The Masque of the Red Death

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1842

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Thought & Response Prompts

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Personal Response Prompt

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How does Edgar Allan Poe’s story about a plague compare with your own recent experiences with a pandemic?

Teaching Suggestion: Keep in mind that COVID can be a traumatic conversation for some students who may have lost family or felt oppressed by lockdowns. But now that we’ve experienced an epidemic, old stories about plagues can suddenly be more relatable. You should find the angle most appropriate for your classroom’s experience.

"The Forgotten Plague" – PBS “American Experience” documentary about tuberculosis.

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Post-Reading Analysis

Think about the people hiding from the Red Death in Prospero’s castle. Do they deserve to be immune from the plague? Do they deserve to die in the end? Why or why not?

Teaching Suggestion: This is a question of morality, ethics, and class privilege. You can use this for a Socratic Seminar as well as for exploratory writing. Ties to the theme of The Unavoidability of Death