Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

During the black plague death was everywhere, and not even the rich could escape it. In The Masque of the Red Death, a short story by Edger Allen Poe the red death is an allegory for the black plague. While this plague-like disease is running rampant, Prince Prospero invites many of his friends to hide away in his castle. During one of his extravagant parties, Prince Prospero along with his guests are led to death. To enhance his allegory of The black plague in “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe expresses that death can be postponed but not prevented through his portrayal of the clock, masquerade, and the corridor. Poe uses the symbol of the clock to express the theme. The clock is held in the final dark room of Prince Prosperro’s party suit. The narrator explains, “at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were con-strained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions…”(Poe 84). The ebony clock serves as a reminder of the death and despair that plagues the outside world as the guests waltz. The clock also represents the passage between

After finding an unsettling figure in a mask, Prince Prospero chased him through all the rooms. Poe writes “Having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped” (88). After running through all the rooms into the last, Prince Prospero had reached the end with nowhere to run. Each courier is in between rooms only going one way, so when the end is reached it is over. The courier was described as having “a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect” (Poe 83). The sharp turns abstract the view of what is coming. Someone will not know they have reached the end until they are in the last room. The corridor is used as a symbol for the passage between stages of