The Masque of the Red Death

Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is the story of a prince, Prospero. A disease, the “Red Death” has plagued his land and killed nearly half of his people. To avoid the disease, he invites 1000 of his friends that are not infected to join him in one of his castles. He then barricades the castle so that no others may enter. He secludes himself from the disease-stricken world. After a while, he throws a masquerade ball and everyone is having a good time. Then enters a man who is dressed in a mask that depicts the effects of the red death. Prospero orders him removed but the people are too scared, including Prospero. Prospero then follows him through the rooms of the house and is presumably killed by the masked intruder. When more people arrive, they find Prospero dead and the masked invader gone.

I think that this would be an excellent story to help teach what symbolism is to young readers. The imagery that Poe uses is so vivid that they could easily see the world he tries to create. It could also be used as an exercise to look at the word choice that Poe uses to create the tone and the mood that he wants.

Obviously, because the plot of the story involves a plague that kills half of the population of the land, some students could be frightened by the content of the story. When I helped teach it in my 7^th grade practicum class, it wasn’t much of a problem.