Edgar Allen Poe uses symbols such as the Red Death, masquerade ball, and even the castellated abbeys in the allegory “The Masque of the Red Death” to teach all readers, no matter their age, ethnicity, or gender, to acknowledge other people’s problems. This story applies to real-life situations, such as the HIV outbreak in the 1980s; it was believed that the disease could only be contracted by homosexual men and drug users, so it seemed unimportant to the sober, straight community, who mainly just tried to ignore it. It was only when HIV was detected in straight women and children who did not use drugs that Americans started worrying about the disease and began funding and developing research on it. In this case, HIV was like the Red Death in …show more content…
The Ebola virus has always been around, but it has mostly been contained within Africa; but when a doctor visited Africa to treat the disease, he ended up contracting it and bringing it to America, where at least two other people contracted Ebola from him. America tried to ignore the Ebola virus in Africa until it entered the country, just like how Prospero tried to ignore the Red Death while it raged outside of the castellated abbeys, and only tried to address the problem when it appeared at his door. This is proven within the story, when “It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence” (83). While Prince Prospero could have been making efforts to calm his people or look into ending the plague, he chose to host a masquerade ball instead, leaving over half of his kingdom to fall ill and die a gruesome, painful …show more content…
Eventually, the Red Death, which Prospero had tried so desperately to evade, approached and killed him, so “now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each is the despairing posture of his fall” (88). Because the castellated abbeys can be considered a part of Prospero’s mind, then this clearly shows that denying the existence of a problem will not magically resolve it, and could instead cause bigger and even more pressing issues. Poe is proving that even if a problem does not directly affect someone, it should still be acknowledged, confronted, and dealt with in one way or another. It is clear that all of the symbols included in the story contribute to the allegory “The Masque of the Red Death”, which contains a lesson that applies to all people and teaches the reader to recognize other people’s problems, even if they do not affect the reader
The Sudan strain of Ebola began with a shopkeeper named Yu G. This strain spread throughout his district. A more horrible outbreak occurred in Zaire which started from the use of dirty needles in a medical clinic. Although many hundreds died, Preston gave details of a nurse named Mayinga N who was infected at Ngalemia Hospital.
In addition, individuals didn’t know the actual source of the virus, and that’s a major issue, because if they knew the actual source it would be easier to control the spread of the disease. Viruses are incurable and that what makes it more complicated, therefore people fear getting the virus. Previously doctors and physicians were not familiar with Ebola’s virus, especially with Charles Monet case they were all frightened, shocked, and unacquainted of the condition that he had, since it was a rare form of disease that no one knew how to cure it, or how to deal with
It is believed that the fruit bats first carried the disease Ebola. Being that it is contagious, scientists and doctors believe the disease first transferred to humans when people ate the fruit bats. With the Red Death, you died within thirty minutes. In those times, they were not sanitary. They could have had the symptoms for a long time and not known about it until it became severe, the day, or hour, they would die.
The first part of the book included the first known cases of Marburg disease. The Marburg disease became available in Marburg, Germany in 1967. Also, the well-known stories of Yu G. who was the first person to die from Ebola Sudan in 1976, and Mayinga N., a nurse who became infected with Ebola Zaire after helping treat a patient who dies of the disease. At first, Mayinga was in denial about her abnormal symptoms and spent two days in the city around thousands of civilians exposing her infection to everyone around her before going to the hospital, she ended up dying just like Monet. Another story consisted of a Lieutenant Colonel, Nancy Jaax.
In mid-fourteenth century Europe a plague (also known as the Black Death) appeared in which the first wave killed millions of people. But the plague didn’t stop there, it persisted, spreading around the whole known world and exerting its power on people up until the eighteenth century. In Europe there were many responses to the plague which included helping to stop and cure the plague, profiting off it, and trying to protect and care for their loved ones. One response to the plague was to help stop and cure the plague. As the traveler Heinrich von Staden observes, “....
