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Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque Of The Red Death

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Edgar Allen Poe's short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” tells of the horrifying death of Prince Prospero and his many guests. Aiming to show off his wealth by throwing a party, the Prince lights his palace with fire as he and his guests dance the night away in seven colored rooms. However, no one dares to enter the seventh room towards the west. Using dramatic changes in color and limited yet deliberate lighting, Poe successfully creates an impression of horror and fear of mortality in his readers. East to west the seven rooms are arranged. First is blue then followed by purple, green, orange, white, violet, and then lastly black. Poe intentionally mentions that the blue room is the more eastern room and the black room is towards the …show more content…

Purple is a mixture of blue and red showing that the baby is growing up and gaining life experience. Spring and growth is often paired with the color green and then orange represents summer into fall and how a person's life matures and ages. Then the final season comes into play with the white colored room. People age and their hair turns white and their skin becomes paler as their bones become more fragile. The color violet hints at injury and the bruises of an older body that is nearing a death clocked in shadow. Then lastly is the black room. However, Poe does not settle for a simple black colored room. He creates a sense of alarm and panic by coloring the window panes a deep blood red. Black and red are both colors often paired together and symbolize an inevitable end in death. The rooms flow from one to another and show how a persons' time-line can not be stopped or prolonged as morality haunts all humans. The center piece of the black room is a dark ebony clock. This black clock announces the progression of the party as well as symbolizes the passing years of a persons' life. The clock then rings for the last time as the Prince with all of his guests drop dead and their lives

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In summary, the color black symbolizes imagery throughout the

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Edger Allen Poe is an incredible author of horror. His story, The Masque of the Red Death, was an amazing chiller about a party that was ended by a disease. Throughout the kingdom a disease is spreading from citizen to citizen, killing each one who possesses it so the king invites those closes to him to a party where no one can leave and will be safe from the disease but yet in hindsight they were locking themselves in with the disease. Throughout the course of this hair-raising story, several symbols are represented to array Poe’s theme of death. Symbols such as the seven colored rooms, the clock, and lastly the Red Death are all symbols that are displayed to help get Poe’s notion across.

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This story of death works out, because Edgar Allen Poe gives good use to author’s craft. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, symbolism, and setting to create an effective story. In the “Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses description to give imagery.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

Poe uses symbolism a lot in his stories to make his writing have a more eerie feeling. ”The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Masque of Red Death” both have symbols that induce fear into the main characters hearts. In The Tell-Tale Heart Poe writes “...for it was no the old man who vexed me but his evil eye “(75).The narrator kills an innocent old man for that hr thought the old man's eyes were judging. Although the old man just had cataracts ,the narrator could not stand the man for his eye he compared looked as vulture's eye. The narrator was afraid of this old man and his “evil eye”.

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Poe is often known for his dark, sometimes twisted short stories and poems. “The Masque of the Red Death” is no exception. In this short story, Poe creates and eerie and ominous mood by using a wide variety of literary techniques including imagery, diction, and syntax. Poe’s use of imagery contributes to the dark and mysterious mood of the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the first paragraph, a sense of darkness is conveyed in the sentence, “There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers.”

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The rooms are all connected so the path of death can never break. There’s no way to avoid the black room which represents that death can’t be avoided. Lastly, they are all connected so if you’re in one room you’re in the death room. Another example for a symbol would be the hallway. In the hallway you can’t see far ahead which symbolizes you can’t predict life.

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The stories “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Man of the Crowd” by Edgar Allan Poe are similar in their setting, mood, main characters, and topics such as symbolism, conflict, and foreshadowing. Poe has a specific writing style that makes his works similar and easily identifiable. Poe tends to write about sickness and death. These topics reflect greatly on his life and show through in many of his works. When Poe was young he was adopted by a rich family, Mr. and Mrs. John Allen; he did not have a very good relationship with Mr. Allen.

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A great example of this would be, when “And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock,” (392). With each clock ring it symbolized that time is ending and death may be near. The silence is all around due to the guests scared and wondering if they are about to face death as the sound of the clock roars thorough the hallway. Furthermore, the apartments played a great part as well, “These panes here were scarlet – deep blood color” (391). The deep blood color showing the color related to death.

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A good quote that shows how black can be used to show deep emotions is, "Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed. ”(Zusak 188) The use of black in this quote shows how Max’s eyes were deep and filled with sadness. Using the color really helps the reader visualize how max was feeling. In the book, Death who is the narrator denies he wears a black robe.

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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.

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Poe relies upon symbolism in order to portray the ebony clock as a symbol of death and mortality. The clock represents the ticking away from life, from the moment we are brought into this world. The clock makes a peculiar chime and immediately everyone stops everything they are doing and the orchestra stops playing and Poe states that, “... it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their bows.” (Poe 5). The chiming of the clock expresses fear, which reminds the congregation that they are an hour closer to ultimate expiry.

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731 Words | 3 Pages

Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.

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The first example of symbolism is the rooms in the abbey. Each room was a different color and line up from east to west. This is a symbol for the progression of life and death. The first room was blue, representing birth, then purple representing youth, green representing adolescence, orange representing adulthood, white symbolizing old age, violet symbolizing imminent death, and black and scarlet symbolizing death itself. This is also a metaphor as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; it can also be seen as symbolism for the progression of a day.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

The color black is a symbol for death and despair as well which can be connected to all of the terrible acts that have been committed with

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716 Words | 3 Pages

The title and pages portray meanings that emphasize the word dark in the content that allows the reader to better understand the novel. Having an absence of light most often leaves a room dark. This form of dark might also be associated with the color black. Black in color has a meaning of being mysterious and powerful. In Heart of Darkness, the word choice of dark was used several times to describe what was happening in that moment.

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