Setting and Story

Setting and Story

The setting in the story, "The Masque of the Red Death", is very important to the story as a whole. In many situations it is needed to relay important ideas. There are three main things in the plot that give the story this special touch. One example is the color of the rooms of the abbey. The next thing is the seclusion of the abbey, This gives the characters a false sense of security and a sort of dramatic irony to the reader. The third thing in the setting was the era that story took place.

The colors of the rooms play an important role in the story. Each room seems to take on a kind of theme some more obvious than others. The Black room represented the "Red Death" even though this is not stated the reader can assume this because the people avoid that room during the story. No one enters it until the "Red Death" kills the prince in it. The rooms add a lot to the story. They help convey the idea that their are two forces at work. The good and the bad, the bad being the red death, and the good being the party, full of life and excitement. They also help the reader see that the people would rather forget about the plague outside, and that helps the reader realize why the people where so opposed to the "Red Death" when he made his appearance.

The seclusion of the abbey also adds to the story. The seclusion of the abbey gives the characters a sort of false sense of security. The characters believed that they would be safe from the plague by boarding up the gates and sealing themselves inside. When they where actually locking themselves into there own deaths, and by locking and welding the gates the author brings the attention of dramatic irony to the reader.

The third thing in the plot that had a significant effect on the story was the time the story took place. The effect of this ordeal accruing during medieval times is the reader associates all the suspicions and mythological ideas of that time with the story, allowing the reader to more actually experience the emotions of the people of that time. The time is also important because most of the areas where not densely populated so it further more enfisises the importance of seclusion.

The examples above show that the plot in stories, this one in particular, can help symbolize and show the reader in a different way an idea