Red Death Symbolism

Everyone is different, but we all have one thing in common. Death. “The Masque of the Red Death” was a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe. The main characters are Prince Prospero and the Red Death figure. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” there is a disease that is killing many people. Prince Prospero is hiding from the disease in his sheltered home with a thousand of his friends. The disease’s causes people to sweat blood and die within 30 minutes. Prince Prospero and his friends think they are safe in his home and they keep partying until it is midnight. Suddenly, Prospero notices a mysterious figure that looked like someone who died from the Red Death. Prospero chases him through the 7 rooms until they are both in the last room, which is black and red. The Red Death figure turns around and then Prospero dies. Then all of Prospero’s friends run towards the Red Death figure and they all drop dead. Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism to enhance the story’s allegory that death is inevitable

Imagine dancing through the colorful stages of life, birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and such. However, as you progress through life, you can never shake a sense of foreboding lurking behind you. Suddenly, deep, dark, death devours you. Death, everyone faces it eventually. In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the theme is, “You cannot avoid death.” Poe develops the theme by using many different symbols throughout the story.

In “Mask of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe uses setting and symbolism to deliver the theme that no one escapes death. The story follows the naïve and pompous Prince Prospero, and his feeble attempt to escape dying from the Black Plague. As the plague spread through his kingdom, the prince called one thousand of his closest friends to reside within the safety of the castle in order to seclude themselves from the horror and death going on outside. During the last months of their seclusion, the prince decided to hold a masquerade ball in order to amuse his many guests living within the confines of the rather odd castle. The dance takes place in a variety of unusual apartments within the castle, spaced apart so the guests would only see one room at a time. The apartments flowed east to west, each decorated in a different color and theme while following a pattern of blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and finally ending in black. During the ball, guests enjoyed a dreamlike atmosphere as they danced through the many colored apartments, each of them avoiding the final black room. This final dark patterned room contained a large ebony clock which chimed eerily every hour, causing the party goers to pause their merriment for a few moments of uneasy silence. As midnight drew near, a new guest arrived, sporting a costume more ghastly and morose than any other. The mask he wore resembled that of a plague victim, and his clothes resembled a funeral shroud. Prospero became angry

The theme within “Masque of Red Death” is presented in the opposite way, instead of showing that life needs death, it displays that life cannot escape death. In this story, the nobles of an area attempt to escape the effects of the sickness the Red Death, all the while allowing death easy pickings. While, for some time the people are able to isolate themselves from death, the personified character of death makes an anticipated visit. At the arrival of the masked man, who has the visage of a corpse, the characters have begun to understand that death had come to get them at last. In the story, death is synonymous with the outside as proposed by Martin Roth in his article in the University of Wisconsin Journals. Roth describes the Red Death as “an invader from the outside” solidifying the idea that escape is futile (Roth 50). Had death been

Edgar Allen Poe’s chilling short story Mask of the Red Death begins with people dropping like flies, as the king of the land decides to take his close friends with him to live in one of his palaces. leaving his subjects to survive on their own. A puzzling creature known as the Red Death has been terrorizing and killing off people one by one, and no one has a way to stop it. Through characterization of both Prospero and the Red Death, Poe foreshadows Prospero’s eventual death in the end of the story.

Within the story, the masked figure is used as an important symbol in portraying that no one can escape death. The masked figure, who made its presence at midnight, had not been seen by anyone before. The masked figure is described as “tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave” (Poe 5). Furthermore, when the mask of the Red Death appears, it is shocking to all the guests. The reader discovers that this guest is even more strange than all the other guests. The figure resembles a corpse of a victim of the Red Death, thereby symbolizing the presence of the plague, which is the dangerously deadly disease all the guests are attempting to escape from. This comes to show that death finds its way to everyone. The appearance of the

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” This quote is proven true in many pieces of American Literature from past to present. In Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death,” the ebony clock, the last chamber, and the masked figure are used as symbols to represent the uncontrollable outcome of human life and exemplify the words of Benjamin Franklin.

Edgar Allen Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” is an extravagant allegory of the futility of trying to escape death. In the story, a prince named Prospero tries to avoid the Red Death through isolation and seclusion. He hides behind the impenetrable walls of his castle and turns his back on the rest of the world. But no walls can stop death because it is unavoidable and inevitable. Through the use of character, setting, point of view, and symbol, Poe reveals the theme that no one, regardless of status, wealth or power can stay the passing of time and the inevitable conclusion of life itself, death.

Prince Prospero decorates lavishly for the masquerade ball. Each room has a different color as a theme, and the windows contain glass stained to match the respective colors of the rooms. Fair colors paint the faces of everyone. At first they wear masks for the ball, but at the story's conclusion, they all bear the bloody mark that signifies the Red Death. The Red Death, which is characterized by ‘scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim,’ has entered the palace unrecognized (“Explanation”

In the short story “Masque of the Red Death”, written by Edgar Allan Poe, it symbolizes irony numerous times throughout the story. One of the often examples of irony is described when the story entails Prince Prospero name as a wealthy prince but ends up dying to the horrifying, twisted, red death, “There was a sharp cry. Fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero”(178). This is especially ironic because his name appears to represents a prince of extraordinary fortunate. Therefore this infers he would have the “the best of luck” but dies due to the horrible plague. While his name is ironic, the rich, noble people at the party also believe that they can elude death but ultimately lead to their demise. In the short story, everyone dies to the

However, the Red Death is the greater force and finds its’ way in. Throughout the story characteristics of gothic literature are clearly evident. “The Masque of the Red Death” is representative of psychological forces including a sense of isolation, and powerlessness in the face of a greater force. When Prince Prospero realizes half of the

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Every passing minute, every creeping second brings you closer to the dreaded moment of the arrival of death. The majority of society fears death, whether it’d be due to the pain they fear they might encounter, or the heartache of leaving their loved ones behind. Some people, however, block out the concept of this morbid idea, deluding themselves into believing that death is escapable. Edgar Allan Poe displays this well throughout the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” bringing meaning to the character of Prince Prospero, the seven apartments, and the dreaded Red Death. He ties together these symbols, representing the reoccurring theme of how death itself is inevitable.

“Death [and fate hold] illimitable dominion overall” (Poe 10). The short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, conveys a theme of inevitability, the certainty of an action occurring. The inevitably is shown when death eventually grabs the revelers. Through his use of symbolism, Poe examines the idea of predeterminism, the idea that everything is determined beforehand. Poe conveys this idea through his use of symbols such as the clock, colors, and the seventh room.

While humans can possess dominance over several aspects of their worlds, mankind is simply vulnerable to their unyielding fate. In the allegory entitled “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe indirectly employs the concepts of life and death, along with their role in the course of human events. While the revelers make great attempts to obscure themselves from reality, the spectre of death is something unable to be hindered. Through the prominent use of symbolism, Poe communicates the uncompromising presence of death in one’s life, along with the futility of trying to escape from it.

As a gothic writer, Edgar Allan Poe created horror using gloom as his weapon. Hidden within the suspenseful story of “The Masque of Red Death” is an allegorical tale of how individuals deal with the fear of death as time passes. Frantic activities and pleasures (as represented by Prince Prospero and his guests) seek to wall out the threat of death. However, the story reminds the reader that death comes “like a thief in the night”(Poe 3), and even those who seek peace and safety shall not escape. Poe uses symbolism to illustrate that man cannot hide from his own mortality.