Plot:
Exposition: Poe uses the beginning of the story to offer important background information;
Prospero's kingdom is under attack from the Red Death, and Prospero locks his friends and himself into his castle to escape
the plague.
Inciting Incident: Prospero's decision to hold a masquerade ball starts the main conflict between
he and the Red Death in motion.
Rising Action: The description of the rooms, the chiming of the clocks, and details of the party
increase the tone of anxiety and fear in the story. The conflict intensifies when the mummer (mummy) dressed as the Red Death
appears and angers Prospero. Prospero's decision to chase him when the other knights in the castle back away from the unexpected
guest in fear leads to the climax.
Climax: Prospero has reached the point of no return when he falls dead while attempting
to kill the mummy.
Falling Action: The knights must react to Prospero's death in the climax of of the story and they
pull the sheet off the mummy only to find nothing there. They all fall dead.
Resolution: With all the knights and Prince Prospero dead, the conflict is resolved as the
Red Death takes complete control of the kingdom.
Symbols:
The ebony clock: The clock symbolizes the passage of time, the onset of death, and the life of the
party goers. Poe builds the symbol by giving details on how the party stops and the partiers get nervous every time they hear
the clock chime, and he finishes the meaning of the symbol when he states "And the life of the ebony clock went out with that
of the last of the gay." The clock stops when life stops.
Prospero: I
think that Prospero's name sybololizes wealth and good fortune, and that it's ironic that he gets exactly the opposite.
He tries to run from death and lock himself up in his abbey with food and friends, and he commits the seven deadly sins
and he's jealous of the red death because it has more control than he does. but he can't run from death and he ends
up getting the one thing he runs from. It symbolizes man's fate to die, and that you can't change it.
East and West: The
rooms go from east to west, and lighter to dark. Also lke the traveling of the people from life to death.
Colors: Blue- the stage of life that this room represents isbirth or daybreak. purple-
This symbolizes a type of spring. Green- spring, associated with nature, and moving into summer. Orange- Associated
with fall, harvest, and associated when death begins to approach. White- Associated with winter, and old age; judgement.
Violet- Twilight, and the end of day, death getting very near; a symbol of penance. Black velvet- End of the day,
nighttime; sleep and death.
Irony:
Prospero locking himself in the Abbey; The irony of this it that after Prospero
had just commited the seven deadly sins, and deserted his people for them to die, and it turned up that his wealth couldn't
save him. He also tries to chase death.
Happy and dauntless and sagacious; The irony of this is that this phrase tells
of Prospero as a noble, joyful man. When really he is a coward and a sinner because he commited the 7 sins, left his
people, and ran to hide form death.
Abbey: He perverts the abbey by trying to escape death and have a good time in the
abbey
Characterization:
Prospero; In the story, Prospero is a cowardly, self-centered man. He throws
a party in the confort of his castle while through out the rest of the land, thousands were being stuck down by the Red
death. He also commits the seven deadly sins. At the end when the Red death has broken into the castle, he seeks salvation
by hideing in the Abbey. This overall proves how selfish and ignorant he was.
