THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

EDGAR ALLAN POE

SANTIAGO LOPEZ
TENTH GRADE

WHEN THE STORY WAS WRITED?

RTA: The Mask of the Red Death is a tale of gothic and horror literature by
American writer Edgar Allan Poe first published in May 1842 in Graham's
Magazine, which was a nineteenth-century American magazine based in the
city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

WHAT HAPPENED INTO THE STORY?

RTA:
Before telling the summary of the story, it is to know who the characters in the
story are:
Prince Prospero
Prince Prospero has a bold yet bizarre personality. He believes that he has the
power to escape death. His wealth allows him to wield power and do as he
please, which is why he hosts a party and attempts to lock out the Red Death.
The Red Death
The Red Death is death personified. He is not deterred by the walls meant to
save Prince Prospero and his guests. He wears clothing from the grave
spattered in blood. He shows up to the masquerade ball at midnight, slowly
building suspense with his lurking figure waiting to bring death to the
partygoers.
Summary of the story:
In the kingdom of the Prosperous Prince, a disease, the Red Death, brutally
kills all who contract it. As he continues his course throughout his kingdom,
Prospero decides to escape his grasp by inviting all the nobles to his castle and
welding the gates so that everyone can await the plague in his lavishly
decorated castle.
One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball. Decorate seven rooms, each
with a different color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, purple, and black.
All rooms are superbly ostentatious, with matching stained-glass windows,
except for the last black room which has red stained glass. This room is so
annoying that no one enters the room. Even more mysterious is a large ebony
clock that chimes hourly, stopping the revelers' exaltation with its foreboding
strike.
As the party progresses and the clock is about to strike midnight, an enigmatic
guest appears dressed as a plague victim. Deeply disturbed by a guest's poor
judgment, Prospero becomes involved with the visitor, eventually chasing him
with a dagger through the seven colored rooms. When he reaches the figure in
the final room, Prospero falls dead. The other guests subdue the intruder and
forcibly remove the mask, finding, to their horror, that there is no one under
the costume. They also die.

3. WHAT IS THE COMPARATION ACTUALITY WITH THE

STORY?
RTA: There are many similarities between them. First, by examining what
produces the fear of death in both situations, we can affirm that it arises
clearly from the He feared tuberculosis and Covid-19 diseases, due to their
high death rate. As a consequence of this mortality rate, both the characters of
the story and the citizens of the The current pandemic experiences a lockdown
to avoid contact with other people. The uncertainty that evokes the imminence
of death produces a distortion of time that causes feelings of stress in
witnesses of a pandemic, both in Poe's story and during the Covid-19
pandemic. This time the distortion leads to an increase in tension and also, in
the case of the current pandemic, to mental illnesses such as depression or
anxiety.
As a result of fear, citizens also tend to act similarly even if the situation or
illness is different. Both in the work of fiction and in our reality, attitudes such
as selfishness, need, carelessness and anger are present. Starting with
selfishness, we have seen such similarities as high-risk events without
preventive measures in the hands of people of the highest classes, masquerade
being the most representative. Foolishness and carelessness are also related to
these situations, as people who organize large events contribute to the spread
of the virus, showing their irresponsibility.
Finally, anger is presented through the figure of Prospero in the history and
today it is also visible in those citizens who vent their anger with politicians or
by denying the existence of Covid. Neither of you can accept the reality of the
situation. That is it Furthermore, all the aforementioned attitudes are caused,
again, for the fear of death.

4. WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND OR HISTORICAL EVENTS OF

THE HISTORY?
RTA:
* Around 1350, Europe was struck by an epidemic of bubonic plague (Black
death) that killed more than a quarter of its preposition.
* The plague killed its victims quickly within three to five days- and there was
no core.
* Artwork from that time is full of haunting symbols like the Dance of death,
where Death, personified as a skeleton, whirls anonymously figures to their
graves.
* These grisly allegorical images spoke to the deepest fears of their audience,
for whom death was a nearby presence.
* Poe’s vision of the plague may also have been affected by the frequent
outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera that afflicted American cities in the
early 1900s.
* In 1832, while Poe was living in Baltimore, a cholera epidemic killed 853
residents of that city.
* Cholera is a bacterial disease spread through contaminated.
5. Give your point of view about the story.
RTA:
From my point of view, the tale of the red death mask shows a narrator telling
the story seemingly in third person, who is the Red Death himself, even
addressing the readers directly, which means he already knows which is what
will happen in the final events. This means that it is omniscient. The elements
of horror, the grotesque and sinister are also highlighted, which are called
characteristic expressions that the author put into the work.
This is due to the trauma he had in his childhood, having to endure the death
of his parents at a very young age, his addiction to alcohol and other harmful
substances, and the premature death of his wife. However, all these traumas
are expressed in some symbolic way in this work and the fact that despite the
prince’s attempts to escape it (from the red death), they reflect Poe's thoughts
and feelings, who suffered from depression and had suicidal thoughts. He saw
life in a sad and dark way. The end of this work represents how everything
bad and sad predominated in Edgar's life, from the moment he was born until
the day he died, his life was dominated by despair, loneliness, and death.

6. Explain the author's biography.

RTA:
Edgar Allan Poe was the son of Elizabeth Arlold Poe and David Poe, itinerant
theater actors, who orphaned him at the age of two. He was educated by John
Allan, a wealthy Richmond businessman, and from 1815 to 1820 he lived with
him and his wife in the United Kingdom, where he began his education.
The Allans took in the boy, but never formally adopted him although they
gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe".
After returning to the United States, Edgar Allan Poe continued to study in
private schools and attended the University of Virginia, but in 1827 his
fondness for gambling and drinking led to his expulsion. Shortly thereafter, he
left the clerk position assigned to him by his adoptive father, and traveled to
Boston, where he anonymously published his first book, Tamerlane, and Other
Poems.
He then enlisted in the army, where he remained for two years. In 1829 his
second book of poems appeared, Al Aaraf, and he obtained, under the
influence of his adoptive father, a position at the West Point Military
Academy, from which a few months later he was expelled for negligence in
the line of duty.
Misery and hunger accompanied him, for economic reasons he soon directed
his efforts to prose, writing stories and some literary criticism for newspapers
of the time; He became notorious for his caustic and elegant style. Due to his
work, he lived in various cities: Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
In Baltimore, in 1835, he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, who was only
13 years old. In January 1845, he published a poem that would make him
famous: "The Raven." his wife died of tuberculosis two years later. Still sunk
in desolation, the author finished, in 1849, the poem "Eureka". With Virginia's
death, Poe was devastated, his life took a nosedive.
He died at just forty years of age, on October 7, 1849, in the city of Baltimore.
The exact reason for his death is not known, it was never clarified. It is
attributed to various causes such as alcohol, drugs, heart failure, rage, suicide,
tuberculosis among others.
He was a very fruitful author, he wrote around sixty stories, in addition to a
series of poems, although he did not dedicate the time he would have liked to
this genre, due to his precarious economic situation. For him the maximum
literary expression was poetry. He also wrote novels, essays, and other
writings. His fictions cover various genres, such as horror, adventure, science
fiction and detective, the latter is credited with his invention.
He is recognized as one of the universal masters of the short story and as the
predecessor of the modern detective story. His stories stand out for their
literary beauty and for combining the sinister and macabre with humor, terror,
horror, and poetry.
Among his stories we can highlight:
* The black cat.
* The pit and the pendulum.
* The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
* The oval portrait.
* The king Pest