Title: The masque of the Red Death

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Date of publication: May 1842

Setting: The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as "the red death" by hiding in his abbey.

Characters:  - The Prince Prospero: It's an eccentric man but also a person selfish because he abandoned his people when the pestilence has become much dangerous outside !

                     - The Red Death: It's a " person, character " weird because it is no solid. Indeed when the people try to touch her, they don't arrive ! We can said that it " transparent ". It wearing a white mask and a cape.

Then in the short story there are an other people as: the dames of court, the knights.

Main theme: "The Red Death" who's the pestilence. It terrorized and killed everybody...

Summary of the plot: During a long time the pestilence ravaged the country: it "called " The Red Death". It caused in people of sharp pain, sudden dizziness and profuse bleeding. The patients were completed in half in hour. Result the depopulated of his dominions, the prince Prospero gathered in one of his abbeys: Knights and Dame of his court. After, 5 or 6 month of seclusion in abbey, the Prince organized a sumptuous masked ball.

                                  The Prince was an eccentric person. That's why, he had decorated very strangely the 7 rooms where there was the ball. Indeed, each rooms had a specific color. Moreover, the color of the windows corresponded to the decoration. For example there was a blue, a crimson, a green, an orange, a white, a purple. However the 7th was different: she was black and the panes of the windows were deep blood color. It was sinister and dark.

                                  This room inspired fear to the people, that's why nobody wanted to enter. Inside was a large ebony clock that sounded sinisterly every hour; so everybody stopped to talk and the orchestra ceased to play. A trouble was created. Indeed the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. Then, when the echoes of the clock was stopped, hilarity through again the crowd.

                                  The evening, passed well until a strange character come to perturb the people. Dressed a cape and a sinister mask, the character advanced...so.

Personal opinion: I don't like this short story because I found stranve, weir. Moreover I struggled to understand the short story but good...it's a short story original ^^

To read the short story see the link: ( Link )