Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Masque Of The Red Death

Jackson Ferranto

Mrs. Haislip

ELA Pd. 3

13 January 2023

Death, the Illimitable Force

What is the one thing that humans will never be able to control? The answer is death. “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allen Poe is a story about a horrific, bloody disease spreading through Europe, and a Prince who deserted his people. Instead of helping the citizens, the Prince Prospero chose to invite all of his friends to a lavish hideaway, where they would all live in seclusion from the Red Death. Meanwhile, the world around them suffered in anguish. The short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism and foreshadowing, to show that death and fate are the most unpredictable and inevitable forces.

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Using repetition, Poe insinuates the death of Prince and his friends.Gerald Kennedy wrote, “Death weighs upon the group because it is thrice present: first in the pallid countenances of the men themselves as reflected on the ebony table; then in the corpse of 'young Zoilus,' whose unclosed eyes reveal a 'bitterness'; finally in the 'dark and undefined shadow' that issues from the sable draperies and fixes itself upon the door” (Kennedy). The repeating appearance of death foreshadows the fate of the characters which creates an anxious tension in order to foreshadow something terrible will happen. In Prince Prospero’s abbey, there were seven rooms made for partying, each a different color. Poe wrote, “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet -- a deep blood color” (Poe). The scarlet panes and black tapestries are meant to remind the reader of death, as well as the disease itself, which is characterized by its bloody nature. The death of the revelers is consistently foreshadowed throughout the story, and it helps create an unsettling and pretentious mood, reminding that death

From research humans can understand that, “...we experience death as a "complex symbol" that changes as human beings pass through successive stages of consciousness. But the primal, embedded meaning of death, which all of our "immortality projects'' seek to overcome, is that of terrifying annihilation” (Kennedy). All people are afraid to die in some capacity, and Prince Prospero is no different. He sought to overcome his death through an elaborate hideaway, but still death comes for all. It comes regardless of whether one is ready for it, since it is outside the realm of human control, and therefore inevitable. In his story Poe wrote, “He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" (Poe). From this quote, the reader can understand that the Red Death is an unstoppable force, as it has, “illimitable dominion over all,” and nothing else has the power to challenge