ipl-logo

Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

1348 Words6 Pages

Isabelle Gray Ms. Crain English 09 7 March 2024 All Must Pay the Debt of Death All of society pays the price of death, but it is up to the individual how one fulfills their time. Edgar Allen Poe, author of “The Masque of the Red Death,” communicates this lesson through the characters and choices made throughout the short story. This story took place during the Middle Ages during a depression. Prince Prospero, a dauntless and wealthy king, invited all the courtiers to an extravagant masquerade ball containing all things pleasurable. Although half of his kingdom had perished from a deadly plague called the Red Death, the Prince had no fear since he had all the protection and entertainment wealth could buy. This ball filled the people with enjoyment …show more content…

In the short story, “The Masquerade of the Red Death,” Poe uses the significance of the Masquerade ball to portray the theme. The author describes the masquerade as a magnificent and joyful time so the reader can see its symbolic representation that reoccurs throughout the story. It shows the hidden use of a ball to bring pleasure during distress. Poe writes, “But the echoes of the chime die away, they have endured but instant, and a light half subdued laughter floats after them as they depart, and now again, the music swells in the dreams live, and where the to and fro more merrily than ever take hue from the many tinted windows, through which stream the rays from the tripods” (Poe 86). Half the kingdom's population has perished from the spread of the Red Death. Time is continuously passing, inching closer to the end of the hall. The kingdom members fear the fate of death and try to discard the taunting remembrance of their true fate by partaking in a pleasurable activity created by the Prince with his wealth and dauntless personality. The dancing, drinks, friendly discussions, and fancy decor and costumes distract them from their unfortunate …show more content…

Those colors and their meanings help show the theme and message of that room. This quote shows the significance of the alignment of rooms in the Prince's castle by showing how these resemble the phases of life. This quote goes along with the theme along with the allegory by showing how the alignment of the rooms resembles the phases of life. Also how Prince Prospero’s wealth could not save him from this phase of life as the Prince meets his fate with the Red Death killing him. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by author Edgar Allen Poe, Poe's writing demonstrates the main character, Prince Prospero, as the wisest, wealthiest, and most important of all. The Prince is a perfect example of how no amount of wealth and distraction can save a person from the fate of death. The Prince fit his description of wealthy and dauntless, as the Prince held a ball during the time of a severe crisis, killing half of the Prince s beloved kingdom. The passage in the short story says, “In the meantime, it was folly to grieve or to think the prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. They were a buffoon. They were improvising a

Show More
Related
683 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
255 Words | 2 Pages

“The Masque of the Red Death” shows an abundant amount of fear. When the country went into fear of the Red Death, “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure . . . All these and security were within. Without the Red Death” (Poe 430). The prince created a safe place for his people.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

An example of this imagery the Poe uses is the ebony clock chiming and making the people in the entertainment room go silent in fear. “…. while the chimes of the clock yet rung, it observed that the giddiest grew pale, and more aged and sedate passed their hands

Read More
600 Words | 3 Pages

Then suddenly the “Red Death” appeared at the party and killed everyone. The hidden message in Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is that no one can escape from their own destiny. Poe expresses this hidden message by using the castle as a way of escape of the “Red

Read More
495 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

This shows my theme of even the wealthy cannot escape death because the prince knew he was going to die adventually, but he didn't think it would be as soon because of the precautions he had. Even the wealthy cannot escape death, and this is shown through the courtiers, the castle, and the hallway. Poe expresses this very well in this evidence. He really portrays the fear that everyone has from this disease. He uses symbols to let readers know what is going to happen, without telling them what is going to happen.

Read More
900 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout time the fear of death has been something that makes people ponder about life and what they have done with their time. This idea of dying and losing all the things that represent life have has made people wonder the possibility of preventing death and possibly the resurrection from death. Death and life have inspired some of the most amazing things from art and literature to some of the most common things. Which in The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe a plague has struck and Prince Prospero has locked himself and his guest away in his castle. As time rolls on they soon face the thing they were trying to escape: death.

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

In “The Masque of Red Death”, the author includes 7 rooms, one being black, which is where the Prince locks himself in: “There were seven-an imperial suite… The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls…” (pg. 58). The seventh rooms shows how death is always there and always will be. The Prince fears that he’s going to be contaminated, so he does everything in his power to avoid death. The Prince creates an obsession over escaping death, what he doesn’t know is that death has always been there and always

Read More
539 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of the inevitability of death can be supported with several symbols scattered in “The Masque of Red Death.” The story as a whole is an allegory, having double meanings in the plot --- in the literal and symbolic elements. The rooms in Prince Prospero’s house were seen as unique and peculiar by his guests, with odd turns and interesting designs. ”Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence” (Poe

Read More
1644 Words | 7 Pages

In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe creates strong images of various decorative rooms which have been designed to go from east to west. This is no coincidence, as the rooms seem to imitate the course of the sun from daytime to nighttime, or even the course of human life- birth to death. The first room, coated in the colour blue, represents the freedom and tranquility felt by the guests in the castle. In contrast, the final room, coated in the colour black symbolises the fear and despair felt by the guests in relation to death and its inevitability.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

The prince, indignant, asks to the figure to reveal himself but he doesn’t answer and starts walking towards the black room where Prince Prospero tries to kill him. But as soon as the Prince touches him, the figure disappears and Prospero falls dead on the ground. Immediately everybody at the party falls on the ground and die, the clock stops working and the candles blow out. The Masque of Red Death is an allegory for the conflict between humans and nature, life and death.

Read More
1430 Words | 6 Pages

At long last, the darkroom speaks to death. All through the story, the visitors never go into the darkroom since they fear demise. The imagery of the shades of the room is additionally found in the peak of the story. Ruler Prospero pursues red passing from the blue room and complete with his demise operating at a profit room, speaking to the consummation of an existence. The visitors all keep running into the dark space to unmask red domes.

Read More
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
717 Words | 3 Pages

The second major imagery in the story is the clock in the black room that Poe shows in the story. “The clock in the Black Room” (86). This piece of evidence demonstrates the clock is in the black room, and the black room represents the end of a life. Whenever this clock rings that mean that someone died. The last example of imagery is the Stanger.

Read More
918 Words | 4 Pages

Demi Pyle February 20, 2018 English 1302 Looking Closer at “The Masque of The Red Death” In the grim short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842, “The Masque of the Red Death” tells the tale of a kingdom ravaged with disease and a prince’s journey to escape death. Poe hides underlying messages throughout the story, leaving the reader to interpret the true meaning of prosperity and death. Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism and imagery in the form of an allegory to reveal to the reader that death is inescapable, no matter how wealthy you are.

Read More

More about Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

Open Document