BASIC PRESENTATION

The Characters

The Masqueraders

Prince Prospero

The Red Death

The Setting

The Conflict

There is an epidemic known as the "Red Death" and the rich Prince Prospero decides to lock himself with a thousand people in a castle, to stay safe from epidemic. After a few months he decides to throw a party for his guests. It is a grandiose masquerade party in seven rooms, each decorated with a different theme. In the seventh room there is a large pendulum: the sound is so disturbing that, every hour, everyone stops in fear. When midnight arrives all the participants stop again and their attention is drawn to a mask, which represents a figure struck by the Red Death. Prospero chases the mask to chase it away, but dies.

The Death

Poe say that true equality exists in death; both the poor and the rich will eventually succumb to death's grip.

The clock

The clock is a kind of warning. Once every hour, the court stops to think of all the poor unfortunates abandoned to their fate. This induces panic in them, the weakness of a problem that they try to hide and forget under luxury and comfort, but which every time the pendulum stops, they are immediately ready to forget, laughing at themselves and promising to not do never again.

The rooms

The rooms represent the stages of life. The rooms begin in the east and progress westward, as a metaphor for the path of the sun. This connects the cycle of the day to the cycle of a life: morning is birth while night is the end of life, death. Every single room and its color have a symbolic meaning that also refers to the life cycle. Blue indicates birth, violet childhood, green growth, orange strength, white wisdom, purple the darkening of life and black death, finally the red of the window is associated with blood.