ipl-logo

Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

1280 Words6 Pages

Tessa Dillinger
Mrs. Dose
English 9
March 9, 2023
The Masque of the Red Death
Being able to put on a mask and pretend that the outside world does not exist is so easily done by people in their everyday lives. People put on a mask and ignore their problems. This is portrayed in Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death.” The prince owns a castle that has 7 different rooms. Each different room symbolizes a different stage in a person's life. He throws a Masquerade ball for people while a deadly disease goes around killing thousands of people. In the middle of the ball, a stranger shows up and gets chased by the prince throughout the different rooms until they get to the seventh dark room represented by death. At that moment the …show more content…

Many different people attended this party; most were from Prince Prospero's royal court. Others were “buffoons, there were improvisators, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” (Poe 1) The Prince had invited everyone in his court to the masquerade ball. It says that all but the red death were invited. This is because all of the people were trying to escape and hide away from the red death. All of the people who were at the party were extremely arrogant and thought that they were above all of the people who were not at the masquerade. “The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within.” (Poe 1) All the people including the prince were arrogant and rude, because of this they believe that they are above others and cannot possibly be touched by the red death. Even though they might be wealthier than many others, death can get to anyone and doesn’t hold back. So when the courtiers were at the ball and people outside were dying they all believed that if they stayed inside they couldn’t be harmed by the red death. The courtiers had thought that they could hide away from death and thought that …show more content…

Every room has a significant meaning that shows the steps in which one takes throughout their life. “There were seven—an imperial suite. [...] The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. [...] That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. 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.” (Poe 2) Each of the rooms shows a different stage of a person's life. Blue is when you were born up to the black velvet room representing death. Shades of blue can show life and peacefulness showing the very first stages of life. Black evokes sadness and anger and the harsh feelings that the end of one's life can have. Even though the people attempted to hide away in these seven rooms, the red death still managed to end their lives because they were trying to cheat their way out of it. “The apartments were so irregularly disposed of that the vision was embraced but little more than one at a time.

Show More
Related

Symbols In The Masque Of The Red Death

683 Words | 3 Pages

To begin, the seven rooms at the gathering were all a significant part of the story, but more so the blue and black room. Based on the text it states, “…in blue-and vividly blue were in its window” (Poe, 421). The text also states, “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all

Read More

The Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

57 Words | 1 Pages

The Masque of the Red Death has a lot of symbolism that has to do with the circle of life- such as the different colors of the seven rooms each meaning one stage of life. The stages of life obviously have relations to death, possibly even being centered around it. The thought is just so artistically

Read More

How Does The Colored Room Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death

409 Words | 2 Pages

“At each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert”(77). “The giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation”(77). “After the lapse of sixty minutes (Which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the time that flies)”(77).The clock is a symbol of death. The clock sits in the Black room which is the one of death. When the clock chimes every hour it's reminding everyone that their lives are going away and death is

Read More

How Does Poe Use Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

706 Words | 3 Pages

This story of death works out, because Edgar Allen Poe gives good use to author’s craft. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, symbolism, and setting to create an effective story. In the “Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses description to give imagery.

Read More

Use Of Diction In Masque Of The Red Death

399 Words | 2 Pages

Beginning with diction: To put it plainly, diction is the overall word choice the author chooses to use within their story to provide a variety of meanings, set particular tones, etc. Edgar Allen Poe’s complex diction further heightens the eerie atmosphere and foreboding suspense that frequently lingers within his iconic Gothic short stories, and are all the more present within Masque of the Red Death. It’s evident that Poe pays attention to connotation and meticulously chooses words that best convey the unsettling imagery that he’s going for, as shown when the narrator was describing the 7th room, “But in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in

Read More

Examples Of Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

1698 Words | 7 Pages

The figure referred to as the mummer or the stranger chases Prospero through all the rooms and kills him in the final black and red room, and following that, he kills all the courtiers. It is addressed that this figure is the Red Death himself, as he snuck into the party and robbed them of their lives and joy because they didn’t acknowledge his presence before, but in the end, he had dominion over them. This allegory presents that the refusal to address one’s fears is an ignorant act that merely delays consequences, and it is further progressed by the castle rooms, the clock, and the stranger. Through the symbol of the castle rooms, “The Masque of the Red Death” conveys the ignorance of avoiding inevitable fears.

Read More

Symbolism In Masques Of The Red Death

235 Words | 1 Pages

This represents family. The 5th color is white. This represents holiness. The 6th room color is violet. This

Read More

The Masque Of The Red Death Syntax Analysis

819 Words | 4 Pages

This precisely explains the darkness of the room because it is mentioned that there was no light of any kind. Another source of imagery that conveys a haunting mood is the sentence in the first paragraph

Read More

The Masque Of The Red Death Allegory Analysis

810 Words | 4 Pages

The overall allegory of these rooms symbolizes the individual stages of life a person goes through. The rooms were “so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time” (Poe 83). People live life not knowing what is behind the next door, leaving the inside unknown until one reaches that particular stage in their life. When “death” arrives at the prince's party, “he makes his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first,” (Poe 87) through every chamber. The details in life are unpredictable, but for the most part, everyone goes through the same general stages.

Read More

Analysis: The Masque Of The Red Death

600 Words | 3 Pages

In the end the “Red Death” conquers and kills everyone in the castle. The prince and his friends never thought that the disease would get to them. By all the evidence given it is evitable that the hidden message is no one can escape their own

Read More

Symbols In Masque Of The Red Death By Edgar Allen Poe

495 Words | 2 Pages

To explain, Zapf writes, “In a parodistic reversal of the Biblical Act of Creation, the seven differently colored rooms, which are arranged from East to West, and in which the masque takes place, are composed in the form of a symbolic teleology of human life which leads from the color blue to the color black, from light to darkness, from creation to destruction.” Zapf realizes that the order and rooms represent human life itself. From rooms blue to black, light to dark, creation to death; this is the course of human life and the outcome of the people at the party. From carefree partiers to dead in the night, the perpetual tick of the clock to the stroke of the hour, rooms light to dark, blue to black, creation to death— each of these things are different yet one in the same. Poe puts the clock and the seven chambers in the story to disseminate piece by piece the overall purpose and theme.

Read More

Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

912 Words | 4 Pages

A person cannot escape their unwanted arrival of death. In the short story, “Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe describes the many ways people fear death. The story is about Prince Prospero having a masquerade. During the masquerade, there were many signs of death, but everyone ignored each sign. In the end, death caught up to them all and Prince Prospero tried to avoid the deadly plague.

Read More

Masque Of The Red Death Literary Analysis

1394 Words | 6 Pages

The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6).

Read More

Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

918 Words | 4 Pages

There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust,” (Poe 6). Poe describes the luxury and extravagance of the masquerade to enhance the dream-like qualities that he gives the story. By using such descriptive imagery, he reinforces the dark and dreary tone, which also enhances the theme of

Read More

Fear In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Masque Of Red Death

698 Words | 3 Pages

In Poe’s stories, the main characters experience fear, but they all handle it distinctively. Poe uses irony, symbolism, and imagery to show how fear affects the narrator’s mindset, along with their future.     In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of Red Death”, the main characters try to isolate themselves from evil, but Poe uses irony to show that death is inevitable.

Read More

More about Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

Related Topics

Open Document