The Masque of the Red Death
I read the Masque of the Red Death. It is about a kingdom that was punished with the red death, it would leave its victims bloody and dead. It was a terrible disease that was sweeping through the kingdom. So the prince got together most of his court and took them away to his castle. They were there living secluded to get away from the red death. Then one night the prince had a masquerade. All the people came in with masks and came to dance. They were in an imperial suite, with seven rooms, each a different color. In the 7th room was a black room with blood colored windows and an ebony clock, which, when it sounded, stopped everyone from the guests to the band. When it finally chimed midnight a strange man, corpse in appearance with a mask showed up. They thought it was the red death. The prince said to stop but the guest would not stop walking througth the party, yet no one would touch him. Then the prince tried to kill him but instead it killed the prince. Then it went from room to room killing each person there.
The main character of the Masque of the Red Death is non-existent. it is just a narrator who talks about this event, though he was not part of it, sort of like a story teller. No physical descriptions are given for the narrator, so we can only go off describing him from an emotional standing point. He is scared of the red death, it frightens him and he avoids it and respects it. When he describes the events he does in great detail to freighten us and to make us be aware. He knows whats important to tell us, when to show commentary, what is important to get his message across. When he tells of the emotions of those in the story he understands he has felt these things before and he can describe them in the best ways to get us to understand his message. He is a man of experience and describes well enough to tell us exactly what happened at this masquerade.
The Theme of the masque of the red death is very plain but specific at the same time. You can almost peg it down as you can't run from your fears. This is true in so many aspects of life it is not even funny. I mean, if you are scared of a bully he will chase you down and find you any way they can. But this story is unique to this situation, because they have taken it and applied it to disease which is very cool. They say you can't run from the red death because it will find you. At this time before medicine and other techniques for treating the red death, this statement was very true, you couldnt run from it. So many people died because of it, and so many avoided it, but it seemed impossible. This is a very good theme, but it is not always true. I mean you can face your fears but thats not always good. Face the bully now and you'll just get beat sooner than later. So waht is the truth in this theme? Is it better to run to or from your fear?
