Exposition: Poe uses the beginning of the story to offer important background information; Prospero's kingdom is under attack from the Red Death, and Prospero locks his friends and himself into his castle to escape the plague.
Inciting Incident: Prospero's decision to hold a masquerade ball starts the main conflict between he and the Red Death in motion.
Rising Action: The description of the rooms, the chiming of the clocks, and details of the party increase the tone of anxiety and fear in the story. The conflict intensifies when the mummer (mummy) dressed as the Red Death appears and angers Prospero. Prospero's decision to chase him when the other knights in the castle back away from the unexpected guest in fear leads to the climax.
Climax: Prospero has reached the point of no return when he falls dead while attempting to kill the mummy.
Falling Action: The knights must react to Prospero's death in the climax of of the story and they pull the sheet off the mummy only to find nothing there. They all fall dead.
Resolution: With all the knights and Prince Prospero dead, the conflict is resolved as the Red Death takes complete control of the kingdom.
The ebony clock: The clock symbolizes the passage of time, the onset of death, and the life of the party goers (revellers). Poe builds the symbol by giving details on how the party stops and the partiers get nervous every time they hear the clock chime, and he finishes the meaning of the symbol when he states "And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay." The clock stops when life stops.
Prospero: Prospero's name is an obvious allusion to the word Prosperity or Prosperous: the condition of being successful or thriving; especially : economic well-being. While Prospero is thriving at the beginning of the story, Poe creates irony when the Red Death is able to sneak into the party and kill the "most prosperous" man in the kingdom. Although Prospero thinks he is wealthy enough to escape death, he isn't.
4. Find the following symbols and state the possible meaning of each: Prospero, the clock, east and west, the abbey, room colors.
Prospero- The symbol of his name is prosperity. He is so proud he tries to deafeast death. He is Hubris meaning excessive pride. Prospero symbolizes mens lack of control over fate.
The clock- Chimes every hour and everyone stops and becomes anxious. Clock symbolizes the time you have left in life. The passage of life.
East to West- Sun rises in the east sets in the west. Blue room is new life new day but through out the rooms it goes to darkness or death. Birth to Death.
The abbey - Monks live in abbeys and pray for peoples salvation. It symolizes his sins. The abbey is salvation perverted.
Room colors- Blue- Day break, Purple - Early Day, Green- summer or youth, Orange is harvest or miday. White is winter or afternoon, Violet is associated with twlight, Black room is death sleep or night.
5. Identify the irony of the following details:
a. Prospero locks himself in an abbey : Prospero locking himself in the abbey is ironic behcause he thinks locking himself in there is protecting himself from the plague. But locking himself in is his downfall. He is trapped in the abbey and cant get away from the plague.
b. The narrator's description of Prospero as "happy and dauntless and sagacious" This is ironic because daughtless means to be brave and sagacious means to be selfish. Prospero locks him and his friends up in his abbey to hide away from the red death. He tries to look happy, but on the inside he is scared of what is outside his wall.
c. Prospero's name . Prospero sounds like Prosperity or Prosperous. But in the end the most prosperous man in the kingdom is killed.
6. Characterization: Offer descriptive adjectives for Prospero and Prospero's hale and light-hearted friends.
Prospero is selfish, greedy.
Properous hale is the abby which he holds a party in. It is also his seclusion.
Light-hearted friends are similar to Prospero. They dont care about other people because when people outside are getting killed by the disease they are inside a party having fun.