The visual imagery in the description of the black room is heavy and oppressive, with phrases like “shrouded” and “falling in heavy folds” adding a sense of weight. “Hernani” is an 1830 drama by Victor Hugo, a contemporary of Poe. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits, and / Are melted into air, into thin air.” In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the illusion of safety steadily unravels. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders.

Prospero follows that course when he chases it: he runs from the blue room to the black room, where he dies. The phrases "blood-tinted panes," "ghastly," and "wild a look" allow the reader to visualize a dark, gloomy room, a room one would naturally avoid as its countenance is less than welcoming. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. The auditory imagery in this passage describes the sound from the clock and the cessation of all other sounds. In this case, these meanings enhance the dream-like quality of the masquerade. This line foreshadows that revelation as it specifies that the masquerade is happening at night and that the “night is waning away,” establishing the destination as midnight, which marks the end of one day and the beginning of the next. Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!”. Under even ostensibly joyous occasions as a masque, death cannot be escaped or ignored. Prospero is also the name of a character in Shakespeare’s 1610 play, The Tempest. “Improvisatori” were improvisational poets popular in 14th-century Italy, providing a possible setting for the story.

This description is meant to evoke disgust in the reader. This descriptive language is hypermeaningful (overly meaningful), or "oppressively meaningful," you might say. The “sharp pains” and “dizziness” appeal to readers’ awareness of their own bodies, and the “profuse bleeding at the pores” and the “dissolution,” or decomposition, of the skin paints a stark visual image. But the symptoms of the diseases bear little relation to each other, besides the fact that they're both fatal. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. If readers maintain this association, Prospero’s face “redden[ing] with rage” can be interpreted in multiple ways. Prince Prospero is introduced as “happy,” somehow remaining optimistic in the face of the plague. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. For Prospero and his friends, morbid or scandalous costumes, lavish decorations, and a night of drinking and revelry would have helped stave off the “impulses of despair and frenzy” that the gates of the castle were sealed to prevent. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. In a sense, Prospero and his friends have created an entirely different reality within the castle, one that seeks to reject death and suffering in favor of a facade of safety. Be sure they were grotesque. Poe seems to be comparing Prince Prospero and his guests with many of us who are alive today. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. It is most commonly used to refer to the act of wrapping a corpse for burial.

The "gigantic clock of ebony" is symbolic of mortality, a conclusion drawn due to the tone of this particular section of the passage as well the context of the events in the passage. The coronavirus pandemic that’s been dominating news headlines throughout the world has been compared to Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film, “Contagion” but it can also be compared to Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 short story “The Masque of the Red Death” — a macabre tale of a deadly disease called the Red Death that spreads like wildfire and wipes out half of the population. The adjective “grotesque” typically refers to something that is repulsive or ugly. The next room is purple, a combination of blue (birth) and red (associated with life, intensity) suggests the beginnings of growth. Like the "sinners," Prince Prospero and his friends foolishly ignore the inevitable end of "life's pleasures" that lies at the end of the road, and like them, they pay the price for it. The phrase “Out-Heroded Herod” refers to exaggerated portrayals of evil characters in stage performances. Of particular note is the secluded nature of the abbey and the decision to lock the castle from the inside. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

The Father is the creator of the universe, the Son is embodied by Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwells in the faithful.

This practice, called "quarantining," is meant to reduce the spread of disease. Prospero is willing to condemn someone else to the fate he seeks to defy for daring to confront him with the reality of the Red Death. It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side.

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