Study Notes: Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe

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Reading Notes – Masque of the Red Death

by Edgar Allen Poe

In an imaginary country a disease called the Red Death is

killing thousands of people, but the ruler of the country,

Prince Prospero, is still happy and shuts himself away in a

castle together with a large number of his friends. There they

dance and play as they wait for the Red Death to leave the

country. The Prince has enough food and drink to last for a

long time. After everyone is inside the castle, he seals the

doors shut so that no one can leave, and no one can enter.

Inside the castle a great party takes place. All his guests wear

costumes and masks. Some are funny, some are ugly, and

some are frightening. The apartments where the party takes

place are made up of seven rooms which the Prince Prospero

has decorated especially for this party. These rooms run from

East to West and each is decorated in a different color. Each

has a large window, looking out onto a corridor. The last room, which is black, is illuminated by a red

window. In it there is a large, black clock with a large bell that rings on every hour. When the clock rings,

the music stops and all the guests stop dancing. Most people are afraid to enter this last room.

At midnight people notice a person whose costume is especially horrible. As the story teller describes the

costume, we realize that this guest is dressed as a corpse, dead of plague. This frightens people so much

that the Prince challenges the man, who first comes and stands in front of him, then runs away into the

center of the castle.

The Prince follows the man to the heart of the castle and tries to kill him but falls instantly dead. The

people then grab the man who has killed the Prince, but find nothing but an empty costume. Now, without

characters, how will the story end?

Focus

Who is the character in the red mask? Give reasons for your answer.

Questions

1. How is life outside the abbey different from life inside?

2. How do you explain the effect of the ebony clock‟s chimes on the guests?

3. Why do you think that no one goes into the seventh room?

4. What effect does the man in the red mask have on the other guests?

5. Why does Prince Prospero get so mad?

6. Why did no one stop the masked figure from walking all the way through the seven rooms?|

7. List the colors of the rooms in the order the author has given. Note they are arranged from East to West.

What do you think is the significance of these colors and the arrangement of the rooms?

8. Does this story mean anything to you? Why do you think so many people like this story?

Study Notes: Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe

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Vocabulary

devastated (1): to destroy a large part of

something, to kill a lot of people.

pestilence (2): plague, any of a number of very

contagious diseases that rapidly kill large

numbers of people. Plagues killed millions of

people all over the world throughout the Middle

Ages. In 1665 a plague killed half the population

of London in only a few months.

Avatar (3): A sign; in Hindu religion an avatar

is the form a god takes on earth, as a man. Poe

has capitalized this word, possibly to associate

the plague with the Angel of Death or with some

other supernatural force. In modern English, an

avatar is an image on a computer screen that

represents a person or a player in a networked

computer game.

profuse (5): freely, in great quantities,

abundantly – here he means that blood came out

of the skin and would not stop, turning the

victim bright red.

scarlet (5): a deep red color.

pest-ban (7): pest is another word for plague,

and ban means to prevent something from

happening. The pest-ban means to shut the

victim away to die since anyone coming near

may also get sick and die.

were the incidents of (8): happened within +

period of time.

dauntless (10): without fear.

sagacious (10): wise.

hale and light-hearted (11): healthy and

happy.

knights and dames of his court (12): high

ranking men and women who are the friends of

the prince.

eccentric yet august (14): strange but also

elegant.

lofty (14): high.

girdled it in (15): surrounded it.

courtiers (15): friends of the prince.

welded (16): a process to join two pieces of

metal by melting them together.

means (16): way, method.

ingress nor egress (17): entry or exit.

frenzy (17): panic, pandemonium.

amply provisioned (18): to have enough food

and water for a long time.

bid defiance (18): avoid.

contagion (19): disease.

folly (19): foolishness.

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buffoons (21): clowns.

improvisatori (22): entertainers, actors. This is

an Italian word, as is the name of the prince,

Prospero, which means wealthy or prosperous.

Prospero is a name also used by Shakespeare,

whose plays were often set in Italy, which was,

at that time, a center of wealth and culture in

Europe.

abroad (25): outside the castle.

masked ball (26): a party where everyone

wears an elaborate costume and a face mask.

voluptuous scene (27): if you saw the party

you would be shocked by the excessive luxury

of the place and the sexual decadence of the

people.

masquerade (27): a masked ball. This is a

French word. The spelling of the word masque,

in the title of the story, is also French. The

English spelling is „mask‟.

Gothic window (28): a tall

window, often with a pointed

arch and set with colored or

stained glass making a

picture.

pursued (29): followed.

vividly (32): bright

panes (33): glass

hue (37): color

brazier (40): an iron pot to

hold a fire inside a

building, for heat or light.

glaringly (41): very bright,

too much light. The sun

glares at mid-day.

multitude (42): very

many, too many to count.

gaudy and fantastic appearances (42): the

people looked ugly, strange, inhuman.

ghastly in the extreme (44): very frightening,

horrifying to see.

bold (45): courageous, controlling their fear.

ebony (48): a very hard wood, totally black in

color.

pendulum (48): part of an

old-fashioned clock, it hangs

down from the clock and

swings to the left and right,

using the force of gravity to

help power the mechanical

clock.

to and fro (47): back and forth (literary or

formal word):.

clang (48): a sound a bell makes; loud and

startling and unplesant.

brazen lungs (50): Poe‟s description of a bell.

