The Masque Of The Red Death Analysis

In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe the allegory of this story is death, symbolically and literally. The literal portion is about the Red Death and how no one can escape it.

In Poe’s short story, The Masque of the Red Death, he makes it pretty apparent that there is no possible way to escape death, no matter what rank you are. To get across this message he uses the ticking of a clock and the ring every hour to remind you death happens no matter what you do. He also adds in seven different rooms of varying colors blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black/scarlet. These seven rooms may represent a whole unit of time, like the days of the week. Poe also says that the rooms go east to west like the sun’s course. Every color of the room can also represent life itself, blue represents birth, purple is youth, green is adolescence, orange is adulthood, old age is white, imminent death is violet, then finally death itself is black/scarlet.

For instance, the panes were scarlet, a deep blood colour. The "bloody" red room thus becomes a place of ending not only due to the westward location, but also because of its color. Poe describes the last, black room as the dreadful endpoint, the room the guests fear just as they fear death. The room is feared by the guests because it reminds them of death, which is why no one enters the room. The room is involved in all of the main scenes throughout the course ofthe story. For example, this is the room Prince Prospero and his guests die from the Red Death and also where the clock is located. The reader sees how important the rooms are throughout the story and its main contribution to the theme.

Liz Brent states, ‘Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ may be interpreted variously as a parable for man’s fear of death.’ This specific quote gives great description on the feelings of the main character in this story. The conflicts overall play a major part in the story. As Kenneth Graham says, “If time is the destroyer of all things material, so, too, is the pendulum the destroyer in the pit, and the ebony lock in.” The critic is explaining the overall conflict of this story, and displays how the ebony clock is the symbol for death. In all, conflict is important to the story, as it ties back to the themes and describes the problems occurred.

The fires in each of the suite rooms serve as a representation of death. Poe depicts

The giant clock also was symbol of horror in the story. "Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang." Every hour the clock

Although Poe does not describe many of the Catacomb rooms, I believe he chooses not to. This is simply a tool to lead the readers to believe that the rooms are all the same, therefore, bringing sobering fear and possibly even death with them. Poe describes these few rooms, each having the decayed remains of the deceased, bringing on a feeling of uneasiness and fear. The air in the crypts is thick and oppressive, with the foul stench of decay and mold, which “…caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.” The main room is described as a small room four feet deep by three feet wide and six feet high, with chains affixed to the walls and human skeletons piled beside the entrance. Here, Montressor lures a drunk Fortunato into the room with the promise of Amontillado, only to chain him up and leave him to die.

Uses of light symbolism in stories is typically used to depict signs of pureness and life. Poe utilizes this literary element in his description of the rooms. When Poe describes the first of the seven rooms he says “ at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue and vividly blue were its windows.” Poe uses the color blue to represent the beginning of life, along with the room being on the eastern side, since the sun rises on the east. Another example

The seven rooms are a significant part to the theme of the story. In the story, Poe says, “...the moveable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders” (2). The seven rooms represent the stages of life. Each room is a different stage of life. As stated in “Interpreting Symbols in Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death’: Symbolism and Themes”:

Because inevitability of time and death seems to be the recurring theme, the most likely significance behind the number of apartments would be the seven stages of life. The first apartment is said to be placed most eastwardly and is blue in décor, which could signify the rising of the sun, the beginning of life, and the color of day. And the seventh, and most westerly apartment, is black with red accents and represents the end of life, the setting of the sun, and death. Poe did not intend a specific meaning for the number seven, just for the reader to be aware of the passing of time and the idea that the prince was trying to recreate a perfect world complete with "…all the appliances of pleasure…Without was the Red Death." (238). The Prince's recreation of the world is ironic because it is modeled after the one the Prince and his followers are trying to escape. The seven perfect rooms foreshadow the evitable downfall of perfection. The number seven appears six times in the text which may lead to some significance behind that number as well.

Poe’s use of symbolism is very evident throughout the story of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Much has been made about the meaning of the rooms that fill Prince Prospero’s lavish getaway. One such critique, Brett Zimmerman writes, “It is difficult to believe that a symbolist such as Poe would refuse to assign significance to the hues in a tale otherwise loaded with symbolic and allegorical suggestiveness” (Zimmerman 60). Many agree that the seven rooms represent the seven stages of human existence. The first, blue, signifying the beginnings of life. Keeping in mind Poe’s Neo-Platonism and Transcendentalism stance, the significance of blue is taken a step further. Not only does blue symbolize the beginning of life, but the idea of immortality is apparent when considering these ideas. “Perhaps ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ then, is not quite the bleak existential vision we have long thought it to be”, expounds Zimmerman (Zimmerman 70). Poe’s use of each color is significant to the seven stages

Poe uses allegory to allude to the double meanings of the characters Prince Prospero and the masked figure, as well as the setting of the chambers. Prince Prospero represents prosperity. While his nation is suffering from the “Red Death”, “…he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and lighthearted friends…and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbey” (420). His nobility and wealth give him the ability to ignore the horror around him and live in luxury. This refers to real life in that the privileged are the ones who are able to still live comfortably even if others are in a crisis. Prince Prospero also represents an ignorance, selfishness, and arrogance that come with wealth through right instead of hard work. He believes that “[t]he external world could take care of itself” and that it is “…folly to grieve, or to think” (420). Instead of taking action to help his people, he just leaves them in the grips of the “Red Death”. The “Red Death” is

2.) In Prospero 's abnormally designed castle, there were seven rooms that each had a different color, "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 close shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the wall" (Poe 1). The color of each of the seven rooms represents several main ideas relating to the story. The blue room depicts a new beginning, as it starts from the eastern wing of the castle. While the purple room illustrates wealth and nobility, the green room represents growth, as it can relate to the outburst of growing grass. As the colors red and yellow mix to form orange, the orange room portrays Poe 's use of

Poe’s use of the literary element ‘symbolism’ can be seen within the different colors of each of the seven rooms. As an example, Poe writes of the first room mentioned in the story, “These windows were of stained glass whose

Poe begins his use of symbolism early in the story when he describes the decour that Prince Prospero chose for his party. According to the story, Prince Prospero decorated seven rooms of his palace