ipl-logo

Symbols In The Masque Of Red Death

539 Words3 Pages

While reading the short story “Masque of Red Death,” many themes can be found. However the predominant theme is that you cannot escape from death. Other themes such as insanity, fear, and mortality all connect back to that one theme. It is a true universal theme, that can not only be found in most of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, but also in other forms of creativity such as poetry or music. 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 …show more content…

This was due to “the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time” *(Poe 4). Everyone steadily avoids the last room in fear of the ‘vibe’ in the black room. Eventually the prince chases the cloaked ‘man’ into the alleyway and dies immediately. The guests follow him and meet the same fate. “And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall” (Poe 10). This immediate death inside of the black room shows the inevitability of death, no matter how they tried to ignore the plague. The huge black clock in the room that marks each and every passing hour so loudly that all of the guests at the party take note of it, it seems fairly obvious that the clock is a symbolism of the fleetingness of life and the inevitability of death. You

Show More
Related

Symbols In The Masque Of The Red Death

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

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

Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Masque Of The Red Death

161 Words | 1 Pages

Poe builds suspense in "The Masque of the Red Death" by using foreshadowing to hint at the tragic end that awaits the characters. For example, the description of the Red Death as a "pestilence" that is "fatal" and "hideous" foreshadows the eventual death of the guests. In addition, the description of the last room is completely covered in black decorations with red-colored windows foreshadowing the tragic end that awaits the guests. The use of the color red and the imagery of blood thoughts the story also serves as foreshadowing for the tragic end. The ending of the story, in which the figure disguised as the Red Death causes the death of the guests, including the prince, is both shocking and inevitable.

Read More

How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Symbols In The Masque Of The Red Death

1611 Words | 7 Pages

The meaning of these symbols are not always crystal clear but there are general meanings that most readers can agree on. For example, the quote from the last paragraph ”It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony . . . while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale.” (Poe), the ticking clock is a constant reminder of the inevitability of death and the constant approach towards it.

Read More

Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily And The Masque Of The Red Death

1105 Words | 5 Pages

In The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, the author uses allegory, metaphorical speech, and chronological order to create the desired feeling in the text. For instance, the seven rooms in the story represented a certain time in a person’s life. The first blue room represented the beginning, while “the seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls… upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows… were scarlet --a deep blood color,” and represented the end, or death (paragraph 4, Poe).

Read More

Symbolism In The Masque Of Red Death

599 Words | 3 Pages

Summer Reading and Writing Assignment In “The Masque of Red Death”, a story written by Edgar Allan Poe, there are a lot of literary features used in order to write the story effectively and to create deeper meaning which gives the opportunity for the readers to analyze the text hence making the story a literary text. Even though there are features such as irony used in the story, the main literary features used by the author are symbolism, imagery and descriptive writing. First of all, there are huge amounts of symbolism used in the story where the major one would be the Red Death. Not only does the red death symbolize death itself but it also symbolizes how unavoidable it is.

Read More

The Masque Of The Red Death Syntax Analysis

819 Words | 4 Pages

Poe is often known for his dark, sometimes twisted short stories and poems. “The Masque of the Red Death” is no exception. In this short story, Poe creates and eerie and ominous mood by using a wide variety of literary techniques including imagery, diction, and syntax. Poe’s use of imagery contributes to the dark and mysterious mood of the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the first paragraph, a sense of darkness is conveyed in the sentence, “There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers.”

Read More

Masque Of The Red Death Analysis Essay

1030 Words | 5 Pages

Author’s Craft on “The Masque of the Red Death” People have always tried to avoid death, but they cannot. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” the characters try to avoid the Red Death, but they fail. Every hour when the clock chimes, that is indicating that life is passing by and death is near.

Read More

Seventh Room Symbolism

173 Words | 1 Pages

In The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allen Poe, Prince Prospero reflects one who lives a posh lifestyle. His significance to the story is to show that death takes anyone regardless of wealth. Furthermore, the masked ball itself serves as a distraction for the partygoers, “...it was a folly to grieve, or to think” (Poe, 420). Every room is decorated with its own color, most being colors of happiness, like green, but the seventh room is a dark and dreary red and black colors. That room symbolizes death, for it is designed with colors that are associated with horror movies and blood.

Read More

How Is The Prince Prospero Reflected In The Masque Of The Red Death

1443 Words | 6 Pages

Death is a diva, time is the performance, and the human life is the stage. Edgar Allen Poe wrote “ The Masque of the Red Death”, which captures the intertwining motives of Prince Prospero, time, and the Red Death. From the start, we learn that the Red Death is an illness that ends lives in a scarlet pool of blood. With this knowledge, Prince Prospero takes one-thousand confidants to an iron-gated abbey that is walled off and secluded from the Red Death. Five or six months later, the Prince decides to throw a masquerade in the image of his favored, unusual fashion.

Read More

Examples Of Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

1097 Words | 5 Pages

Everyone is bound to die no matter how privileged they are. Edgar Allan Poe explores this truthful yet unwanted opinion through his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”. Prince Prospero believes that because of his privilege that the disease will not affect his friends or him. Prince Prospero throws a party even though many people are dying. The allegory of the story is comparing the red death to the plague which was a mass spread of disease that conquered Europe and Asia in the 1300s.

Read More

Use Of Irony In The Masque Of The Red Death

541 Words | 3 Pages

No one can defeat Death There once was a young woman, who strived to be immortal, this caused her to bind herself away from the world for years. She decided one day that she had conquered death by changing her fate and goes to venture the town where she met a strange man, who insults her, filled with anger she decides to go after him where she faces death. A very similar situation is portrayed in “The Masque of the Red Death” with the character Prince Prospero, who believes that he has changed his fate by locking himself in his palace for years but this doesn’t end well for him as he faces death in his own home. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, irony and symbolism to is used prove that death is inevitable.

Read More

Fear In The 7th Man

997 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

The Masque Of The Red Death Tone

793 Words | 4 Pages

In the story, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, who is the author, is trying to create the tone of the story to emphasize the situation that is going to happen as you read the story. The way that Poe is able to create the tone and setting of the story is by developing the mood, creating an emotional pull with its readers, and providing descriptive cues within the story. By Poe being able to create a sense of emotion and descriptive illustrative writing he is able to portray the meaning of his story “The Masque of the Red Death”. It is a story that takes place at a time when a horrible disease called the Red Death is killing off people in mass numbers. The work of Edgar Allen Poe in relation to this short story is about the tragic

Read More

Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

587 Words | 3 Pages

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” the author strategically incorporates an ebony clock as a symbol to prove a strong idea. In this short story, there is a terrible plague going around that is taking an abundant amount of lives. Prince Prospero and his guests seclude themselves inside his castle and throw a party; However, an uninvited guest will soon show up and crash their masquerade. Poe uses the ebony clock to illustrate that death cannot be eluded. Initially, Poe introduces the ebony clock as very dark and mysterious, much like himself.

Read More

More about Symbols In The Masque Of Red Death

Open Document