The Masque of the Red Death

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Reading Check

1. How is the pestilence called the “Red Death” described? (Paragraph 1)

2. How do the rooms in which Prospero hosts his Masquerade illustrate his “love of the bizarre”? (Paragraph 4)

3. What are each of the color-coded rooms decorated with? What is the only room that doesn’t have this decoration? (Paragraph 7)

4. In your own words, describe what the following quote means: “Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.” (Paragraph 9)

5. How does Prospero react to the sight of the new masked figure? (Paragraphs 10-11)

6. Why does Prospero follow the masked figure through the color-coded rooms? (Paragraph 13)

Multiple Choice

1. How long does it take for the Red Death to consume a person? (Paragraph 1)

A) a couple of weeks

B) mere seconds

C) half an hour

D) overnight

2. Read this quote: “All these and security were within. Without was the ‘Red Death.’” These words are an example of which of the following literary devices? (Paragraph 2)

A) simile

B) foreshadowing

C) personification

D) point-of-view

3.