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Symbolism In The Mask Of The Red Death

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Every person has their own way of having a symbol for something. For example, how someone‘s symbol for success would be money while another person’s symbol would be family. “The Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe is about how there is a disease called Red Death and it is killing everybody. In the story, all of the rich people blocked themselves in the castle to evade the Red Death, as in reality where all of the rich people have money to buy medicines to protect themselves from sickness and death. There is no cure for the Red Death, just like in life there is no cure for death, eventually death will find you. The symbols of the stages of life, time running out, and death apply to the theme of no man escapes death.
One symbol that represents the stages of life is the 7 rooms in the story. Each of the seven rooms have seven …show more content…

In the story Poe states,“ In this room stood a great clock of black wood. Gently it marked the seconds as they passed; and when it was time to mark the hour the clock spoke with a loud, clear voice, a deep tone as beautiful as music, but so strange that the music and the dancing stopped and the dancers stood still to listen. And then, after another sixty minutes, after another three thousand and six hundred seconds of Time, of flying Time, the clock struck again, and the dancers stopped as before.”. The great clock represents the time running out until you die. When the clock stopped the dancers stopped moving like when a heart gives out. Time running out isn’t the only symbol in the story.
The last symbol that exemplifies death is the Red Death. Poe stated in the story,“THE RED DEATH HAD LONG BEEN FEEDING ON THE COUNTRY. No sickness had ever been so deadly - so great a killer - or so fearful to see.”. The Red Death represents death as a person. Death killed everybody and left nobody alive because nobody can escape death. Death isn’t the only symbol in 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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(87). This part of the story shows that no matter how hard you try or how much money you have, you cannot escape or cheat dead. One last example of symbolism being used in this story is Prince Prospero rushing through the rooms chasing the Red Death. “It was then, however, that Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers….” (87).

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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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Representing that the clock had run out and now it was time for everyone to die. The mass spread of the disease had entered the castle and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Time

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In Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, many symbols are used to justify the overall purpose and meaning of the story. These symbols include the ebony clock, the seven chambers, the scarlet and black room, and the Red Death itself. Each of these symbols help characterize the Prince and his guests, along with foreshadowing the overall outcome of the story. First of all, the seventh chamber and ebony clock not only provide a sense of eeriness, but reveal the underlying personalities and outcomes of the characters. For example, Zapf writes, “In the process of the story, of course, the seventh chamber more and more becomes the center of attention, and with it the clock of ebony which symbolizes the structure of temporality underlying and terminating all human

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Edgar Allen Poe gradually increases the dread and fear throughout the novel until its climax. In the beginning of the story, the idea of wealthy nobility partying while their country deteriorates suggests that they will be eventually be punished by the “Red Death” himself. A very figurative quote from the story is, “a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical”. The clock in this short story represents a countdown, which is counting down to the death of Prince Prospero and the other party guests.

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Throughout history, many influential writers have used literature to teach people about human nature; these writers used their works improve the morals of humanity. In the 18th century, Romantic and Gothic writers used many literary elements to make their works more meaningful. These included figurative language, symbolism, imagery, allusions, mood and tone to enhance the theme in their stories. Two men who did this were the Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe, and the Gothic romance writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. The works “The Masque of the Red Death” by Poe, and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Hawthorne, are examples of using literary elements to enhance theme.

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For example, in the text “The The-Tale Heart”, Poe’s use of the old man’s eye symbolized the obsessions and fears of the narrator like, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood

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In “The Masque of the Red Death”, the stranger symbolizes death and how people can never escape their fate of death. Death will follow people until it catches them. Even though Prince Prospero and his guest are being kept safe, eventually death catches them to determine their fate of death. The symbolism of the stranger

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A common, almost cliche saying denotes that nothing is ever as it seems, this specifically rings true for most literary works. Symbols are used in literature to convey hidden meanings in regular objects. In The Plague, written by Albert Camus, symbols are used heavily to show the true meaning behind the common elements in the story. The rats in the story is a symbol used to represent death, the indifference of humans, and humanity’s resilience. Death is commonplace in the story due to the pestilence in the town, the rats represent the suffering and mortality of the townsfolk.

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Through personification the speaker depicts death as a gentlemen, and not someone who brutally takes our lives quickly, but in a courteous manner. The use of symbolism to describe three locations as three stages of life. These three stages are used to show our childhood,adulthood, and us as elderly soon about to meet death, The speaker also uses imagery to show that all death is a simple cold, then we go to a resting place which is the grave, and from there on we move on toward eternity. Death is a part of life that we all need to embrace, and learn that it is not meant to be

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Another example of symbolism is, “Putting on a mask of black silk and drawing a cloak closely about my person” (pg. 2). The black silk represents the darkness and horrid effect of this story. It also adds mystery to the mood. Poe also uses vivid sensory details to craft his

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As Prince Prospero and the masked guest go from room to room, they are symbolizing the progression of life from birth to death. This is an important symbol in the story because it emphasizes the theme of inescapable death. The next example is the Black Clock in the black room. This symbolizes the span of life. In the story, the clock struck midnight and the Prince’s time was up, symbolizing his life being over.

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The clock is very loud, it was black it was also in the rooms on the end of the house. The clock can symbolize time going by that’s true and each day you’re getting close to death. As you can see no one is everything to live forever.

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There are several examples of symbolism throughout the story. The main character, Santiago, shows that even if you are unlucky at first if you persevere that great things can happen. Santiago and the great marlin he catch display qualities of pride, honor, and the same eternal law: They must kill or be killed (Sparknotes). If one was to learn something from this book it would be that, as the main character showed, Through the battle of the inevitable a man can truly prove himself (Sparknotes). "

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