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THE MASK OF THE RED
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dancers, then a feeling of fear and of sickening horror.
In such a group as this, only a very strange masquerader could have caused such a feeling. Even among those who laugh at both life and death, sorne matters cannot be laughed at’° Everyone seemed now deeply5 to feel that the stranger* should not have been allowed to come among them dressed in such clothes. He was tau and very thin, and covered from head to foot like a dead man prepared for the grave.
The mask which covered his face — or was it really a rnask? — the mask whích covered his face was so much like the face of a dead man that the nearest eye could not see the difference. And yet al! this might have been acceptable — but the masquerader whom nobody knew had made himself look like the Red Death itself! His clothes were spotted with blood. And the mask over bis face was covered with the terrible red spots . . . or perhaps it was indeed his face! When Prospero looked upon this fearful* form he was first filled with terror* — and then with anger.
“Who dares?” he cried. “Take him! Seize*
him! Puil offhis mask so that we may know who’1 we must hang at sunrise!”.
Prospero stood in the blue room when he spoke these words. They sounded through the seven rooms, Ioud and clear. At first, as he spoke, sorne of the dancers started to rush toward the strange masquerader. But they stopped, afraid, and no one dared to put out a hand to touch him. The stranger started to walk toward the second room. He passed within a few feet of Prospero, who stood still, surprised. And while the dancers moved back from the center of the room, the stranger moved quietly, without being stopped, with a slow and measured step, through the blue room to the purpie room — through the purpie room to the green room — through the green to the yellow — through this to the white — and then to the violet room.
As the stranger was entering the seventh room, Prospero suddenly and angrily rushed through the six rooms. No one dared to fo!low him. He held a sharp knife* high over his head, ready to strike the stranger. When he was within three or four feet of the strange masquerader, the stranger turned and stood silent, looking firmly into Prospero’s eyes.
There was a cry — and the knife dropped shining upon the black floor, upon which a minute later Prospero himse!f feil, dead. The dancers then rushed into the black room. The strongest of the rnen tried to hoid the
masquerader, whose taIl form stood beside the black clock; but when they put their hands on him they found inside the grave-clothes no human form, no body — nothing!
Now they knew that it was the Red Death itself that had come in the night. One by one the dancers feil, and each died as he feil. And the fires died. And the clock stopped. And darkness and decay* and the Red Death ru!ed forever over a!!.
NOTES
1. Feed on: one of the many two-word verbs in English. 4 usualiy means “give food to.”
Adding changes the aning, which becomes
“take food or nourishment om,” or, as here, “take support from, be supported by.”
2. Leave: here, means “allow to continue to do” sornething. A similar meaning, though not exactly the same, can be found in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Part 3: “The police had left the room as they found it.”
A different meaning occurs in William Wilson, Part 2: “1 ieft that oid school and never entered it again,” and aiso Part 4:
“You must leave my room, and leave it now.”
3. Changing the order of words (from the usual “its windows were blue”) draws the listener’s attention to the color and emphasizes the importance of that color.
Changing the order of words to achieve a special effect is a frequent feature of Poe’s style. 4. So = g: See Life and Writings, Part 1, note 4.
4. Usualiy means “going a rather long distance into (She put the knife deep into his heart) or down into (The hole in the ground was deep).” It has other rneanings which are not ciosely related to distance, but rnost of thern have sorne meaning similar to far, such as “more, very, much.”
Deep blue is a very biue blue, without any green or yeilow in it; it also implies that the color is rather dark. A deep blood color is, then, a very red red of low brilliance.
ote a similar use of deeply on page 16.
5. Blood-colored: See The PalI of the Flouse of Usher, Part 2, note 7
6. Great: here, means not oniy “big” or
“large” but “very large.” Great has other meanings, but ah of them contain the idea of “more than is usual” or “more than others of its kind.” Here, the clock is much bigger than clocks usuahiy are. Near the end of The Pali of the House of Usher the
61 story-teiler notes that because of their
“great thickness” the ciouds cut off ah hight from the moon and the stars. The meaning of “large” is here not as irnportant as the rneaning “thicker than ciouds usuahiy are.”
7. Most of Poe’s stories were written using the pronounj, the story-telier “talks” with the reader. Poe probably felt that thisstyhistic device helped give a feeling of truth to his stories. Here, the phrase “You may be sure that. . .“ adds little to the rneaning of the sentence, “The clothes the dancers wore . . . were strange and wonderful.” But it does help to make the reader feel as if he is reahly hearing the story.Goes on = continues: Compare Life and Writings, Part 2, note 4. Laughed at:
See The Story of William Wilson, Part 1, note Who we must hang at sunrise: Since who is the object of the verb hang sorne might think it should properly be whom buTEs would sound strange, and is not usually said. The question word who has never had the form whom in normal speech; and who in the present case is really a question word. The sentence, “Puli off his mask so that we may know who we rnust hang at sunrise!” means, “Puli off his mask so that we may find the answer to the question: who must we hang at sunrise?”
EXERCISES
A. In this exercise you have three choices: a, b, and c. Choose the one which most nearly means the same as the words with a une under them.
1. No sickness had ever been so great a killer or so fearful to see as the Red Death.
a. dead b. deadly c. deadening
2. The ruler of that land lived in a large and beautiful stone building.
a. farm b. house c. palace
3. Everyone was asked to come to a party
B. Dressed in fine clothes and with his eyes, or perhaps his whole face, covered by a piece of cloth. a. mask b. mash c.
masquerade.
Everyone seemed now deepy to feel that the person who had not been seen before should not have been allowed to come among them dressed in such clothes. a.
strangely b. strangeness c. stranger When Prospero looked upon this fearful form he was first filled with great fear — and then with anger. a. terror b. wonder c.
terrorism.
8. The knife had a fine cutting edge.
a. was sharp b. was duIl c. was pretty 9. He felt that his mmd was going very fast
in circies inside his head.
a. rushing b. crushing c. brushing
10. I was afraid to enter the room.
a. dared b. did not dare c. did not care 11. When it was time to mark the hour, the
clock spoke with a deep sound as beautiful as music. a. tone b. tongue c. ton
12. The clothes the dancers chose to wear were strange and wonderfu 1.
a. customs b. costume c. costumes
13. In the room stood a greatclock of black wood. a. famous b. large c. noisy
14. The light that fell through the blood- colored glass was the most fearful of them alt. a. afraid b. frightening c. filled with fear
15. The color of the windows in the seventh room was a deep blood color.
a. clear bright red b. blue-red color c. very dark red.
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