3/9: Period 7 "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe with Ms. Camp

✋ Reminder...

Things to remember:

There will be a Vocabulary Quiz this Thursday on March 12. (I know, I know.)

The Reading Guide Questions are DUE today, March 9 (March 10 or 11 extension for a select few).

The Symbolism worksheet is due at the end of class, 3/9.

You had the weekend to work on it. No exceptions. If you were absent, please come see me during independent work time.

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Agenda for 3/9 Monday:

Learning Targets:

I will be able to understand and explain the impact of author's choices. (11-12R3)

I will be able to use content-specific vocabulary to explain the complexity of the story. (11-12W1c)

I will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text. (11-12R4)

I will be able to draw evidence from the text to support my analysis. (11-12W5)

Activities and Work Time:

We will watch a video on COVID-19 and a video on "The Masque of the Red Death".
You will write a journal response answering the following questions:

What are three [3] things we can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
Is COVID-19 similar to the Red Death?
Given the technology we have access to today, think back to "The Masque of the Red Death". Why do you think the masqueraders and Prince Prospero never stood a chance against the Red Death? Use paragraph numbers and textual evidence to support your answer.

3.We will learn about symbolism and complete the handout.

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Let's watch a video on COVID-19. Pay close attention.

...

Now, we will watch a video on "The Masque of the Red Death".

...

Open your Chromebooks/personal laptops and go to Google Docs to start a new document.

This is how you are to format your document for full credit:

Double space your paper.

Your Name

Ms. Campanaro

ELA III

9 March 2020

Journal Entry

After formatting your assignment, answer the following questions. Minimum 100 words. You have 10 minutes.

What are three [3] things we can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
Is COVID-19 similar to the Red Death? If yes, how? If no, why not?
Given the technology we have access to today, think back to "The Masque of the Red Death". Why do you think the masqueraders and Prince Prospero never stood a chance against the Red Death? Use paragraph numbers and textual evidence to support your answer.

When you are finished, you are to share via email your assignment to: mscampteaches@gmail.com

***Once you have finished the Covid-19 journal entry and shared with me, please go to your e-mail. There is a survey, which Ms. Nicastro is requiring that everyone in the building complete. It's on climate and culture.
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Tuesday, March 10

Let's learn about symbolism. What is it?

Symbolism is a literary technique. (Remember, literary techniques are specific, deliberate constructions of language which an author uses to convey meaning.)

Symbolism: The use of specific objects or images to represent abstract ideas. A symbol must be something tangible or visible, while the idea it symbolizes must be something abstract or universal. This term is commonly misused, describing any and all representational relationships, which in fact are more often metaphorical than symbolic.

What is an example of a symbol and what does it represent?

Take a look at the handout.

Name: Date: Period:

Symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death”
Directions: Fill in the chart below. In the left column write a symbol from “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the middle column write a specific example from the story that includes the symbol. In the right column explain the significance of the example. Due at the end of class, 3/10.

Symbol in TMRD (Character, setting, object…)	Write a specific example from the text where the symbol is present.	What is its significance? Why is it important?
Example: The Abbey	“...to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.” (paragraph 2).	The Abbey is a place of confinement and represents a physical barrier from the Red Death. Once inside, the courtiers welded the bolts so no one can get in or out. When the Red Death is acknowledged and Prince Prospero dies, everyone finds themeselves trapped inside. This results in their death.

Brief Analysis: Thinking about these symbols, what lessons or themes are conveyed throughout the story?

50 word minimum. Write in complete sentences.

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Agenda for 3/11, Wednesday:

Learning Targets:

I will be able to understand and explain the impact of author's choices. (11-12R3)

I will be able to use content-specific vocabulary to explain the complexity of the story. (11-12W1c)

I will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text. (11-12R4)

I will be able to draw evidence from the text to support my analysis. (11-12W5)

Remember that you have vocabulary quiz this Thursday, March 12. (another copy below)

Activities and Work Time:

As a class...

