"Masque of the Red Death" Symbolism Analysis Floor Plan Activity

Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Masque of the Red Death" is an allegory, so the focus is on symbolism and setting in this post-reading floor plan activity. To begin, students work in small groups to decode the symbolism of characters, colors, and features of the castle as they closely examine descriptions from the text. This activity is also a good opportunity to discuss the link to Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" and other historical texts with information included in this activity. Next, they use this information to individually construct a floor plan of Prince Prospero's castle indicating appropriate colors and features from the text of the story. Project culminates with a poster of the floor plan diagram. Activity includes a rubric for assessing posters along with photos of examples!