THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Name: ______By Edgar Allan Poe

Imagery - Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste).

1.  Listen to the story.

§  Identify examples of imagery by marking the story with a sticky note, jotting down the word or phrase on loose leaf, or drawing a quick sketch

OR

§  Identify the seven rooms. Use sticky notes, jot notes, or a quick sketch to record the features of each room.

2.  Discuss the plot together briefly – what happens in the story?

3.  Look at “Symbols in The Masque of the Red Death”

Symbol - an action, object, event, etc., that expresses or represents a particular idea or quality.

Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

Masque of the Red Death is an allegory; try to identify what certain characters, objects, and actions may represent.

Symbol / What It Represents
The Seven Chambers
The Black Chamber
The Tripods With The Flames
The Clock
The Masked Visitor

4.  Listen AGAIN (reading is rereading!). Notice how the symbols work to create the symbolic meaning.

§  Create a map of the seven rooms. Try to recreate the twists and turns of the rooms as they are describe. Record the colour of each room. Label each room with the time of life that each represents.

5.  Write one sentence to express the theme of The Masque of the Red Death. We know that the subject is death, but what is the story saying about death?

FOR POINTS IN POWER SCHOOL HAND IN – this sheet, your notes/sketches/sticky notes, and your theme statement. Outcome 7.3: explore ways texts reveal and produce ideologies, identities, and position (gr.12)

0-1
Work is partially complete with minimal understanding. / 2-3
Work is complete with some evidence of understanding / 4
Work is complete with details, displaying clear evidence of understanding of text.