We will listen to Benedict Cumberbatch's rendition of "The Seven Ages of Man".
We will look at and interpret the seven rooms in "The Masque of the Red Death".
We will compare the rooms to the "The Seven Ages of Man".
We will record our findings in the Color Room Symbolism worksheet.
We will share our findings to each other.

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Now, let's watch and listen to Benedict.

Here is the poem: (Pay close attention to the seven ages)

The Seven Ages of Man

Poem lyrics from of Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

5 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

10 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

15 Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

20 Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

25 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Let's look at this graph. These are the rooms in the abbey with their corresponding color.

Now that we have listened to the "The Seven Ages of Man" and looked at the graph, which age corresponds to which room? What does each color mean to you? Which age matches your description of the colors?
-Think about these questions as you complete your worksheet.

* Your job is to work in your groups to complete the worksheet in its entirety. You have [20] minutes to work on this. This is due at the end of class.*

Name: Date: Period:

Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” and the Seven Rooms in TMRD

“The Masque of the Red Death” can be read on many different levels. An interpretation for what the seven rooms represent the “Seven Ages of Man” from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

Instructions: Read the poem, then match each room to a stage of man as represented in the poem. Explain your answers-- an example has been done for you. Due at the end of class.

Room Color	Age of Man	Interpretation and Reasoning
Blue	“The infant”	Blue can symbolize new beginnings—as in water, the source of life or an open blue sky of opportunity. This is also the room where the party starts.
Purple
Green
Orange
White
Violet
Black

Now that you are done with your worksheet, each group will informally present one color.

**Reflection: Did any group's answers surprise you?**

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Agenda for 3/5 Thursday and 3/6 Friday:

Learning Targets:

I will be able to understand and explain the impact of author's choices. (11-12R3)

I will be able to use content-specific vocabulary to explain the complexity of the story. (11-12W1c)

I will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text. (11-12R4)

I will be able to draw evidence from the text to support my analysis. (11-12W5)

Activities and Work Time:

As a class...

We will learn about Gothic Literature.
We will review the vocabulary together. There is a handout.
We will review the questions on the Reading Guide handout to know what to look for in the text.
We will read the text. You will have your own personal copy.
We will begin to answer the questions.
If we do not finish answering the questions, this becomes homework and is due on March 9.

Gothic Literature: A Brief Introduction

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V O C A B U L A R Y:

This is the vocabulary we will come across while reading "The Masque of the Red Death". Make sure you review the terms, there will be a vocabulary quiz on 03/12.

As we read the text and you find words you don't know, mark them with your pen/pencil and let me know. We will work on finding a definition together.

pestilence (noun)	A contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating. Synonym: plague
sagacious (adjective)	To have or show good judgement. Synonyms: Insightful, perceptive
contagion (noun)	It is the transmission of a disease by direct or indirect contact. Similar: a virus
bizarre (adjective)	Very strange, unusual, or out of the ordinary. Synonyms: Absurd, unreal
countenance (noun)	A person’s face or facial expression. Synonyms: face, facial features, appearance
decora (noun)	The decoration of a room or the style of a place. Synonyms: furnishings, ornaments, color palette
fête (noun)	It is a celebration or festival. Similar: a party
grotesque (noun)	Something that is comically or repulsively ugly or distorted. Synonyms: Freaky, peculiar, deformed
piquancy (noun)	The quality of being pleasantly exciting. Synonyms: Interest, fascination, liveliness.
arabesque (noun)	Intricate and flowing design patterns.
gaieties (noun)	The state or quality of being cheerful or joyful. Synonyms: happiness, high spirits
terror (noun)	The feeling of dread/anticipation that something bad will happen. Synonyms: fright, panic, shock
horror (noun)	The feeling of revulsion that usually follows a frightening sight, sound, or experience. Synonym: atrocity
out-heroded Herod (idiom)	A phrase that means “to exceed in violence or extravagance.” There was a king named Herod who ordered the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.
blasphemous (adjective)	To say or do something insulting against God or sacred things. Synonyms: profane, ungodly, disrespectful

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Moving on...

