The Masque of the Red Death

Instructor Name: Ms. Stanley

Date: Monday, 10/10/2011
Topic: The Dark Side of Individualism
Age Level of Students: 16 to 17 years old
English Level of Students: English III Standard

Required Materials

Paper Book Pencils Mask

Colored Paper Markers/Colored Pencils Note Cards

Objectives & Rationales

5.03 Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print
and non-print literary texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
summarizing key events and/or points from text. analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's
craft and style.
analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts,
characters and/or experiences.

4.01 Interpret meaning for an audience by:

identifying ambiguity, contradiction, irony, parody, and satire.

2.03 Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print
and non-print informational texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts,
characters and/or experiences.

Focus & Review

Teacher Input
Hello, How are all of you doing today?
Wait one the students responses.
Today we are going to begin the Dark Side of Individualism by reading Edgar
Allen Poes short story The Masque of the Red Death.
Poe is somewhat responsible for the creation of the short story and detective
stories.
Literature that is categorized as the Dark Side of Individualism usually is a
Gothic.
Gothic literature was created during the Romantic Movement. Some romantic
writers would write about the darker side of imagination. The darker side of the
imagination is where you find the fantastic, the demonic, and the insane.
 The dark side of individualism would look at an individual and see evil, where as
the light side would see hope.
Unlike Emerson or Whitman who wrote about the beauty of nature Gothic writers
would write about the darkness and the supernatural.
Gothic writing did not gain a foot hold in America until Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorn,
and others. these writers gave the Gothic a home in America by the 19th century.
Poe
Poe was the Master of the American Gothic. After having tragedy follow him
throughout his life he became well equipped to write about the darker side of life.
Many of the women in Poes life died of TB and his father figurers were usually
not around.
The Raven became one of Poes most famous works over night.
Red Death
The masque of the Red Death is a short story about a disease. The Disease that
Poe wrote about was much like the Black Death. The Black Death killed over 1/4
of Europes population in the middle of the 14th century.
Ask students if they know what a Masque is?
Wait on students responses.

Term that students need to know.

Have students write this term in their binders.

Allegory- is a work of literature with two layers of meaning where, characters objects and
events have abstract meanings or qualities.

Examples found on pages 456,458,460

Reading
Teacher will read the first two paragraphs of the story.
At the end of paragraph two ask students what was the courtiers attitudes
towards the Red Death once they were in the abbey?
Answer Carefree
Point out Allegory in the second paragraph.
Around line 32 bring out mask.
After this have a student read to the end of the page.
Ask students what they think Prince Prospero represents.
Answers should be like: Ignorance, Privilege, and Arrogance.
Choose another students to read until line 63
Ask students what they think the is important about the seventh room.
What does the black represent?
What does the red represent?
Teacher reads from line 63 to the end of the page.
Ask students what they think the clock represents?
Fate.
What happens when the clock strikes?
 Everyone pauses, they get nervous: they are afraid time (fate) is
ticking away, or that their time/fate is drawing near.
The teacher will choose another student to read to line 101.
Ask another student to read from line 102-112.
The teacher will read from line 113 to the end of the paragraph.
The teacher will ask students if this paragraph could have another meaning
and what they think it could be.
The dream- meaning light-heartedness, the precariousness of life,
self-delusion, ignorance of death
The teacher will choose another student to read from line 133-157
The teacher will then read until the end of the second paragraph.
The the teacher will choose a student to read the next two paragraphs.
After the student has finished reading the teacher will read until the end of the
page.
The teacher will then call on a stundet to read from line 221 to the end of the
paragraph.
Then the teacher will read until the end of the story.

Guided Practice
Once at the end of the story the teacher will ask students questions about the reading.
The students will work in pairs to answer three question about the reading.
1- What is the second meaning of the rooms?
Answer- stages of life.
2- Why does Prince Prosperos name seem ironic after reading the entire story?
Answer- he dies even though he is prosperous
3- What is the meaning of this story?
Answer- death comes to all.
Students will have Five minutes to answer these questions
Once the Five minutes are up the teacher will go over the answers.

After going over the questions the teacher will explain the next activity.
The students will work independently to create a mask.
The teacher will draw the different kinds of mask in the board.
Students will choose one of the styles of masks and create one depicting their greatest
fear.
The teacher will explain how Prince Prosperos greatest fear was the death and how he
embodied death as the Red Death.
Students should not make their mask to violent / they must be school appropriate.

Students are to work on their own to complete these masks. They are due at the end of the
class period. If you can talk quietly you can talk to others around you, but the masks are due at
the end of the period.