“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
Questions
Directions: Answer the question in complete sentences using the RACE strategy. Remember to use details from the text.
R-Restate (the Question)
A-Answer (the Question)
C-Cite (Give page(s) # & “Quote” information from the story)
E-Explain/Expand(Answer the question “So what?” & “What does that mean?”)
- Describe Prince Prospero’s “guiding taste” that was used to decorate the palace. What kind of mood does this create?
- What chamber (or room) is not occupied by the masqueraders? Why? Explain.
- Why was there an “uneasy cessation” (or stopping) at midnight?
- Who appeared before the last chime of the twelfth hour? What was the reaction of the guests?
- Why do you think the guests reacted this way?
- Describe the appearance of the surprise guest? What does he symbolize?
- How does Prince Prospero react to the surprise guest?
- What happens to Prince Prospero at the conclusion of the story?
- Where do the revelers (or partygoers) find a retreat (or “safe place”)?
- What happens to the revelers at the end of the story? Why?
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
Part II Questions
Pages 55-63
Directions: Answer the question in complete sentences using the RACE strategy. Remember to use details from the text. Please use your own sheet of notebook paper.
R-Restate (the Question)
A-Answer (the Question)
C-Cite (Give page(s) # & “Quote” information from the story)
E-Explain/Expand(Answer the question “So what?” & “What does that mean?”)
- Describe Prince Prospero’s “guiding taste” that was used to decorate the palace.
“…it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the maqueraders…they were grotsesque…much glare and glitter…and phantasm…delirious fanices such as a madman fashions…beautiful…terrible…(a lot) which might have invited disgust.” (59)
“…the duke’s love of the bizarre…Gothic…vividly blue…purple in its ornaments and tapestries…green throughout…shrouded in black velvet tapestries…falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue…the panes here were…a deep blood color…” (56-57)
What kind of mood does this evoke?
- What chamber is not occupied by the masqueraders? Why? Explain.
“But in the…black chamber…there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.” (57)
“…the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon…those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.” (57)
- Why was there an “uneasy cessation” at midnight?
“…there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company…but when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly…” (58)
“…perhaps that more of thought crept with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who reveled…”
- Who appeared before the last chime of the twelfth hour? What was the reaction of the guests?
“…before the last echoes of the last chime…the crowd…(became) aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before.”(60)
“…there arose…from the whole company…disapprobation and surprise – then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.” (60) - Why do you think the guests reacted this way?
“…the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited…but the figure in question had…gone beyond the bounds of even the prince’s indefinite decorum…the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death…His vesture dabbled in blood – and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.” (61)
“There were sharp pains…then profuse bleeding at the pores…scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face…” (55)
- Describe the appearance of the surprise guest? What does he symbolize?
See #5
Death, our inescapable fate. - How does Prince Prospero react to the surprise guest?
“When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image...he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distate; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage…‘who dares…insult us with this blasphemous mockery…” (61)
- What happens to Prince Prospero at the conclusion of the story?
“Prospero, maddening with rage and shame of his own momentary cowardice,
rushed hurriedly through the six chambers…bore aloft a drawn
dagger…confronted his pursuer…and…fell prostrate in death…” 62)
- Where do the revelers find a retreat?
- What happens to the revelers at the end of the story? Why?