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Read and Think Critically Critical Reading
1. How would you describe Prospero in “The Masque of the Red Death”? Determine his primary character trait by citing specific examples from the story.
2. As Prospero prepares for the party on page 62, the narrator notes, “The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think.” What happens later in the story when the guests stop to think?
3. The speaker of “The Raven” references “Night’s Plutonian shore” twice (lines 47 and 98) in the poem. What does this phrase means in the context of the poem? Use details from the poem to support your answer.
4. In the poem, the speaker describes how he recently lost his love, Lenore. Make an inference about how this loss affects the speaker’s feelings about the raven.
Literary Lens: Mood
The mood in a literary selection is the atmosphere created by the writer. Tone, setting, diction, and imagery are literary elements used to create the mood. Using a chart like the one below, compare the moods in both Poe’s pieces, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Raven.” Analyze how specific literary devices contribute to the mood. Support your answers with textual evidence.
Author’s Style: Plot Structure
Briefly summarize the plot of the “The Masque of the Red Death.” Then read the quotation below. Evaluate the complexity of the plot versus the emotional impact of the story. Based upon what you know about Poe’s style, what do you think Poe’s primary goal was in writing the story?
Literary Movement: Comparing Gothic Literature
Collaborate Compare the Gothic elements of “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Raven.” Discuss in a small group which of these pieces you think was the most Gothic in nature. Consider Gothic elements, such as melodrama and suspense as well as the grotesque supernatural.
The Masque of the Red Death
The Raven
Mood
Textual Evidence and Literary Device
I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. Keeping originality always in view—for he is false to himself who ventures to dispense with so obvious and so easily attainable a source of interest—I say to myself, in the first place,“Of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?”
—Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”
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