1. Post-Reading: “The Masque of the Red Death”
Small Group Discussion: Record your group answers on your own
piece of paper.
Make sure to text note quotations with page numbers.
Please have your Literary Terms notes out while you work with your groups.

2. Compare your answers from your study guide
Compare your answers from your study guide. Make notes of anything you missed.

3. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is when an author hints at what is going to happen in order to create suspense in the reader. If you didn’t know this add it to your Literary Terms notes.
List /quote eight examples of foreshadowing from the story.

4. The Castellated Abbey
Why is it significant that the abbey is castellated and that the entrance and exits to/from the abbey are blocked?
Why are the colors and order of the rooms significant? What symbolism can you find in each of these details:
Color and décor of each room
Order – east to west

5. Prince Prospero’s Characterization
Summarize Prospero’s character giving eight details about him.
List three quotations of direct characterization about Prospero (the narrator tells you directly what the character is like).
List three quotations of indirect characterization about Prospero (you have to infer about his character based on what the character says or does…

6. Masquerade/Dream Imagery
“There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these --the dreams --writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps” (81).
List six words from this quotation that demonstrate the tone of this piece overall.
What do the images symbolize/represent in the story?
List other two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism.
List other two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using foreshadowing.

7. The Revelers’ Characterization
Summarize the revelers’ character giving six significant details about them.
List two quotations of direct characterization about the party goers (the narrator tells you directly what the character is like).
List two quotations of indirect characterization about party goers (you have to infer about his character based on what the character says or does…
What symbols are enhanced by the revelers and their reactions?

8. The Clock What does the clock symbolize?
List three quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using imagery.
List three quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using foreshadowing.
Explain the revelers’ reaction to the chiming of the clock.

9. The Seventh Room
The Seventh room has a lot more imagery and symbolism associated with it.
List two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using imagery.
List two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using foreshadowing.
Explain the revelers’ reaction to the room and the significance of what happens in that room.
Why do you think Poe has Prospero first see the mummer in the blue room? Why is it significant that they move through the rooms and end in the seventh room?

10. The Red Death What is the Red Death symbolic of?
List two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using imagery.
List two quotations from the text that demonstrate this symbolism by using foreshadowing.
How does Poe incorporate the dream-like imagery in Prospero’s confrontation of the Red Death?

11. Allusion “Hernani” (81). “Out-Herod Herod” (82).
“Came like a thief in the night” (83).
Using the footnotes in your text, explain the connotations of each of these allusions, and why Poe chooses to create these connotations

12. Theme Review: add to your lit. notes
Theme = Subject + Author’s comment on that subject
(major motif/concept in the story) + (states author’s opinion, conclusions about the subject)
Using this formula will yield a complete sentence about a major idea in the work.
Example from TKAMB: Prejudice is difficult to overcome since it is essentially irrational.
Example from R&J: Taking time to slowly think through matters will yield better results than spontaneity.

13. Themes Should: Make a general statement about the way life is.
Evaluate a concept or offer a sophisticated description of how that concept operates in real life.
Be a complete sentence.
Be general enough that it conveys major ideas that informs the entire literary work

14. Themes should not: Define the concept instead of commenting on it.
Non example: Revenge causes people to act aggressively, often killing those who have harmed them.
Use figurative language or clichés.
Non example: What comes around goes around.
Non example: When corruption is involved, it doesn’t matter if someone’s heart is in the right place.

15. Themes Should Not: Contain concrete details from the literary work.
Non example: Laertes should not have plotted a dishonorable fencing match with Claudius.
Address the reader by calling the reader “you” or by giving the reader instruction on how to behave.
Non example: You shouldn’t seek revenge because killing is wrong.

16. Theme
Write a theme statement following these rules for “The Masque of the Red Death.”
List the symbols and important images from the story that enhance that theme.
When you are finished, write your theme statements on the board large and neat enough that the class can see, but not so large, that the other groups can’t get their themes up on the board .