Knock Knock, it's Death Again
I blogged about Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" for my American Lit class, but that's okay, there's a good bit I can say about this story.
"But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious" (357). It seems that when most people read this story, they think Prospero likes to party and nothing else. He does, but there's more to him than that. Sagacious means keen or insightful. He designed the fortress so that no one could in or out and designed the hallways to have many twists and turns like a maze. He's described as bizarre, which certainly fits. However, his sagacious nature comes into play when the masked figure comes when he's "convulsed in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but in the next, his brow reddened with rage" (359). He doesn't know who/what the stranger is, but it must be something unnatural if it was able to get in.
Interesting observation. From what we discussed in class, it seems like more people did look at Prospero as being just the party-guy. Prospero was actually intelligent and I think he was basically saying "death is coming, so we might as well enjoy our time in here."