College

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?

---

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:

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" depicts the wealthy's insensitivity towards the suffering caused by the Red Death. Key excerpts illustrate how the privileged ignore the disease's impact on others while indulging in their own pleasures. This highlights a powerful social commentary on the moral failures of the elite during crises.


Explanation:

Analysis of Insensitivity in Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," several passages suggest that the powerful and wealthy are insensitive toward the outbreak of the disease and the suffering of others. The following excerpts highlight this insensitivity:

  1. "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." This line illustrates how the victims of the Red Death are abandoned by society, emphasizing the disconnect felt by the wealthy towards those suffering.
  2. "The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think." Here, the Prince Prospero dismisses the suffering outside the walls of his abbey, showcasing a stark disregard for the plight of others in favor of maintaining his own revelry.
  3. "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." This passage underscores the Prince's obliviousness to the tragedy surrounding him, highlighting the indifference of the aristocracy during a time of crisis.

These selections illustrate how the privileged choose to ignore the plight of those affected by the Red Death, instead indulging in luxury and pleasure. Poe uses these themes to criticize the moral failings of the wealthy during times of calamity.


Learn more about insensitivity of the wealthy here:

https://brainly.com/question/41353508


Other Questions