Brazen means made of brass but it also means to

be bold and offensive to others, to be loud and

obnoxious, not to care what others think. He

describes the

bell as “lungs”

to give them an

almost human

character, since

only humans

speak.

waltzers (53): dancers. A waltz is a highly

formal European dance style popular among the

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upper classes, particularly from the 17th to 19

th

centuries.

ceased their evolutions (53): they stopped

dancing. Waltzers dance in circles; evolution

means to move in a circle.

giddiest (55): happy and carefree.

sedate (55): calm and serious, opposite of

giddy.

reverie (56): thought

pervaded (56): filled

disconcert and tremulousness (61): confusion

and fear

revel (62): party

duke (62): a title for a prince. A duke rules a

duchy, or part of a kingdom. Prince Charles, the

heir to the British throne, is Prince of Wales and

Duke of Cornwall. Wales is a principality while

Cornwall is a Duchy. In the past, a prince or a

duke would rule in the name of the King.

peculiar (63): strange

embellishments (67): the decoration

fete (68): party, a French word.

grotesque (69): extremely ugly and frightening

disgust (73): to feel repelled, to feel sick when

you see something that is very horrible.

stalk (74): to walk slowly and follow

something, as a lion slowly follows a gazelle,

watching and waiting for a chance to strike and

kill.

writhe (74): to slowly twist and turn your body,

as when in great pain.

cessation (78): to cease is to stop.

crept (80): past of „creep‟; to move very slowly

forward.

chime (82): a sound of a bell

disapprobation (85): disapproval; they do not

like this person.

phantasm (87): an illusion, a fantasy,

something that is not real

out-Heroded Herod (89): Poe has made this

word up. Herod the Great was the Jewish ruler

of Jerusalem under the Romans just before the

birth of Jesus, upon whom be peace. Herod was

famous for his excess and for his tyranny. Read

about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

The Bible records that before the birth of Jesus,

news came to him that a boy had been born in

Bethleham who would grow up to be king. In

response to this, Herod ordered his soldiers to

kill all the male infants and young boys of

Bethleham. You can read about these stories

here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_In

nocents

jest (92): a joke

company (93): group of people, assembly

wit (94): intended to amuse, or be funny

propriety (94): to be appropriate, to follow the

rules

gaunt (95): very thin, so thin you can see his

bones

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shrouded (95): completely covered, a shroud

covers the dead before burial

habiliments (95): clothing, this is a French

word.

visage (96): face, this is also a French word.

countenance (97): face

corpse (97): a dead body

scrutiny (97): examination, inspection

cheat (98): deception, ruse, game. This did not

appear to be a costume, it was real.

endured … by (98): They might have tolerated

it, or ignored it.

mummer (99): a person who wears a mask. An

old word for „actor‟.

spectral (102): ghostly, not natural.

brow (100): Forehead

blasphemous (blasphemy) (107): Something

that is offensive to religion.

unmask (107): take off his mask.

hang … from the battlements (108): kill by

hanging from the walls of the castle.

robust (111): powerful and physically strong.

hushed (111): quiet

awe (115): fear

unimpeded (116): without anything to stop him

the prince’s person (117): a literary way of

saying, “within a yard (about 1 meter): of the

prince”: he came right to the prince and stood in

front of him.

impulse (118): movement, motion

shrank (118): moved back

rage (123): uncontrollable anger

bore aloft a drawn dagger

(125): drawn dagger: a

fighting knife taken out of its

covering; bore aloft: to hold

something up high, over

your head (bore is the past of

bear – to carry something): –

(bear, bore, born):.

impetuosity (125): moving with great force and

violence

retreating (126): moving away

having attained the extremity of… (126):

once he reached the farthest end.

confronted (127): to face or to challenge

sharp cry (127): a loud, short scream.

prostate (129): face down, on the ground.

seizing the mummer (131): They all grabbed

and held the masked man after he killed the

prince.

gasp (132): a sound of fear made when

inhaling.

grave-cerements (133): shroud, cloth for

covering the dead

untenanted (134): empty – there was no man

inside the clothes

tangible form (134): something that you can

touch

blood-bedewed (136): Poe has probably made

this word up too. Dew is the water that falls on

the land in early morning as the cool air warms

in the sun. It falls lightly on everything, like a

fine rain; bedewed means covered in dew. Poe

says that blood covered the inside of the castle,

like dew.

despairing (137): without hope

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gay (138): happy

expired (138): a fire goes out or dies. Expire

also means to die.

illimitable (139): without limits

dominion (139): rule, authority

Further study

E-Text and audio of the story: http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/etext/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath.html

(reading is slow and clear).

Eyewitness to History, Black Death of 1348: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm

BBC History, The Black Death: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml