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Select the correct text(s) in the passage.

Which three parts of this excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" highlight the suggestion that the powerful and wealthy in the story are insensitive toward the outbreak of the disease and those who are suffering?

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The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death."

It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

Answer :

Final answer:

The answer identifies three texts from Poe's excerpt that reflect the wealthy's insensitivity to the suffering caused by the plague. These selections indicate a preference for indulgence and ignorance over compassion. The theme of apathy among the privileged is clearly represented in these texts.


Explanation:

Selecting Texts from Edgar Allan Poe's Work


In the excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death", three parts that highlight the insensitivity of the powerful and wealthy toward the outbreak of the disease and the suffering of others can be identified:



  2. "The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine." This part emphasizes the communication of extravagance and indulgence among the wealthy while the suffering is happening outside their cloistered walls.

  4. "In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think." This statement suggests that the prince and his court choose ignorance and distraction over empathy for those affected by the plague.

  6. "The external world could take care of itself." This phrase conveys the egocentrism and detachment of the privileged class, clearly indicating their refusal to acknowledge the plight of the suffering populace.


Through these selected passages, Poe illustrates the theme of apathy among the wealthy in the face of widespread disease and death.


Learn more about Apathy in literature here:

https://brainly.com/question/37427157


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