In the reading by Peter Redman, he raises the argument that the ‘AIDS carrier” becomes the central representation of the HIV epidemic and how the representations of HIV cannot be narrowed down to one cause. In addition, the ‘AIDS carrier’ is represented as monster and the carrier spreads HIV from the deviant subpopulations to the mainstream. Also, AIDS has been connected to social and moral issues and singles out groups like gay men, black people, and young single women. These groups are then viewed as diseased subpopulations and that causes others to feel disgust and panic. The heterosexual men are then afraid to have physical or emotional contact with men in general and that’s why boundaries of heterosexual masculinity were produced.
Poe is often known for his dark, sometimes twisted short stories and poems. “The Masque of the Red Death” is no exception. In this short story, Poe creates and eerie and ominous mood by using a wide variety of literary techniques including imagery, diction, and syntax. Poe’s use of imagery contributes to the dark and mysterious mood of the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the first paragraph, a sense of darkness is conveyed in the sentence, “There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers.”
This may be true but, new discoveries show that the overall statistics of AIDS has fallen. “The 2013 United Nations report on AIDS indicated that between 2001 and 2012, however, the annual number of new infections in some 26 countries dropped by at least half and since about 2005 the annual number of deaths by AIDS globally has also declined” (“AIDS” 2). AIDS has declining rates, and is no longer posing a huge threat to humans as it once did, on the other hand, Ebola is more dangerous because it is constantly changing, and evolving, making it more complex and nearly impossible to
Edger Allen Poe is an incredible author of horror. His story, The Masque of the Red Death, was an amazing chiller about a party that was ended by a disease. Throughout the kingdom a disease is spreading from citizen to citizen, killing each one who possesses it so the king invites those closes to him to a party where no one can leave and will be safe from the disease but yet in hindsight they were locking themselves in with the disease. Throughout the course of this hair-raising story, several symbols are represented to array Poe’s theme of death. Symbols such as the seven colored rooms, the clock, and lastly the Red Death are all symbols that are displayed to help get Poe’s notion across.
The Masque of the Red Death: Essay The Masque of the Red Death is a short gothic horror story. Overall is about a prince who thinks he is invincible, while having a party one night a mysterious guest appears and all the party-goers are very frightened of him. In the end this red death man kills the prince along with many other people at the party. This story became more horrific because the setting was in a castle, there was supernatural elements, and there was revenge.
People have always tried to avoid death, but they cannot. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” the characters are trying to avoid the Red Death, but they fail. Every hour an ebony clock chimes indicating that life is passing and death is close. People begin to die every minute once the Red Death enters.
Demi Pyle February 20, 2018 English 1302 Looking Closer at “The Masque of The Red Death” In the grim short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842, “The Masque of the Red Death” tells the tale of a kingdom ravaged with disease and a prince’s journey to escape death. Poe hides underlying messages throughout the story, leaving the reader to interpret the true meaning of prosperity and death. Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism and imagery in the form of an allegory to reveal to the reader that death is inescapable, no matter how wealthy you are.
In Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, many symbols are used to justify the overall purpose and meaning of the story. These symbols include the ebony clock, the seven chambers, the scarlet and black room, and the Red Death itself. Each of these symbols help characterize the Prince and his guests, along with foreshadowing the overall outcome of the story. First of all, the seventh chamber and ebony clock not only provide a sense of eeriness, but reveal the underlying personalities and outcomes of the characters. For example, Zapf writes, “In the process of the story, of course, the seventh chamber more and more becomes the center of attention, and with it the clock of ebony which symbolizes the structure of temporality underlying and terminating all human
The notion that the Black Death from the middle ages is similar to modern day Ebola is a fascinating one, and one that can easily be contrasted. Sure, there are quite a few differences when it comes to the Black Death and Ebola; but even more similarities when comparing the two. From the actual science behind each disease, to the amount of people affected, even the countries that each infectious disease reached. The Black Death and Ebola are actually quite similar.
Fear can be very advantageous when it comes to surviving. Fear inhibits you from doing risky actions that can put you and others in danger; it keeps you cautious and careful. Even though fear helps you when surviving, fear can harm you in life. Fear can cause paranoia that keeps you from enjoying life. You start to obsess over minimal things leading to hallucination.