The narrator describes Prospero's residence
thus:
But
first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven -- an imperial
suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the
folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the
whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been
expected from the duke's love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly
disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp
turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and
left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a
closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained
glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the
chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in
blue -- and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its
ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green
throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange
-- the fifth with white -- the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely
shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls,
falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber
only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here
were scarlet -- a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any
lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and
fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or
candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there
stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that protected
its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were
produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black
chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the
blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the
countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set
foot within its precincts at
all.
The key points to
remember are as follows:
1. There were seven rooms in
all.
2. The rooms were structured in a bizarre manner so
that "the vision embraced but little more than one at a
time."
3. All the rooms were of a different color: blue,
purple, green, orange, white, violet and black.
4. The
scheme of lighting for each of these rooms was even more bizarre especially for the last
room, so much so that no one wanted to enter this room.
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