notes for concept 3 pdf

8/3/2019 Notes for Concept 3 PDF

1/19


2/19


3/19


4/19


5/19


6/19


7/19


8/19

A study guide, by Michael J. Cummings, 2005! http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides7/Masque.htmlStory outline: (from wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death)

The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious"Prince Prospero. Prospero and one thousand other nobles have taken refuge in thiswalled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms thathas swept over the land. Victims feel overcome by convulsive agony and sweat bloodinstead of water. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. Prospero and his court arepresented as indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large, intending to await theend of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, havingwelded the doors shut.

One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball to entertain his guests in seven coloredrooms of the abbey. Six of the rooms are each decorated and illuminated in a specific

color: Blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in blackand is illuminated by a blood-red light: because of this chilling pair of colors, few guestsare brave enough to venture into the seventh room. The room is also the location of alarge ebony clock that ominously clangs at each hour, upon which everyone stops talkingand the orchestra stops playing. At the chiming of midnight, Prospero notices one figure ina dark, blood-splattered robe resembling a funeral shroud, with an extremely realistic maskresembling a stiffened corpse, and with the traits of the Red Death, which all at the ballhave been desperate to escape. Gravely insulted, Prospero demands to know the identityof the mysterious guest so that they can hang him. When none dares to approach thefigure, instead letting him pass through the seven chambers, the prince pursues him with adrawn dagger until he is cornered in the seventh room, the black room with the scarlet-

tinted windows. When the figure turns to face him, the Prince falls dead. The enraged andterrified revelers surge into the black room and forcibly remove the mask and robe, only tofind to their horror that there is no solid form underneath either. Only now do they realize--too latethat the figure is actually the Red Death itself, and all of the guests contract andsuccumb to the disease. The final line of the story sums up: "And Darkness and Decayand the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

Other adaptations/ interpretations:

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)Film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058333/

Notes for Concept 03 : The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe


9/19



10/19

Descriptions in the text:


Castellated abbey, an extensive andmagnificent structure. A strong and lofty wall

girdled (anything that encircles, confines, orlimits) it in. This wall had gates of iron.

Entertainment: Buffoons, improvvisatori (animprovisator, especially a person whoextemporizes (to sing, or play on aninstrument, composing the music as oneproceeds; improvise) verse), ballet- dancers,musicians, beauty, wine. All these andsecurity were within.

7 rooms, a sharp turn at every 20 or 30yards.

To the right and left, in the middle of eachwall, a tall and narrow Gothic window lookedout upon a corridor.

Windows were stained glass.

Room colours:-1st Blue with vividly blue windows,

-2nd Purple with ornaments andtapestries and purple panes of glass.-3rd Green throughout and were thecasements (a window sash (a fixed ormoveable framework, as in a windowor door, in which panes of glass areset) opening on hinges that aregenerally attatched to the upright sideof its frame).-4th Orange-5th White

-6th Violet-7th Black and Red- closely shroudedin black velvet tapestries hung all overthe ceiling and down the walls, fallingin heavy folds upon a carpet of thesame material and hue, but in thischamber only, the colour of thewindows failed to correspond with thedecorations. The panes of glass werescarlet- a deep blood colour.

None of the rooms had lamps orcandelabrums, but in the corridors opposite to

each window, a heavy tripod, bearing abrazier of fire, that projected its rays throughthe tinted glass and so glaringly illuminatedthe room. A multitude of gaudy and fantasticappearances.

But the black chamber the effect of the fire-light that screamed upon the dark hangingsthrough the blood-tinted panes was ghastly inthe extreme.

In this apartment there stood against thewall, a gigantic clock of ebony (a hard, heavy,durable wood, a deep lustrous black), itspendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy,monotonous clang - brazen lungs of the clock

There were much glare and glitter andpiquancy (agreeably pungent or sharp intaste) and phantasm (a creation of theimagination or fancy) - much of what hasbeen since in Hernani (A thin silk or woolen

goods, for womens dresses, woven invarious styles and colours.)

Arabesque (I chose this meaning forarabesque as ballet dancers were mensionedearlier in the text- ballet: a classical positionin which the dancer has one leg raisedbehind and bth arms stretched out in one ofseveral conventional poses) figures withunsuited limbs and appointments.

delirious fancies such as the madmanfashions. much of the beautiful, much of thewanton (extravagantly or excessivelyluxurious), much of the bizarre.

hue from the many tinted windows whichstream the rays from the tripods.

There flows a ruddier light through the blood-coloured panes, and the blackness of thesable drapery appals, and sable carpet.


11/19

The figure tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave.The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenanceof a stiffened corpse. Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood- and his broad brow,with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

Castellated Abbey:



12/19

Wall with iron gates:



13/19

Gothic Window:



14/19

Stained Glass:



15/19

Black Velvet:



16/19

Ebony Clock:



17/19

Brazier of fire:



18/19

Arabesque Figures:



19/19

Gaunt Figure:


notes for concept 3 pdf

Documents