TheMasqueoftheRedDeath
"The Masque of the Red Death"
1. Poe was a master "wordsmith." Through carefully chosen diction he is able to create a psychological effect on his reader. What effect did his description of "Red Death," in the very first paragraph of the story, have on you? Quote those details that provoke this response from you.
The effect that it had on me of the description of “Red Death,” in the very first paragraph of the story was “The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood.” From his description I portrayed “Red Death” to be blood. I thought “Red Death” to be a form of the extremely deadly virus Ebola; “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim… And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.”
2. Why does Poe rely heavily on imagery to provide a detailed description of Prospero's hall?
I believe Poe heavily relies on imagery to provide a detailed description of Prospero’s hall because he wants to show how glorious the Prospero’s hall is when it comes to decorating.
3. "He had come like a thief in the night." Where in literature is this allusion taken from? What is the significance of the allusion? You may need to put the expression into a search engine in order to find the source of the allusion.
This allusion is taken from the Bible in both 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” KJV) and 2Peter 3:10 (“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” KJV). Both verses refer to the coming of the
1. Poe was a master "wordsmith." Through carefully chosen diction he is able to create a psychological effect on his reader. What effect did his description of "Red Death," in the very first paragraph of the story, have on you? Quote those details that provoke this response from you.
The effect that it had on me of the description of “Red Death,” in the very first paragraph of the story was “The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood.” From his description I portrayed “Red Death” to be blood. I thought “Red Death” to be a form of the extremely deadly virus Ebola; “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim… And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.”
2. Why does Poe rely heavily on imagery to provide a detailed description of Prospero's hall?
I believe Poe heavily relies on imagery to provide a detailed description of Prospero’s hall because he wants to show how glorious the Prospero’s hall is when it comes to decorating.
3. "He had come like a thief in the night." Where in literature is this allusion taken from? What is the significance of the allusion? You may need to put the expression into a search engine in order to find the source of the allusion.
This allusion is taken from the Bible in both 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” KJV) and 2Peter 3:10 (“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” KJV). Both verses refer to the coming of the