Prince Of The Red Death

For instance, the panes were scarlet, a deep blood colour. The "bloody" red room thus becomes a place of ending not only due to the westward location, but also because of its color. Poe describes the last, black room as the dreadful endpoint, the room the guests fear just as they fear death. The room is feared by the guests because it reminds them of death, which is why no one enters the room. The room is involved in all of the main scenes throughout the course ofthe story. For example, this is the room Prince Prospero and his guests die from the Red Death and also where the clock is located. The reader sees how important the rooms are throughout the story and its main contribution to the theme.

Uses of light symbolism in stories is typically used to depict signs of pureness and life. Poe utilizes this literary element in his description of the rooms. When Poe describes the first of the seven rooms he says “ at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue and vividly blue were its windows.” Poe uses the color blue to represent the beginning of life, along with the room being on the eastern side, since the sun rises on the east. Another example

The "Red Death" is described as a fatal disease, the symptoms include sharp pains, dizziness, bleeding, and red stains on the bodies and faces of the victims. The infection causes death within thirty minutes, and therefore any sign of the red stain on a man causes him to be shunned by the people. Prince Prospero remains happy and carefree, even with such a contagious disease, and invites a thousand of his healthy noble friends to join him in hiding his abbey (religious temple-ish large house), which he then locks away from the outside world. He stocks the abbey with enough food to survive and leaves the surrounding country to its fate while holding wild parties within the building.

All the rooms have color, and the final room he goes through is dark. Prince Prospero uses these rooms as protection, but it does not go as planned because once he reaches the 6th room he ends up dying. During Prince Prospero's final minutes of life, he shows fear, which shows that not even the richest people are protected. This shows the reasoning that Poe uses the 7 rooms as protection but does not go the way he thought it would because he ends up dying a tragic death to the Red Death. Poe also uses the prince to represent royalty and the high class, and he also uses Prince Prosparo to show the reader that not even the richest people are protected from death.

In “Masque of the Red Death,” there was a prince named Prince Prospero and he tried to isolate himself and a few others, so that the plague wouldn’t do any harm to them. In the story Poe says, “...he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and lighthearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of

In the short story, “Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allen Poe uses characterization to illustrate the psychological destruction of the Prince. Throughout the story, Prince Prospero struggles with

"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 the carpet of the same material and hue. ... The panes were scarlet—a deep blood color.... There was no light of any kind... 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 the extreme,” (“The Masque” 342). Poe brilliantly uses color to achieve the desired mood. The color black often represents melancholy or death. Scarlet, of course, exhibits the color of blood. Poe exploits the use of these two colors, black and scarlet, to create a feeling of macabre.

As is the “Red Death” character, Prince Prospero is misconstrued by many readers of “The Masque of the Red Death.” Poe describes Prospero as “happy and dauntless and sagacious.” Though would such a prince hide away with his chosen “friends” in his abbey; all the while, his kingdom’s population is depleting by the hour. Only an egotistic and spinelessness ruler would ignore his kingdom fighting against a deadly plague. On a tangent, why is he happy when most of his dominion is dead or dying?

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who believed every single word contained meaning and in his own words expressed this idea in brevity only he is capable, "…there should be no word written, of which tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." (Poe 244). To this effect, Poe drenches his works in symbolism and allegory. Especially in shorter works, Poe assigns meaning to the smallest object, explicitly deriving exurbanite significance within concise descriptions. "The Masque of the Red Death" tells the story of a Prince Prospero who along with his one thousand friends sought a haven from the plague that was ravishing their country. They lived together in the prince's luxurious abbey with all the amenities and

I walked by a room that said Room one and the color in the room was all blue even the windows. The second room was completely purple,even a TV was purple. We walked by the third room but I did not get a good look at it the only thing I saw the color green. Prince Prospero showed me into a room that was all orange and said that, this is going to be your room that you’ll sleep in. He said that a lot of people do not like to sleep in the orange room because they

Poe’s use of symbolism is very evident throughout the story of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Much has been made about the meaning of the rooms that fill Prince Prospero’s lavish getaway. One such critique, Brett Zimmerman writes, “It is difficult to believe that a symbolist such as Poe would refuse to assign significance to the hues in a tale otherwise loaded with symbolic and allegorical suggestiveness” (Zimmerman 60). Many agree that the seven rooms represent the seven stages of human existence. The first, blue, signifying the beginnings of life. Keeping in mind Poe’s Neo-Platonism and Transcendentalism stance, the significance of blue is taken a step further. Not only does blue symbolize the beginning of life, but the idea of immortality is apparent when considering these ideas. “Perhaps ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ then, is not quite the bleak existential vision we have long thought it to be”, expounds Zimmerman (Zimmerman 70). Poe’s use of each color is significant to the seven stages

Prince Prospero does not care for the outside world and leaves them to die at the plague’s hands. Poe details Prince Prospero’s response to the plague with, “When his dominions were half-depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.” (Poe) Prince Prospero makes no effort to aid his people, instead, isolating himself and his friends to seek protection from the disease. Isolation plays a powerful role here in providing a means of protection that ultimately proves false when the Red Death itself comes into the abbey and all succumb to it. Isolation also serves to prove the failings of self-importance in that no one is above one another. In attempting to shield only themselves, those in the court exhibited a selfish importance that isolation fails to corroborate. Even isolating themselves, Prince Prospero and his courtiers fall victim to the Red Death the same as the rest of the world. As a theme in “The Masque of the Red Death”, isolation does not equate protection and to seek it with a self-important worldview is to bring destruction to yourself. In seeking isolated protection, Prince Prospero is thus exposed in his cowardice and is proven as equal to those dying outside the walls, for he falls victim to the Red Death as well.

There is a terrible sickness spreading throughout their town. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” (Poe 78 ) In the story “The Masque of the Red Death” fear is the main theme. Prince Prospero invites a thousand of his friends to his castle. There are seven different colored rooms in the castle. The guests fill all the different

Poe uses Prince Prospero to symbolize the boastful confidence of the rich. In the beginning of the story, his people are dying from the Red Death. He decides to lock himself up with his rich friends and leave his kingdom to die. Poe writes, “When his dominions were half-depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light hearted friends…and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys…the external world could take care of itself .” The Prince is foolish enough to think that death is something he can hide from behind his walls. He is

With a kingdom in ruins and people dying of disease all around him, Prince Prospero is consumed with no worry except to throw a fabulous masquerade ball for his knights and maidens safely tucked away in his castellated abbey. Separated from the rest of the kingdom dying from disease, Prince Prospero is a coward, afraid of Red Death. Prince Prospero is not an admirable character because of his attempts to cheat death which make him a fool, and by leaving the people of his kingdom to fend for themselves.