AIM: How do the rooms embody the metaphor for life in “The Masque of the Red Death”?
WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Do now: Why do you believe most students see the name “Shakespeare” and cringe (shrink)?
In this Do Now, we had to brainstorm why most students see the name “Shakespeare” and cringe at it. Many of my classmates and I believed that it was due to the fact that Shakespeare's works were very hard to understand. The way that Shakespeare presents his works and the vocabulary he uses is very different from modern day English. One classmate had even mentioned that whenever they attempted to read one of Shakespeare’s pieces, they always ended up struggling to focus on the main point. This is because the majority of the time, they can barely understand the things he was saying with such high vocabulary. Therefore, we believe that people will eventually get bored or tired of Shakespeare and ultimately cringe whenever they need to do assignments on it.
We then went over what is a theme again in order to make sure we have a full understanding of what it is in order to apply it to future works. From the discussion we had in class, we concluded that a theme is a message that the reader can come about based on the literary work they went over. Most of our classmates remember this from their freshman year. Ms Peterson also made it clear that a theme wasn’t just a topic or subject but more of a point the author was trying to convey.
After going over what a theme was again, we were introduced to this short film called William Shakespeare Benedict Cumberbatch 7 Ages of Man. It was originally based off of a short excerpt.
Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NUDaijP5SEIWYrb1IT-HD7NjkryIt0FN/view
Excerpt Link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n9gcwUo2aRErjNSqo4qyWmQpWEKMd6h/edit
After watching the short film and reading the excerpt, we had to work collaboratively in our groups on an activity that related the information in the recent readings that we have done. This activity made us relate the different colors of the rooms in “The Masque of the Red Death” to the different stages of life in the excerpt “As You Like It.”
These were the following answers that my group and I came up with in class.
We associated infancy with the color blue due to the fact that the color blue resembles health and life. Therefore, my groupmate, Fiona, said this relates to an infant mewling and puking and the meaning of “new life” in the color blue.
The whining school boy was associated with the color purple because I thought that his actions corresponded to being playful, whimsical and unstable. My groupmates agreed to this because the schoolboy was walking to school like a snail which represents the unstableness he is experiencing as he is maturing through this stage of life.
We believed that the lover represented the color green because this lover was very inexperienced in romantic relationships. Because this color symbolizes inexperience and immaturity, my group and I concluded that these two would represent each other very well.
The soldier was the color orange. Kiara, another one of my groupmates, stated that the soldier is determined and enthusiastic about his role in society based on the excerpt. Therefore, she said that it would represent the meanings of the color orange such as joy, determination, and enthusiasm.
We concluded that justice represented white since the color white meant innocence, life, light, and purity. All of us thought that this was the prime time of this person’s life and thus, we agreed that it can be associated with the meanings of the color white. One of my group mates said this is the peak of the stages of life.
The Pantaloon was associated with the color violet because the visual description of the man symbolized wisdom and sensitivity. We analyzed that he had spectacles which could’ve symbolized his wisdom and his old age could’ve symbolized his sensitivity.
Lastly, oblivion was the color black/scarlet. Fiona stated that oblivion meant to be completely forgotten. I said that it is very similar to the meaning of these colors since the symbolism of black is death and when you die, you will eventually be forgotten.
After finishing up this activity, Ms. Peterson then revealed information that helped us better understand our answers. She first went over the importance of the number 7 and how it relates to the work we are doing. One of our classmates reminded us that the number 7 could mean completeness and perfection. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” there were 7 rooms in 7 different colors. We know that these represented the stages of life which ties back to how the number seven meant completeness. We then moved on to explaining how the different colors represented the different stages of life. It started off with blue symbolizing birth/infancy. Purple meant childhood and the beginnings of growth. Green represented the teenage years. Orange is for young adulthood. White is adulthood or mid-life. Violet is the elderly years and lastly, black symbolized death. Red was reserved for blood and fear but it is not included fully in the Seven Ages of Man.
Prince Prospero's Indulgences
How can the Masque of the Red Death be perceived as a symbol of Prospero’s indulgences in the Seven Deadly Sins?
After being presented with this question, one of our classmates said that Prospero was greedy, which is one of the seven deadly sins. They said that he was selfish since he isolated himself right when the plague had hit and didn’t bother to help any of his people out. He trapped himself with the richest people so that he didn’t have to give many of his resources out. Everything he did was to benefit himself and himself only.
The Seven Deadly Sins
After asking that question, Ms. Peterson then gave us a presentation on the Seven Deadly Sins to further help us understand what the true meanings are behind it and how it relates to Prince Prosepero. Vanity and Pride was the excessive belief in one’s own abilities or setting one’s heart on things of little value. This relates to how Prince Prosepero had so much pride to the point he thought he could escape the plague that easily. We also went over another sin, sloth, which meant being lazy. One of our classmates said that Prince Prospero was sloth because he is living off of materialistic things that he didn’t work for. Prince Prospero also demonstrated the sin, Gluttony. After trapping himself in a castle with a few other people, he decided to hold a fancy ball despite the disaster that was happening outside. Since gluttony means the overindulgence in mainly food and water, this lavish ball that he held proves that he has attributes of gluttony. The fourth sin that we went over would be lust. Although lust typically has the meaning of sex, it still related to this story because we can infer that it would happen in a lavish party full of people. Greed was another sin that we all believed related to Prince Prospero's character. Greed was when someone wants more than what they need and throughout the story, he helped those that didn’t need his money in order to salvage it. Prince Prospero also showed signs of envy. This meant that someone was jealous of someone else having something. In this story, it is very clear that people outside the castle would be envious of Prince Prospero living lavishly. Lastly, the last sin that was shown in this story would be wrath. Wrath meant an out-of-control emotion of rage. One of our classmates said that this was shown when Prince Prosepero went against the Red Death and also since he wanted to stab him with a dagger.
The Seven Cardinal & Theological Virtues
To conclude this lesson up, Ms. Peterson showed us the seven cardinal and theological virtues as a relation to the seven deadly sins. These virtues come from Christian traditions and it is said that the difference between cardinal and theological virtues is that theological virtues are built inside of you. These virtues are morals that people religiously believe in for every person. Some cardinal virtues include prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. One of our classmates said that justice was something that Prince Prospero didn’t do because he isolated himself with the wealthy when a plague hit. The theological virtues include faith, hope, charity or love. I believe that Prince Prosepero was a really bad example of charity due to the fact that he didn’t bother to help those struggling outside.
Reflection:
In today's lesson, I learned that there are deeper meanings to the different colored rooms in “The Masque of the Red Death.” I learned how the symbolism in these rooms can lead to a way more detailed understanding of the text. I learned how these rooms represent the different stages of life and how the color symbolizes the meaning to them. This helped me discover that the recurring theme of “The Masque of the Red Death” was that death was inevitable. I then learned the seven deadly sins and how they each apply to Prince Prospero with his ruling of his kingdom. The reason as to why we learned this today was to help us dive deeper into the meanings/themes of “The Masque of the Red Death” so that we can prepare for any questions concerning this topic in the future. I will use symbolism and themes in the future by applying it to future stories or excerpts.
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