Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque Of The Red Death

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

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