broad, brow, besprinkled).
A combination of these expressive means and stylistic
devices makes the author’s style highly original and easily recognizable.
From beginning to end, the tone of “The Masque of the
Red Death” is grave and serious. It’s ominous: you never quite escape the sense
of a looming threat. And it’s dark. Poe sets the tone right away – just at the
opening lines: “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.”
The language of the story is stylistically colored.
There are a lot of literary (high-flown) words such as: pestilence,
dissolution, dauntless, sagacious, dominions, summon, courtiers, lofty,
resolve, voluptuous etc. They create an official effect which confirm the grand
atmosphere of the story.
Taking everything into account, I’d like to underline
that E. Poe is a master of short stories who mixes different stylistic devices
and expressive means to satisfy the reader’s taste. As for me, I’m really
impressed, the story came up to my expectations. I appreciate Poe’s work
because I treasure wonderful books and poems.
Poe’s stories – even his humorous tales and detective
stories are populated by amnesiacs and obsessives, by people doomed to remember
what they desire only to forget, and are told by madmen and liars and lovers
and ghosts. And still, and still, “There is no exquisite beauty”, as Poe
reminds us, in Ligeia, “without some strangeness in the proportion…” His works
are worth reading!
