Blogger #10- Yinglin Guan- Period 9- 10/12/2021

Blogger #10- Yinglin Guan- Period 9- 10/12/2021

Aim: How are allegories and symbolism utilized to highlight the conditions in “The Masque of the Red Death”?


Do Now: 

Based on your research of the Number “7”, share your findings with your partner.

• I found that the number seven has had significance in many major religions. For example:

        - It is presented in the Book of Revelation (seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven stars).
        - Muslim pilgrims walked around the Kaaba, Islam’s most holy site) in Mecca seven times.
        - There are seven higher worlds and seven underworlds in Hinduism.
        - In Buddhism, the newborn Buddha rises and takes seven steps.

• Also, I found that it is heavily connected to the Bible. For example:

        - The blood from the sin offering is sprinkled seven times.

        - It takes Solomon seven years to build the temple.

        - According to John’s revelation, there are seven spirits, seven golden lamp stands, seven thunder, etc…

• To begin today’s lesson, we started off with sharing our findings of the Number “7” with our group.

        - Ahmad: “The number seven means completeness and perfection (both physical and spiritual).”
        - Joshua: “It also biblically represents creation, where the god created the universe in seven days.”
        - Elizabeth: “It is often associated with luck and magic. An example is the jackpot, where you get the biggest prize by rolling three 7s in a row.”

• After two minutes of group discussion, it was time for class discussion. Matthew started by sharing his thoughts that “the number seven is a representation of completion and a symbolism of God's authority over the world”. Ilaria then says “it finds a place between the two worlds, the world of life and the world of death”. Later, Charith says “it means lucky, beneficial, and effective.” Ms. Peterson agrees and added on by saying that “seven is seen as a lucky number and it is all around us, such as the number of days in a week and the seven continents.”

Then, Ms. Peterson showed us a slide with a brief summary of the number 7:

• Give a sense of change and security
• Representation of the perfect life cycle and renewal
• Seven stages of life
• Seven virtues
• Seven flaws
• Seven punishments
• The number of days it takes for God to create the universe
• Seven Wonders of the world
• Seven deadly sins

A short five minute video that give additional explanation of the number seven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBRXMRYzYOg


As the conversation on the number “7” came to an end, we began to go into the discussion of learning what allegory is.

Allegory

The word allegory is a parable, story, and fable that conveys a deeper meaning. It comes from the Greek word “allegoria”, which means “ speaking otherwise”. Everything has a different meaning underneath the literal one, like a story underneath a story. It is also a literary device where the characters, setting, objects, and occurrence symbolizes a hidden idea, meaning, message, or moral. It is sometimes referred to as an “extended metaphor”.




People often get confused with the difference between a metaphor and allegory. Here’s an example: “The Tortoise and the Hare”

• Allegory: A story that points to a moral that “slow and steady wins the race”.
• Metaphor: The tortoise represents a methodical person and the hare symbolizes a rushed person.

Video shown in class that gives a deeper understanding of allegory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3iXy-I2PEg


Additional video that gives a brief explanation of the literary term allegory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Rm5JXE_kE



Additional Notes (Allusion):
Ms.Peterson says, “Allusions are references that are unexplained to something else. They are unexplained because they operate under the premise that you already know it and have been exposed to it.”

Example: “Wake up sleeping Beauty!”




When the discussion of allegory ended, we began to do spirit reading on section one and two of “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. As we read, we have to look for what the events and the people of the story might mean and try to interpret the events on an allegorical level.




Link to the reading: The Masque of the Red Death




After reading section one and two, we had to discuss and answer the question with our team.




Group discussion and answers :

1) The “Red Death” symptoms include sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution and the trademark red blood that came out as a result of the plague concretely shows if someone has been infected.. It takes half an hour for the plague to kill its victim.


2) The symbolic meaning of King Prospero’s name may suggest a variety of things. It alludes to the Prosperity of the Prince, meaning that his kingdom is very rich. It is also indicated in the story that he only wants himself and other wealthy people to enjoy prosperity without trying to aid the poors.


3) Our group inferred that the setting of the story takes place in a royal court and during the medieval time (feudal era) with the description of wealth and entertainment he is having in his abbey. It also draws connections to the real life Black Death.


4) Prince Prospero summoned and took a thousand of his knights and dames to the abbey of his castle because he wanted to quarantine the people so that no one would get the disease. He wants to keep himself and the top class people safe and secured.


5) Prince Prospero’s actions shows that he is not really a dauntless and sagacious ruler. He does not demonstrate fearlessness of determination, but instead cowers away at the plague. His actions show that he is a cowardly leader. He only protected the people with high power and left the lower classes to fight the disease by themselves.


6) The abbey and the courtiers are very big in size. It was designed by Prince Prospero with a large iron gate that keeps people from coming in and out by trapping them even if they don’t want to. There was nothing they could do about it.


7) Things that Prince Prospero brings with him to the abbey to entertain his one thousand guests include musicians, clowns, ballet dancers, buffoons, wine, improvisatori, and beauty.


8) The guests and Prince Prospero have been trapped in the abbey for five or six months. Afterwards, he decided to host a masked ball to entertain his one thousand guests.


9) Within the abbey are parties, safety, security, fun and entertainment. On the other hand, outside of the abbey wasn’t that good because Red Death is still deadly as ever.


Reflection:
Throughout the lesson, I have acquired a great deal of information. I learned about symbolism and representation of the number seven. It means completeness, perfection, and luck. I also came to realize that the number “7” is all around us. For example, seven days of a week, seven continents, seven punishments, seven virtues, seven wonders of the world, and god created the world in seven days. We were then taught about allegory. It comes from the Greek word “allegoria”, which means “ speaking otherwise”. Additionally, the video furthered our understanding of allegory. Everything has a different meaning underneath the literal one. I also learned that allusions are unexplained because they operate under the premise that you already know it, such as Sleeping Beauty and Alice in wonderland. I learned this because we can interpret events of “Masque of the Red Death” on an allegorical level. I can do this by referring back to the aim of this lesson. By referring back to the aim, allegories and symbolism were utilized to highlight the conditions in “The Masque of the Red Death” by showing that the wealthy always seem to get more wealthy but the poor seem to get in a more devastating condition and situation. In the future, I will use what I learned by incorporating and looking for allegory in my future readings.