Describe the internal and external workings of the Protagonist (Prince Prospero).
Why does Prince Prospero voluntarily isolate himself?
Who does Prince Prospero invite to his great fete?
Describe Prince Prospero's great fete and the physical description of each of the seven apartments (chambers).
Who is the villain and how does he represent the "repressed emotions" of Prince Prospero?
Who is the villain and how does he represent the "repressed emotions" of Prince Prospero?
Amelia, Carter, and Roy
ReplyDelete1) Prince Prospero is "happy and dauntless and sagacious". He is fearful of death, and therefore uses the masquerade ball as a distraction. He has a "love of the bizarre". Most people think he is mad, but his extravagant plans and decorations are covering up for his fear of the Red Death.
2) He isolates himself to try to cheat death. He doesn't care about the safety of his people, only of himself and his noblemen.
3) "He summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court."
4)The "windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened." From east to west the rooms were blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and westernmost room was black with blood red windows, representing death. In the seventh, there was "a gigantic clock of ebony". The party-goers were in every room except for this mysterious western room, and "few of the company [were] bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all". They would not go into the room because they feared it as they feared death.
Carter
ReplyDelete5) The villain in the story is the the Red Death itself. It represents the repressed emotion of fear within Prince Prospero, and of all the guests. He is the physical embodiment of the fear they share, and the danger they are trying to avoid in the abbey. No one, save Prince Prospero, has the courage to approach it, as "the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls" at his approach.
Amelia
ReplyDelete5)The Red Death is the villain in the story. In Gothic literature, the villain represents the repressed feelings of the protagonist. Prince Prospero is trying to repress the fact that he is mortal. No matter how much money, no matter where he hides, he will still die one day. He is a prince, and therefore believes that he is extraordinary, elevated above the normal peasants, and most importantly, immortal. If he accepts the fact he is actually mortal, he becomes average. He becomes enraged and takes a knife, trying to kill the Red Death. He tries to murder his own mortality, which ironically leads to his death. He chases the Red Death into the black room, representing death, where the prince meets his demise.
5) The Red Death symbolizes the repressed emotions of Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero tries his best to evade his own mortality through outsmarting it and using his wealth to buy him time over and over again. Prospero believes that he can keep evading his own death and mortality through his material possessions but this is most definitely NOT the case. Prospero believes that he is above all other humans but in reality, he really isn't.
ReplyDeleteAmelia
ReplyDeleteTo our previous collaborative answers, I'd like to add some of my own thoughts.
For 1 and 2) Prince Prospero desires to be immortal above all else. He thinks that he is sneaking around mortality, able to escape because he distances himself from his dying people and the red death. He thinks that wealth can save him from being mortal, that his riches and power will keep him alive forever.
Carter
ReplyDeleteI also want to add some of my thoughts
2) The Prince isolates himself to escape the one thing he fears most: the fact he is a mortal, and will someday die. He thinks that if he is locked away from the raging plague, that he will be able to cheat his way from death.
3) The friends he invites, however, care only for the protection, for the sanctuary and sanity, that his wealth and power will give them.
4) Each of the rooms is filled with trinkets, statues, and gold. These fineries add to the dream-like aura that eminates from the eastern rooms. The whole masquerade feels as if they are in some alternate plane in which nothing is wrong, until the clock tolls and everyone is brought back down to the cold reality.
5. the villain is the Red Death and it symbolizes the repressed emotions of Prince Prospero. the red death symbolizes this because he tries to escape his own mortality with his money and power. propsero believes that his death is not inevitable. the red death is the villain because it is the conflict against the protagonist, prospero.
ReplyDeleteLauren Steiner
Describe the internal and external workings of the Protagonist (Prince Prospero).
ReplyDeletePrince Prospero is happy and confident on the outside and fearful on the inside of the whole red death matter. He throws a masquerade to cover his fear and use his wealth and indulgent lifestyle to cover how he is really feeling.
Why does Prince Prospero voluntarily isolate himself?
Prince Prosper isolates himself to bypass death and has everyone else over, even though he doesn’t care about them, and locks everyone up in his extravagant home.
Who does Prince Prospero invite to his great fete?
“He summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court.” Basically he just invites important people and his friends.
Describe Prince Prospero's great fete and the physical description of each of the seven apartments (chambers).
I agree with Amelia, Carter, and Roy: The "windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened." From east to west the rooms were blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and westernmost room was black with blood red windows, representing death. In the seventh, there was "a gigantic clock of ebony". The party-goers were in every room except for this mysterious western room, and "few of the company [were] bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all". They would not go into the room because they feared it as they feared death
Lauren Steiner
Roy
ReplyDeleteThe fourth post above is ROY's.
Additions to the post above:
1) Prince Prospero, although he is very queer, weird, and somewhat mad, he is not in reality. His close friends don't see him this way though. They say that the Prince is not really mad, just slightly queer. In the poem it states that, "It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not [mad]."
2) Although he does invite only noblemen, the poem states that, "He summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his cant... abbeys." He does this to both cheat death and in a way, to have a good time in the face of his court dying.
3) The poem states, "There were seven- an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected fromthe duke's love of the bizarre... There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect... The windows were of stained glass whose color caried in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue- and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange- the fifth with white- the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls..." The rooms were arranged in a fashion that the blue on the East symbolized the newborns and the red and darker symbolize death. I also believe the green symbolizes people going out into the world, and the orange, the horizon upon which your innocence is taken away with white.
Roy
ReplyDeleteQuestions to Carter:
How does the clock symbolize everyone "coming back to reality?" I think it shows a human construct in which, when everyone dies, the human construct dies. The clock stops working after the people die, symbolizing that the clock is merely a figment of the human imagination and NOT reality.
To Roy, it shows them "coming back to reality" as the ringing of the clock's bell takes them away from their dreamlike state, coupled with the cessation of the music and dancing, makes them think about what is going on in the outside world.
ReplyDeleteCARTER
ReplyDelete1)The Prince believes that his money and power will be able to save him from his fears. This, however, proves to be false, as he meets his mortality face to face in the black room.
4) The four rooms represent the passage of life. In the east, life starts in the blue room, showing the color of a newborn. Then one enters the purple room, which represents childhood. Then comes the green room, which represents the bounty of life and attraction, after which comes orange, which represents marriage and children, the mixing of two to becomes one. Fifth is the white room, showing mid-life, and one's desire to change who they are, as white light can become anything. After which comes violet, where one begins to settle in to old age, which ends in death, the western black room.