American Gothic Texts the Masque of the Red Death Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
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Comparing American Gothic Texts The Masque of the Red Death Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe from Danse Macabre Wait Until Dark Essay by Stephen King Movie Poster Virginia Standards of Learning inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical thinking 11.2d Determine the author’s purpose questions before, during, and after reading texts. and intended effect on the audience for media 11.5a Use information from texts to clarify understanding messages. 11.4h Explain how an author’s specific word of concepts. 11.5h Generate and respond logically to choices, syntax, tone, and voice support the author’s literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical purpose. 11.4k Generate and respond logically to literal, thinking questions before, during, and after reading texts. Meet the Authors Edgar Allan Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the Poe’s Enduring Legacy Generations of Poe c. 1809–1849 psychological thriller. His tales of the mystery and suspense writers have been ghast ly and the grotesque are peopled with influenced by the brooding atmosphere distraught narrators, deranged heroes, and and eerie tension of Poe’s stories. In fact, doomed heroines. They move beyond the two of the most highly regarded American sunlit, rational world to explore the dark, short stories written since Poe’s death irrational depths of the human mind. (For owe a debt to the Gothic master. “An more about Poe, see page 410.) Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (page 604) has the ghostly mood of Poe’s fiction. “The Masque of the A Gothic Allegory The creepy tension that pervades “A Rose Red Death,” first published in 1842, is for Emily” (page 1066) can be traced to timeless in its appeal. We can enjoy it for Poe’s haunted settings. In the twentieth its thrills or as an allegory. In an allegory, century, with the advent of movies, Poe characters and objects stand for abstract found a wider audience in films adapted ideas such as good and evil. Often meant from his stories. In 1964, for example, to teach moral lessons, allegories typically “The Masque of the Red Death” was made feature simple characters and unnamed into a movie starring Vincent Price, a well- settings, somewhat like fairy tales. known horror-movie actor of the time. Stephen King Stephen King’s phenomenal success associate with King’s Gothic page-turners born 1947 began in 1974, with the publication of and the movies that have been adapted Carrie. Discouraged, King had thrown an from them. Carrie was a huge commercial unfinished manuscript of the novel in the success. Turned into a classic horror trash. His wife retrieved it and urged him movie, also titled Carrie, it has inspired to finish it; the rest is history. King went a movie sequel, a Broadway musical, a on to become one of the bestselling writers made-for-television movie, and a non- of all time. His novels have contributed musical stage parody. His novels have to a revival of horror fiction and horror sold in the millions, and the movies movies. In fact, he’s been called a “one- made from them have found a worldwide man entertainment industry.” audience. They testify to the enduring appeal of the elements in fiction that No living American Terror and Suspense both excite and frighten us. author has achieved the success we Author Online Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HMD11-444 444 VA_L11PE-u02s41-brMas.indd 444 3/23/11 4:11:54 PM text analysis: suspense One of the most important elements of a Gothic story is suspense—the combination of excitement and anxiety that Is safety readers feel about coming events in a plot. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” readers feel excited about an extravagant masquerade party, but they begin to feel anxious when Poe an illusion? describes a clock that makes the guests nervous each time We like to feel that there are steps we it strikes the hour. As you read the story, notice the elements can take to keep ourselves safe. To in the party that make you eager for more or that make you protect ourselves from theft, we can feel a sense of dread about the outcome. Then, when you read install an alarm or add high-security Stephen King’s essay, notice how he explains the element of locks. To protect our health, we can fear and terror in suspense. How does this nonfiction excerpt exercise and eat healthy food. But do add to your appreciation of writers such as Poe? our precautions really keep danger away, or do they just give us an illusion reading strategy: clarify meaning of safety? Poe’s unusual, archaic vocabulary reinforces this story’s feeling of antiquity. To help you clarify the meaning of difficult words What’s the Connection? and phrases, consult the side notes for helpful information. In As you study these texts, think about addition, use context clues in surrounding phrases to figure the elements that make a story, a movie, out unfamiliar words. Finally, paraphrase difficult passages, or even a movie poster suspenseful. using simpler language. By contrast with the Poe story, With Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Stephen King’s nonfiction excerpt is written in contemporary, Masque of the Red Death,” you will accessible language. As you read King, pay special attention experience actual suspense in the to his comments about a closed door and the role it plays in hands of a master. Afterwards, as you suspense. Remember that the best way to understand any read Stephen King’s explanation of suspense story is to become engaged in the author’s mixture of suspense, think about how it applies excitement and dread. to your experience as a reader. Finally, vocabulary in context when you examine the poster for Wait Poe used the following words in his eerie tale. Complete each Until Dark, think about how images phrase with an appropriate word from the list. create suspense. word blasphemous disapprobation propriety list cessation impede reverie 1. wandered the halls lost in a ________ 2. a peace treaty following the ________ of hostilities 3. her friends’ ________ after her unwise decision 4. tried not to ________ the flow of traffic 5. deeply offended by his ________ arguments 6. acted with decorum and ________ Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook. 445 VA_L11PE-u02s41-brMas.indd 445 3/23/11 6:30:27 AM the asque of the Red Death Edgar Allan Poe background Around 1350, Europe was struck by an epidemic of bubonic plague (Black Death) that killed more than a quarter of its population. The plague killed its victims quickly—within three to five days—and there was no cure. Artwork from that time is full of haunting symbols like the Dance of Death, where Death, personified as a skeleton, whirls anonymous figures to their graves. These grisly allegorical images spoke to the deepest fears of their audience, for whom death was a nearby presence. Note how Poe borrows from this history in his own tale of death. The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness 2 Avatar (BvPE-tärQ) : the physical form and horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then of an unseen force. profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body, and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which 5 pest ban: announcement of shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And infection with the plague. the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour. a a CLARIFY MEANING But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his Use the side notes to help you 10 dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand restate lines 1–8. What can you hale and lighthearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, infer about the mood of the country from this description? 446 unit 2: american romanticism VA_L11PE-u02s41-Masqu.indd 446 3/23/11 6:30:35 AM Comparing Texts VA_L11PE-u02s41-Masqu.indd 447 3/23/11 6:30:40 AM and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. 12 castellated abbeys (kBsPtE-lAQtGd This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s BbPCz): castle-like buildings once own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall used as monasteries (“abbeys”). had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress 16–17 ingress (GnPgrDsQ) or egress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey (CPgrDsQ): entry or exit. was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance 18 provisioned: stocked with to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime supplies. 20 it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet- 21 improvisatori dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and (Gm-prJvQG-zE-tôrPC): poets who security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” compose verses aloud. It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.