Examples Of Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

Everyone is bound to die no matter how privileged they are. Edgar Allan Poe explores this truthful yet unwanted opinion through his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”. Prince Prospero believes that because of his privilege that the disease will not affect his friends or him. Prince Prospero throws a party even though many people are dying. The allegory of the story is comparing the red death to the plague which was a mass spread of disease that conquered Europe and Asia in the 1300s. To enhance his allegory of the plague in “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe expresses that death is inevitable through his portrayal of the Clock, Room 7, and the Murmur.

Edgar Allan Poe uses the clock to symbolize the reassurance that death is always close.

Edgar does this by showing how the room is different. In the last room, “the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color” (Poe 84). All of the rooms had the same layout and the window and the decoration were the same color, but the only room that didn’t have this was room number seven. Edgar uses the color scheme and the order to show that the seventh room is the room of death, he does this by using only dark colors which are both what one thinks of when one would hear death and it is the last room which is also the last stage of life, death. The seventh room was the perfect image of death, which is why the red death plague was attracted to it. The way the fire played against the walls and artwork “was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered… that there stood against the western wall a gigantic clock of ebony” (Poe 84). As the guests entered the horrifying room they could not help but show a shocked expression of horror. The guests were so horrified because the room depicted the thought of death. Edgar added a little foreshadowing to the show that this was the room of death when he added that the clock was stationed in this room because the clock is the reassurance of death he knew that the only place that it would fit in was the room of death. The seventh room portrays the allegory of the plague

Edgar does this by showing the quietness and discretion of the murmur. The murmur, “whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock” (Poe 88). The murmur was able to sneak into Prince Prospore’s castle and the party without anyone noticing when they did not want to be seen. The murmur is like the angel of death or the red death. Just like the angel of death, the murmur sits and waits for its time to take over and do its job, to remind people that no one is safe from death and kills them. The murmur waits on the clock before striking because the clock is there to tell the murmur when it has depleted. The murmur is the allegory, the plague. Prince Prospore “turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero” (Poe 88). The murmur's importance as the red death was to show that even though Prince Prospore thought that all of his wealth and status would protect him from the red death, the plague. Prince Prospore was wrong, money and status will not save people from death. The murmur represents the allegory of the disease that was spread during this short story just like the plague was. The murmur was the red