Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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 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

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

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.

Within “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe presents symbolic elements of both life and death to entice the audiences’ emotions and leave them in a state of wonderment. Some of the symbolisms that Poe uses are “The Red Death”, Prince Prospero, the color of the seven rooms, the ebony clock, and the “dreams” within the rooms. As each symbol is introduced, the suspense builds and the audience is pulled from the joyous lives of the masqueraders to the looming “Red Death” to create a roller coaster of emotion.

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

“The Masque of the Red Death,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, tells the story of Prince Prospero and his futile attempts to prevent death. During his masquerade party, the prince notices an unusual figure, dressed as the Red Death, and, enraged at the sight of it, Prospero tries to kill it. Poe uses the seventh room, the ebony clock, and the Red Death itself as symbols of death throughout his story.

The standard perception concerning human limitations has it that the potential of humankind knows no bounds. Yet, the cycle of life disproves this recurrent opinion of human potential. Based upon the realistic scope of their own abilities, the phrase, “the sky’s the limit”, are well within the bounds of the timeless concepts of life and death. These ideas are common points amongst works of literature from the American Romantic Period. Moreover, one of the most prominent Romantics is Edgar Allan Poe, who utilizes seemingly natural attributes of human interactions, and expands them out of proportion in order to reveal the gloominess of those said attributes. Poe’s literary works encompass many aspects that are reflective of the Romantic Period; his works include the acknowledgement of nature or setting, emphasis on individuals and groups of people, and elements of the supernatural; such use of Romantic attributes also leads to a plausible interpretation of an indirect rejection of the establishment of religion. The utilization of these qualities appears frequently in Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, which is a fictional account of a burgeoned plague and its multitude of effects on the wealthy survivors. Furthermore, a key point in the short story is the particular choice of setting: a gothic quarantine, which intertwines many Romantic elements. In particular, the quarantine of “The Masque of the Red Death”, is a symbol of human limitations and the

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most well-known authors from the dark romantic age. His story “The Masque of the Red Death” is a short fable about Prince Prospero and the Red Death, better known today as the bubonic plague. The prince is a very rapacious man so when he sees that his kingdom is dying, he chooses to save himself and his companions by bringing them to one of his many castles and simply closing the door on the plague. They continued to live their lavish lives, acting as if nothing was wrong behind the sturdy door of the castle. Then, when Prospero throws a big masquerade, he discovers that an intruder has crashed his party. Out of rage, he goes to stab the man, but, upon reaching the doorway of the room, he drops dead. After a mob of very upset partygoers tears apart the grotesque mask of the intruder, they discover that the “man” underneath is a personified version of the Red Death. Through a psychological lens, one would be able to see the different emotions portrayed through the characters. From beginning to end, “The Masque of the Red Death” brings forth a range of emotions through the characters and their uncontrollable and many times thoughtless actions.

In The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero tries to cover the fact that people are dying beyond his walls by throwing an everlasting party. His egocentric and uncharitable traits are shown in this quote: “And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious… He summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court…” (Poe 3) Situational irony is applied in this quote. As people are suffering outside his walls, the main character is throwing a social function trying to mask the lethal contagion spreading all over the country. To further support the theme, “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He has come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their

Edgar Allan Poe utilizes symbolism and emotional diction to scare the audience. The Red Death is going on and the masked ball takes place “toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion”(1). The idea that they have been hiding out in this abby for so long symbolises being trapped. With this feeling of being trapped the horror element of the story is heightened as you feel there is no escape. The fear is restated with diction as your hear the guest share a feeling “tremulousness” during the ball. By using such a specific word it lets us know that something doesn't feel

Poe uses allegory to allude to the double meanings of the characters Prince Prospero and the masked figure, as well as the setting of the chambers. Prince Prospero represents prosperity. While his nation is suffering from the “Red Death”, “…he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and lighthearted friends…and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbey” (420). His nobility and wealth give him the ability to ignore the horror around him and live in luxury. This refers to real life in that the privileged are the ones who are able to still live comfortably even if others are in a crisis. Prince Prospero also represents an ignorance, selfishness, and arrogance that come with wealth through right instead of hard work. He believes that “[t]he external world could take care of itself” and that it is “…folly to grieve, or to think” (420). Instead of taking action to help his people, he just leaves them in the grips of the “Red Death”. The “Red Death” is

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.

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.

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