Let's review the reading guide and questions. As we read the guide, you will learn to know what to look for in "The Masque of the Red Death" to help you answer the following questions.

Always write in complete sentences and use textual evidence to support your answers.

Reading Guide and Questions:

Name: Date: Period:

Reading Guide Questions for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe

Pick the choice that best answers the question. For the short answer questions, please write in complete sentences. Use textual evidence to support your answers.

1. Once the disease, the “Red Death”, was contracted, how long did the infected person have to live? Please answer in a complete sentence.

2. The narrator describes the courtiers as resolving “to leave means neither of ingress or egress” in paragraph 2. What does this description reveal about the courtiers’ attitudes?

a. The courtiers’ decision to allow people to leave the abbey but never to re-enter shows that they value collective security over individual freedom.

b. The courtiers believe that the plague will never make it into the abbey, and in their arrogance they leave no options for escape.

c. The courtiers have no desire to ever reconnect with the outside world and wish to build a new society in complete isolation.

d. The courtiers take advantage of the rule that all homes be locked up in times of plague because it gives them an excuse to ignore the people’s suffering.

3. What effect did the chiming of the clock have on its guests? How did the elderly feel about the chimes? Refer to paragraph 6 and write in complete sentences. Use textual evidence.

4. In paragraph 8, the narrator says, “the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture;”. Why did the guests choose to skip visiting the last room? Please write in complete sentences. Use textual evidence.

5. Why was Prince Prospero “reddened with rage” at the sight of the “spectral image” in paragraphs 10-11? Please answer in complete sentences. Use textual evidence.

6. What does the phrase “untenanted by any tangible form” in paragraph 13 suggest about the intruder?

a. The intruder has no physical form and therefore cannot be restrained, which makes it similar to death and disease.
b. The intruder is able to vanish when it is attacked, which implies that it comes from another world, possibly the land of the dead.
c. The phrase conveys the extreme violence with which the revelers handle the intruder, who is seemingly left without a body.
d. The intruder’s body consists of disease-ridden vapors, which the Prince and other revelers unwittingly release by attacking it.

7. Which statement best identifies a major theme in the story?

a. Death is more powerful than life or growth.
b. Death is unavoidable, regardless of one’s wealth or power.
c. People must confront their problems rather than try to hide from them.
d. Fear is a strong tool that leaders can use to increase their power.

8. Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Q7?

a. “The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think.” (Paragraph 2)
b. “while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball” (Paragraph 3)
c. “‘Who dares?’ he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him — ‘who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?’” (Paragraph 11)
d. “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” (Paragraph 16)

9. What does the expression “He had come like a thief in the night.” mean in paragraph 14? Please write in complete sentences.

10. How does the description of the clock contribute to the development of the story’s theme(s)? Cite textual evidence in your answer and write in complete sentences. (50 words minimum).

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Now that we have reviewed the vocabulary and reading guide, let's proceed to read the text. Ms. Camp will read the first half of the story and then Ms. Parker will read the latter half of the story.

This is the text we will be using in class from 3/5 to 3/12. Use this as reference.

The Masque of the Red Death

By Edgar Allan Poe

[1] The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar 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. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban 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.

[2] But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death".

[3] It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

[4] It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. These were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected from the duke's love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose colour varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the colour of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood colour. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

[5] It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before.

[6] But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colours and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.

[7] He had directed, in great part, the movable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fête; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in "Hernani". There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these—the dreams—writhed in and about taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-coloured panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulged in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.

[8] But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumour of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.

[9] In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade licence of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

[10] When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

[11] "Who dares,"—he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him—"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!"

[12] It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.

[13] It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the green—through the green to the orange—through this again to the white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

[14] And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

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