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My Favorite Work of Edgar Allen Poe Masque of the Red Death Essay

Decent Essays
Edgar Allan Poe was famous for his poems, short stories, motifs, themes, etc. After reading three of his most famous works: “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” I found that the “Masque of the Red Death” was my personal favorite. In this story, Edgar Allan Poe enthralled the reader with his entire concept, symbols, and the way he infused history into the interesting and haunting story. I believe that Edgar Allan Poe did a wonderful job of portraying the effects of the horrible disease Red Death. Poe used a concept everyone knows of, a party, to display how sneaky and powerful the death was. Prince Prospero was the protagonist of “The Masque of the Red Death” and was according to the text, “he…show more content…
The masked figure first starts to hunt Prince Prospero in the Blue Room, representing birth; and then the figure chases the Prince Prospero through the different colored rooms, signifying the different stages of life. The masked figure finally traps Prince Prospero (and eventually all of the other guests) in the black room that represented the final stage of life (death). Passing through each colored room meant passing through each stage of life; getting closer and closer to the final Black Room meant getting closer and closer to death. Another key symbol was the clock in the black room. “…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” (Poe 15). This quote shows how death is getting closer and closer, and the guests’ time was wasting away. The third key symbol in “The Masque of The Red Death” is the masked figure, which represented the Red Death itself. The figure “spread itself whisperingly around” (Poe 16) and brought death even to the people who knew to attempt to escape it, just like the plague did during its time. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous” (Poe 13). This quote from “The Masque of The Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe supports the way people viewed the plague while it was going on and shows the attitudes of the people (even though the quote is cased in the present and looking
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