1. Gothic Romanticism, Poe, and “The Masque of the Red Death”

2. Poe and Gothic Romanticism: Allegory
Objective: students will read “The Masque of the Red Death” in order to compare to other romantics and examine for allegory.
Warm-up: Define allegory. Copy the following chart to fill out.

3. Allegory Person, Object or Event Possible Meaning
Possible Lesson of Story
The prince
The abbey
The series of seven rooms
The clock
The stranger

4. The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe

5. Edgar Allan Poe

6. His Family and Tragic Life
Born in Boston
The son of traveling actors
Lived a tragic and unhappy life

7. . . . continued Studied briefly at the University of Virginia
Drinking and gambling difficulties kept him from continuing at UVA
University of Virginia, 1856

8. . . .continued
Received an appointment to West Point, but provoked his own dismissal
Caused a final separation between himself and step-father
West Point Crest

9. . . .continued In 1836 married his 14 year old cousin, Virginia
Last 12 years of life worked as journalist, editor, and creative writer
Virginia Clemm

10. . . . continued Lived in poverty stricken conditions most of his life
In 1846 wife died after a long illness
Poe’s home during the 1840’s

11. Addiction All evidence suggests that Poe was an alcoholic.
Poe also habitually used drugs such as morphine, opium, and laudanum to treat depression and other health conditions.
Poe had a weakened nervous system due to a brain lesion and a heart condition.
Laudanum, a highly addictive, opium based medicine, was commonly used to treat headaches and stomach pains in 1800’s.

12. . . . continued Died in Baltimore after having been found in a stupor
Died a poor, broken man

13. Poe’s Work Known for: Tales of mystery and terror stories
Introducing the modern detective story

14. Just a Few Titles Short Stories: Poems: The Tell-Tale Heart The Raven
The Cask of Amontillado
The Black Cat,
The Pit and The Pendulum
Poems:
The Raven
Annabel Lee
To Helen
Lenore

15. “The Masque
of the Red Death”

16. The Setting
is an abbey, or monastery, converted by the rich Prince Prospero into a private palace and banquet hall.
The time is the Middle Ages

17. The Setting: An abbey

18. The Plague
is usually associated with the worst contagion to hit Europe before the 20th century—
the Black Death
— which, in the mid-14th century, killed about one-third of the human population.

19. The Plague

20. The Plague
came from a bacterium now
named Yersinia pestis
that normally lived in the bloodstreams of fleas, which, in turn, lived on rats.

21. The Plague
infected the lymph nodes, causing
black swellings,
called buboes.
From this
symptom came
the disease’s
common names: Black Death, Bubonic Plague.

22. Poe’s version of this illness
— the “Red Death” — does not strictly correspond to bubonic plague. He combines it with tuberculosis, which killed several family members,
and plays up the
bloodiness of the disease.
For dramatic
effect, he also shortens the infection’s time span, from years (tuberculosis) or days (bubonic plague) to minutes (Red Death).

23. The Plague : Poe’s version
“… The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.”
From “The Masque of the Red Death”

24. killed millions,
The Plague

25. The Plan
Before the Red Death arrived, Prospero
planned to be elsewhere — specifically, in his converted abbey, with all that extra room.

26. The Plan
”a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court.”

27. The Plan ... then the doors could be welded shut,
and the abbey could become
a fortress …

28. The Masquerade So the guests prepared their costumes ...
“There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm …
So the guests prepared their costumes ...

29. “… There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, …”
The Masquerade
“… There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, …”

30. The Masquerade
... and the ball began. And it was a success — up to a point, anyway —

31. Literary Term: Allusion
Reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event
Best sources are literature, history, Greek mythology, and the Bible
Serves to explain or clarify or enhance whatever subject

32. Literary Term: Gothic Elements
Supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the action
High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror
Use of words indicating fear, mystery: apparition, devil, ghost, haunted, terror, fright, fainting

33. Literary Term: Symbol
Something that is itself and yet also represents something else
Universal symbols embodying universally recognizable meanings
Invested symbols give symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work
Symbols are very common in Poe’s work, and in Gothic Romanticism.

34. Allegory: A Story Behind a Story
An allegory is a narrative that is really a double story. One story takes place on the surface. Under the surface the story’s characters and events represent abstract ideas or states of being, things like love or freedom, evil or goodness, hell or heaven.
To work, an allegory must operate on two levels. On the level of pure storytelling, an allegory must hold our attention. Its characters must seem believable and interesting enough for us to care about them. On the allegorical level the ideas in the story must be accessible to us. As you read, you should find that the allegorical level of the story gradually begins to strike you.
See if you find that Poe’s story of arrogance and death hooks you on both levels.

35. The Masque of the Red Death: Background
Poe’s fictional Red Death is probably based on the Black Death, which swept fourteenth-century Europe and Asia, killing as many as two thirds of the population in some regions in less than twenty years. Poe calls the plague “the Red Death” because victims oozed blood from painful sores. In this story a fourteenth-century prince gives a costume party, or masque, to try to forget about the epidemic raging all around him.

36. The Black Death
This particular type of plague was the bubonic plague, which is caused by a bacteria that lived in rats and other rodents. Human beings were infected through bites from the fleas that lived on these rats. The symptoms associated with plague are bubos, which are painful swellings of the lymph nodes. These typically appear in the armpits, legs, neck, or groin. If left untreated, plague victims die within two to four days. Victims of this disease suffered swelling in the armpit and groin, as well as bleeding in the lungs. Victims also suffered a very high fever, delirium, and prostration.

37. Summary
Poe’s tale of an eccentric nobleman and the Red Death ravaging his land can be read both as a chilling ghost story and as an allegory representing human folly and the inevitability of death. (In other words, you cannot hide from death regardless how much money you have.)

38. Comprehension Check
Why does Prince Prospero close himself and his courtiers off in the abbey?
Why does the masked figure’s presence cause such a sensation?
What happens to the prince and the revellers?

39. Summary
Prince Prospero invites a thousand lords and ladies to escape death by living luxuriously in his castle until the pestilence passes.
To entertain his guests Prospero hosts a masquerade party that takes place in seven halls, each a different color.

40. Summary
At the stroke of midnight, a tall figure in a blood-splattered burial costume appears.
Prospero demands that his friends seize the intruder, but everyone is frozen with fear as the stranger slowly walks through the rooms.
Finally, Prospero rushes after him into the black seventh room.

41. Summary When the intruder turns, the host falls dead.
The revelers then grab the stranger but find the costume empty.
All soon die of the Red Death.

42. Comments
“No matter how beautiful the castle, how luxuriant the clothing, or how rich the food, no mortal, not even a prince, can escape death. ”

43. Symbolism
What symbols do you see in this story?

44. The Seven Rooms Blue- East, windows the same color
Purple- windows the same color
Green- windows the same color
Orange- windows the same color
White- windows the same color
Violet- windows the same color
Black- West, blood-red windows

45. Other Symbols & Meanings
The Ebony Clock
The Masquerade Ball
wearing masks, anonymous… could represent everyone
Plague (The Red Death)
The Uninvited Guest

46. The Seven Rooms: What do they symbolize?
Where does the sun rise/set?
East & West
Which color symbolizes death?
Black
A day can represent a person’s life…
Sunrise is birth
Sunset(or night) is death

47. The Ebony Clock: What does it mean?
Time… running out?
Mortality – time running out eventually ending in death
Tempus Fugit!

48. The Uninvited Guest?
A representation of death (specifically The Red Death) that comes to kill Prince Prospero and the rest of the nobles.

49. Theme?
No one, no matter how rich or powerful, can escape the slow march of time…and ultimately death.