edgar allan poe: the masque of the red death

1.  prince prospero

What does the reader get to know about this character? How does Prospero behave? Why? How would you try to describe his philosophy of life? What makes you think so? (have a close look at page 1.9-16; 2.41-3.2; 4.18-5.10)

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2.  narrator

There are only three instances in the story where the narrator refers to himself directly (1.29, 3.30, 4.1). In each of these cases Poe could easily have avoided mentioning the narrator.

How would you explain the paradox that the narrator tells the story as if he had been at the masquerade even though every character present at that masquerade is said to have died? Who could the narrator then be? What evidence do you have? What consequences would this fact have on your interpretation of the story?

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3.  symbols: colours

Have a close look at the use of colours in room seven (2.6-21). What significance do they have? What associations do you have with these colours and what symbolic meaning could the two colours have within the text?

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4.  symbols: clock

Why do you think the clock is described in greater detail than any character within the story (2.22-40)? What is the symbolic meaning of a clock? What function does the clock have within the story? Can you find a phrase within the text to underline this idea?

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5.  use of figurative language (rhetorical devices)

Concentrate on the first and the last paragraph. What rhetorical devices can you find? What examples of alliteration (= words starting with the same letter), repetition (= frequent use of the same word), personification (= an object or abstract notion used as if they were characters), parallelism (= parallel grammatical structures) can you find? What is the function of these devices and what effect do they have on the reader? Why?

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6.  the seven ages of man

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

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Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

(Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.vii.)

7.  what meaning is conveyed in the story?

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