How Does Poe Create An Allegory In The Masque Of The Red Death

Death and darkness, Just two words used in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" to bring out grotesque imagery inside your head and force you to unwillingly share deep emotions embedded within your soul that you would otherwise not share with the world. This passage uses a third person view to follow the prince Prospero in his attempts to avoid a dangerous plague named "The Red Death". Edgar Allen Poe uses his language and word choice to create a mood which is terrifying and gloomy.

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are best shadowly and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” (Poe). There is no such thing as having the ability to predict or tame the wrath of death, for all we can do is learn to accept it. In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, the main character, Prospero, shows through his arrogant actions that death will forever overpower the human instinct to stay alive. Poe uses symbolism to convey the battle between man and nature through the idea of the masquerade that serves as a fortress against the wrath of the disease, an excuse to disguise the true colors of man, and the honest truth that man will never become immortal.

Instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Pospero” (Poe 4). The rooms go east to west and blue to black velvet. This in itself is very symbolic, beginning to end and birth to death. Prince Pospero following the mummer through the seven rooms represents the prince going through represents the Prince going through the different stages of life and this is very significant. It implies that the mummer is death because he lures Prince Pospero into the final stage of life and when the mummer confronts the Prince he dies of the Red Death. Through all this it can be concluded that the mummer going through the seven rooms leading the prince to his death implies the figure is death and is further strengthened when everything else seemly stops.

This story illustrates the obstacles of death caused by the “Red Death” and to what extent one could go through to escape death. The Prince Prospero thought he could escape death by closing the castle and invite his “thousand friends” (Page: 4) for a masquerade. He did that, as he thought the disease of the “Red Death” wouldn’t approach his castle, but he later on finds out that it wasn’t the case, as you can NEVER escape death. Prince Prospero’s idea of a masquerade is to make seven different rooms where the masquerade would be held. Poe describes these rooms rapidly by

One way Poe portrays symbolism is through the seven different colored rooms. Each colored chamber represents a stage of human life. “These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened.” (Poe 1). The rooms were enlightened with the light

This symbolism shows Poe's gothic writing style by not being upfront with the meaning, but having the reader think about the darker meaning. Another gothic style is the fear within the story, the people in the castle are scared of the dark room and the end of the hallway, the room of horror and death. The rooms within the hallway are different colors, starting with light and happy colors, and working its way to deeper colors, colors usually associated with dark images. The colors represent the people's life, from the happy innocence of childhood, to the despair and darkness of death. The people in the castle fear the darkest room at the end of the hall because that room represents their death.

Then there is white which symbolizes the elderly, and then the violet room was for the dying. The final room was black and that is where death took place. In the story once the characters enter the castle-like abbey of Prince Prospero, nobody could enter or exit because of the welded locks that kept all evil from the outside world out. Another example of Poe’s symbolism is when he is describing the clock and its effect on the guests,

In, “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe uses the clock and the seven rooms to show that life has to come to an end. Three symbols that help explain life are the seven rooms which show the seasons and age, and the clock in the Black Room. The seven rooms show how life is a cycle and the stages of life. These seven rooms help represent life in the way of seasons. For example the green room is spring, the white room is winter, and the orange room is fall. These rooms show how life goes into a continuous cycle that keeps on going but it always comes to the end. The rooms start out with blue which stands for rebirth and is pure while the last room which was the color black stood for death and darkness. The clock in the Black Room stands for death.

Poe makes it a point to arrange the rooms running from east to west. This progression is symbolically significant because it represents the life cycle of a day: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, with night symbolizing death. What transforms this set of symbols into an allegory, however, is the further symbolic treatment of the twenty-four hour life cycle: it translates to the realm of human beings. This progression from east to west, performed by both Prospero and the mysterious guest, symbolizes the human journey from birth to death. Poe crafts the last, black room as the ominous endpoint, the room the guests fear just as they fear death. The "Black Room" is described vividly. “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 a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes were scarlet-a deep blood color" (73). This room is a symbol of the end. There were seven rooms, and this was the last one. However not apparent at the beginning it is to be the scene of the grand finally; where "Prince Prospero" meets his demise by the hand of "The Red Death". In conclusion I believe this symbolism in this story is a hidden attempt to show man that he/she cannot turn its back to the woes of the world. One man or group cannot turn his/her back on society because sooner or later the problems

Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death”, is about a man named Prince Prospero and his attempts to avoid a dangerous plague. The plague is known as the Red Death. He plans to avoid the plague by hiding out in his abbey, along with other revelers during a masquerade ball in the seven rooms in the abbey. Through the locked gates, the mysterious figure finds its way into the party and causes death to all of the masqueraders. This story is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death.

Death is inescapable; status does not give someone the opportunity to escape death. Prospero and his friends thought that since they hid in a castle, they wouldn’t have to face death, but that wasn’t the case. In “Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe establishes the struggle of power through the conflict between Prince Prospero and the narrator, death himself, to illustrate that death befalls all.

To start off, the seven colored room contributes a very significant meaning to the story. The room arrangement in Prospero’s palace is very unusual. “In this palace it was different. Little more than one of them could be seen at one time. There was a turn every twenty or thirty yards.” (Poe 2) The rooms in the palace are arranged from east to west. The direction of the suite is an allegory of human life. East is associated with “beginnings” and birth because the sun only rise in the east — West is where the sun sets therefore it is associated with endings and death. The different colors represent a variety of

In Masque Of The Red Death symbols play a large role throughout Edgar Allan Poe's story. The prince, the rooms even the clock holds a symbol. It's how you look or Comprehend the meaning behind it. Words can always have different meanings many it's how you look and put two and two together. This stories Symbolizes many things from life and death. There are many little meanings that can play a large part in this story.

Poe begins his use of symbolism early in the story when he describes the decour that Prince Prospero chose for his party. According to the story, Prince Prospero decorated seven rooms of his palace

Jacob Coffman wrote his term paper over the gothic short story "The Masque of the Red Death," which was written by Edgar Allen Poe. Coffman's thesis was arguing over three-key points that have been debated over by numerous amounts of scholars.  Coffman focused on three main key points: the significance of the colors used to describe each room, identifying who the narrator is and what their actions are in the story, and the argument over the novel that was Poe's inspiration for writing "The Masque of the Red Death," that being the novel "I Promessi Sposi," which was written by the Italian author Alessandro Manzoni.