Architecture, Decoration and Site Selection in Poe''s "The Masque of the Red Death": Modern Environmental Psychology and Chinese Feng-Shui

• Main Authors: Tsai-Hsing Liao, 廖彩杏
• Other Authors: James Barton Rollins
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82153636679406416863

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文研究所 === 89 === In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe remarkably achieves the clarity of complex and dramatic spectacles--the Prince Prospero’s grotesque abbey and his elaborate masque--through his genius in language. This thesis aims to clarify the meaning (implications) of Prospero’s unusual abbey in the tale. The thesis attempts to examine the interrelationships between the Prince Prospero and his bizarre abbey from three different perspectives: Chinese feng-shui, modern environmental psychology and Jungian analysis. Chapter One investigates the function of Prospero’s unusual building. Its architectural anomalies include remoteness, seclusion, irregular architectural disposition, difficulty of access, orientation and colors. There is a complicated twofold structure here dealing with the bizarre setting by contrast between the perspectives of Chinese feng-shui and modern environmental psychology. Chapter Two examines Prince Prospero’s psychic transformation and its possible connection with his unusual abbey: how the bizarre setting develops Prospero’s delusion, compulsive behavior and subversive commanding figure. Chapter Three focuses the meaning of voluptuous decorations by Jungian analysis. Rather than the operation of the abbey upon Prospero in Chapter One, Jungian ideas stress the environment as a reflection of the human mind. Chapter Four explores Poe’s retarding devices─the masquerade toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of seclusion. The comparison between abbey and masquerade helps integrate the above three viewpoints.