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The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
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LITERARY LENS: Mood is the atmosphere created through the author’s use of literary techniques such as tone, diction, setting, and imagery. As you read, consider the emotional atmosphere Poe creates for the reader in the story.
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence1 had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar2 and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.3 The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban4 which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his
1 pestilence: a fatal epidemic; plague
2 Avatar: the physical embodiment of something
3 dissolution: death
4 pest ban: a notice that someone is afflicted with the plague
profuse:
excessive; abundant
dauntless:
bold; daring
Finding an American Voice The Masque of the Red Death
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