did anybody actually get the masque of red death?

[ruru]

i read this thing and i was more lost than when i take the subway in korea. we can all agree that the words are very big and hard. i'm sure there is some deep meaning to it, but i didn't get it and to be honest this kind of scared me, the descriptions of the rooms especially the black and red one, omg mommy! other than that, all i got was that there is this rich mean prince is all happy and throws a party even though everybody is dying if the red death and then he dies one day because of this crazy guest he has....

[lukejoo1092]

yea, i didn't get all of it either but from what i can tell (or at least i think i can tell) from the story is this. there is the red death going on which is killing loads of people and this prince is just ignoring it. he even makes this some sort of safety zone from the disease which is made of "iron walls". and he invites many of the rich and high classed people to his party where they enjoy their luxuries. but then, there's this stranger who comes in and ruins the party. eventually, the prince gets mad but when he confronts him, he dies by the red death. the same happens for the rest of the people in the party. so i think the theme of the story is something like you can't avoid the red death? im not sure tho;;; and i really didn't get about what's up with the 7 rooms and that the seventh is so dark and reddish than the others.

[jooyoungpark]

Most of the parts i did not get, however i believe that this story is a huge symbolism to the cycle of life and death. The six chambers with 6 colors represent the cycle of life with blue starting and black at the end. And the end, nobody can escape death, the grim reaper. Everybody dies.

[brandonina]

Now we get some important elements of the story.
The Red Death represents a deadly disease, surely referring to the Black Death or Plague.
The masque apparently indicates the blood (symbolized=sweat) flowing out of your face.
There are seven rooms that are lined up from eastern extremity. They represent 7 days, or the life of the prince. This can be inferred by the sun setting from east to west. The first room was blue, which represents age of birth and the last room was red and black. The last room represents hell due to the light that surrounds the rooms.
Prospero, the name of the prince represents prosperous. The prince is very arrogant and gets paid for what he did.

[crystal]

I just think this article is very frightening.

[chrishong]

All the important things I got from the story are the clock and the seven rooms with different colors. The seven rooms represent the life cycle of a human being. First, it starts with the color blue and ends with black. The color blue represents birth and black and red represent death. In the middle of the story, the author said that the people in the prince's palace stopped what they were doing every hour the clock ticked. I think it means death is coming closer.

[misatonakano]

I didn't get this story. I read Japanese version but I couldn't understand well... I think people afraid for red death and they gonna die. So their fear apeeared and became illusion. The strenge men means illusion.

[JustinK.]

u got the basic summary of the story, but there are many interesting objects or characters in the story that actually represented something more. First, the prince's name sounds similar to prosperity, which means wealth. Since Edgar Allan Poe made this selfish and arrogant ruler die at the end, it can indirectly explain rulers back in Poe's time. He probably hated these rulers. He probably experienced suffering as the ruler played and abused their power. Next will be the 7 chambers. It represents different stages of a human life from beginning to end. The clock in the last room represents how much time you have left till death comes. I think the unwanted guest was death itself. How death came in and killed everyone suggests that no one including the wealthy prince can escape from death.

[yeajinchoi]

I didn't understand the story either until I discussed it with a few people in class on friday. I found ALOT of symbolism and metaphors. From the 7 rooms to the fire outside and the clock... SO MANY!
This story seemed religious to me in a way but also really dark.(The dark side of humanity)
It also reminded me of what Ms.Boyd told us during the background quotes. People show their true side in the most extreme cases.

[esther]

Yeah when i first read this i didnt get it at all.. I just looked up some words in thedictionary and that was all. I never knew it was about a disease and stuf.. But when we discussed about this class a little but, i understood some. I have to read it again so that i can get more informations in my head.

[ExtremelyExtremeExtremist]

When I first read it, I thought that this was about leader¡¯s selfishness and the fact that no one can avoid death.
Here are the reasons:

Red Death killed people
Prince Prospero made a save zone to avoid Red Death instead of saving people
Prince and his friends lived happily in safe zone while people are dying outside
Dark red room represents death
Clock represents the remaining life
Prince and his friends became hysterical every time they hear the clock ticking
Everyone died in the end

For some information above, I didn¡¯t know what they were about until we discussed in class. For example, seven rooms represented one week (six days are weekdays and one day is holiday, according to Genesis).

[james]

At first, i understood that this red death is very contagious, therefore, it is this type of plague that kills people. I understood this part. But my confusion started by the time I was reading those different colors of rooms. I know what represents each color but it started to confuse me when those weird people came out and started to mess around. Oh, and I definitely was sure about the Prince being a total xxxxxxx

[KevinW]

The number seven could also be linked to the Seven Deadly Sins: Prosperous invited his friends over to essentially indulge in life—sin in sloth, avarice, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy, pride. I can easily see examples of or deduce violations from the text. It's not that far an inference.

Altogether that's hedonism. When describing the Prince's tolerance limit, I found it hilarious and telling that they hated death and all its manifestations above all the sickening indulgences of life. To them, it's all about living—you can see it when the revelers paused upon hearing the clock's chime (a reminder of how much time they had left) and thus the ending comes easily predicted: the revelers die. Each at the feet of death.

What would the theme be? Probably be tied to hedonism, life, death somehow. The colors must play a larger role. There's still not a complete picture. I feel there's something BIG still missing, everything's fudged up now. My head.

[gb1708]

i agree that in this story, words are really hard and deeply meaningful. However, that is how i understand this story:
+ 7 rooms = 7 phrases of life
+ Black room = death
+ eastern to western = sunrise to sunset -> sunset = dark = death.
+ bizarres are located all around 7 rooms = fires around those rooms = death is coming
+ clock = thing remind the death
point of story: the inevitability of death.

[sazad100]

From what i understood or rather what i thought the theme of the story was that if you are a leader you should take care of you people fairly. I think the prince was killed by a ghost representing the red death. The room as told by Ms.Boyd represents a week. The time of earth being created.