What Does Each Chamber Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death

In Poe’s Masque of the red death, Poe illustrates the stages of life and death. Each symbol that Poe presents in his short story coincide with facets of life that are impossible to not experience. The read death itself, represents death as an aspect of life. In the story, Prince Prospero and those he saved lock themselves in his castle in order to prevent any sign of the Red Death (disease in this story) from affecting them. Someone dresses as a victim of the disease in a costume to stir attention, and as Prospero attacks the villain, he dies. The story ends with the costume actually becoming the Red Death itself and attacking everyone inside. Even though they try to stop it, the red death still manages to get into the castle and kill

According to Poe, each chamber is a different color and represents the different stages of life. The first six chambers symbolize life as the colors are: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. Each color chamber are representative of Poe’s six stages of life, from childhood to old age. As the first six chambers represent life, the last two must signify death. The seventh chamber has black drapes but also contains red windows. With the color choice Poe chose to use, this chamber thus symbolizes the end of one’s life. Consequently, the last chamber in Prospero’s castle is all black. This chamber is used to indicate death itself. All of the guest refrain from going towards this chamber because that would mean that they are walking towards and accepting death as their fate; they locked themselves in the castle in order to escape the red death. The last two chambers also contain fire, which illuminates the red chamber, but produces gaudy appearances in black chamber. Poe wants the reader to understand that fire can provide warmth and light, but also can destroy and create death. The chambers are also aligned in an East to West movement which is supposed to symbolize the rise and setting of the sun. The sun rises in the east which represents the birth and one’s upbringing. As in begins to set in the west, this means that one’s life is coming