ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
The Masque of the Red Death 17971 Views
Share It!
Description:
We know we say this for all of his stories, but here's Edgar Allan Poe at his creepiest. Well, if you don’t include that time you went into the bathroom to brush your teeth and noticed that he was just standing there in the shower, watching you. What was he even doing there?
Transcript
- 00:04
The Masque of the Red Death, a la Shmoop. Some things can't be avoided, no matter how
- 00:08
frightening they are...
- 00:10
...like Grandma's creamed spinach...
- 00:12
...circus clowns...
- 00:13
...and, of course, death. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Masque
Full Transcript
- 00:17
of the Red Death…
- 00:18
...a terrible plague drives Prince Prospero and his besties to lock themselves in an isolated
- 00:24
abbey...
- 00:25
…in order to avoid a very unpleasant death.
- 00:28
Yeah. Because cheating death always works. After several months of partying with his
- 00:35
friends...
- 00:36
...Prince Prospero decides to throw an extravagant masked ball in his Super Awesome Rainbow Colored
- 00:42
Subterranean Party Suite.
- 00:45
For obvious reasons, Death doesn't get an invite.
- 00:50
The denizens of the abbey may be partying like it's 1399, but they're doing so in a
- 00:55
decidedly eerie place...
- 00:57
...which begs the question: How does the setting of Poe's story create fear and dread in the
- 01:03
reader? Could the abbey's isolation make the reader
- 01:07
afraid? After all, although Prince Prospero and his pals voluntarily lock themselves up
- 01:13
to escape the plague...
- 01:14
...in barring the doors, they actually trap themselves in the abbey so they can't escape
- 01:19
if something goes wrong.
- 01:22
What if death decides to… crash the party?
- 01:24
Second option...
- 01:27
The weird colors, abrupt turns, and spooky lighting effects mirror Prince Prospero's
- 01:35
insanity.
- 01:36
The madness made visible in the seven rooms of the suite makes the reader uncomfortable...
- 01:41
...or, in the case of the creeptastic black room, terrified.
- 01:46
Third possibility...
- 01:49
The black room seems like a place where death would be right at home.
- 01:53
In fact, critics suggest that the colors of the seven rooms symbolize different stages
- 01:58
of human life, moving from the blue room, or birth...
- 02:02
...to the black room, or death.
- 02:05
So how does the setting of The Masque of the Red Death inspire fear and dread in the reader?
- 02:10
Is it the abbey's isolation that makes you afraid?
- 02:13
Is it the crazy, spooky, designed-by-a-lunatic party suite?
- 02:17
Or does it represent stages from life to death? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Up Next
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.