44 pages • 1 hour read
Edgar Allan PoeThe Masque of the Red Death
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1842A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Reading Check
1. How is the pestilence called the “Red Death” described? (Paragraph 1)
2. How do the rooms in which Prospero hosts his Masquerade illustrate his “love of the bizarre”? (Paragraph 4)
3. What are each of the color-coded rooms decorated with? What is the only room that doesn’t have this decoration? (Paragraph 7)
4. In your own words, describe what the following quote means: “Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.” (Paragraph 9)
5. How does Prospero react to the sight of the new masked figure? (Paragraphs 10-11)
6. Why does Prospero follow the masked figure through the color-coded rooms? (Paragraph 13)
Multiple Choice
1. How long does it take for the Red Death to consume a person? (Paragraph 1)
A) a couple of weeks
B) mere seconds
C) half an hour
D) overnight
2. Read this quote: “All these and security were within. Without was the ‘Red Death.’” These words are an example of which of the following literary devices? (Paragraph 2)
A) simile
B) foreshadowing
C) personification
D) point-of-view
3. What happens when the “gigantic clock of ebony” strikes on the hour? (Paragraph 5)
A) Everyone toasts to Prospero.
B) A new dance begins.
C) The guests become disturbed.
D) The guests learn of more deaths from the plague.
4. Who or what appears when the ebony clock strikes midnight? (Paragraph 8)
A) a masked figure
B) a dead body
C) a witch who curses the party
D) a doctor with bad news
5. Which description fits the masked figure? (Paragraph 9)
A) tall and gaunt
B) a stiffened corpse
C) dabbled in blood
D) all of the above
6. Who or what does the masked figure represent? (Paragraph 14)
A) hope for the future
B) an uprising against the wealthy
C) an unjust invasion of peasants
D) the Red Death
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Prospero gather his friends and lock everyone into his castellated abbey? What does this reveal about Prospero and his friends? (Paragraph 2)
2. Why do some people believe that Prospero is mad? What is significant about this characterization? (Paragraph 6)
3. Why do the guests feel terror, horror, and disgust at the image of the masked figure? What is significant about this moment? (Paragraph 8)
4. In which room does Prospero die? What is symbolic about this setting? (Paragraph 13)
Quizzes – Answer Key
Reading Check
1. The pestilence called “the Red Death” is described as fatal, hideous, bloody, and painful. (Paragraph 1)
2. The rooms in which Prospero hosts his Masquerade are not typical of this time period. They are unusually windy and decorated in distinct colors and they transition from one to another suddenly as one passes through them. (Paragraph 4)
3. Prospero has decorated each of the color-coded rooms with a dream that echoes the color of the room. The only room that doesn’t have this decoration is the seventh room, the black and red room. (Paragraph 7)
4. In this quote, Poe is saying that even the most morally debased people will hesitate to joke about certain deadly serious matters. (Paragraph 9)
5. When Prospero sees the masked figure, he reacts with anger and commands the figure to be unmasked so that he will know who he is to hang. (Paragraph 10-11)
6. Prospero follows the masked figure through the color-coded rooms because he is angry and wants to prove that he is not a coward. (Paragraph 13)
Multiple Choice
1. C (Paragraph 1)
2. B (Paragraph 2)
3. C (Paragraph 5)
4. A (Paragraph 8)
5. D (Paragraph 9)
6. D (Paragraph 14)
Short-Answer Response
1. Prospero gathers his friends in his castellated abbey to save the wealthy from the plague that is killing many of the town’s citizens. This reveals that Prospero and his friends are of a wealthy elite that care little for other human beings and use their wealth to avoid reality. (Paragraph 2)
2. Some people believe that Prospero is mad because of his unusual taste in food, colors, and fashion. His madness is significant because his guests are in danger as they are locked in an abbey with him, in the illusion of safety. (Paragraph 6)
3. The guests feel horror, terror, and disgust at the appearance of the masked figure because he’s hideous and his sudden and strange appearance is disturbing. His presence disrupts their feeling, or illusion, of safety. This is a significant turning point in the story because it reveals that these wealthy partiers are not safe anywhere. (Paragraph 8)
4. Prospero dies in the last room, colored red and black. Red symbolizes the blood of the Red Death that Prospero attempted to avoid, and black symbolizes the inevitability of death. (Paragraph 13)
Related Titles
By Edgar Allan Poe
