Essay on The Masque of the Red Death: Symbolism

In "The Masque Of The Red Death", Edgar Allan Poe uses words and phrases to create an effect. He uses bold and dark words to help his readers be able to picture a very good image of the story and the mood that he wants to set. When he claiming that, "no pestilence had ever been so fatal ", that let the readers know that is was probably a very strong and gruesome disease that killed many of the town people. When Poe starts the story he starts by describing "The Red Death" and its symptoms. He described it as, "sharp pains, sudden dizziness, profuse bleeding at the pores with dissolution", "seizure process and termination of the disease were the incident of half and hour", he lists the symptoms as if it were a recipe, he is very straightforward and uses words that give an image to every symptom, he completely lets the reads know that "the red death" was a very nasty painful disease and you could imagine how much it made the characters suffer all in half

Through using the deathly symbolism in this story skillfully, Poe allude to people to the part of life that people have to go through without the controled by people . First he described seven chambers ( seven rooms in the palace ), “In blue…….. falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue” ( Poe 43) . Seven room were represent to 7 part of life : the blue room, which is farthest to the east, represents birth.. The next room is purple, a combination of blue (birth) and red suggests the beginnings of growth. Green, the next color, suggests the young of life the age of spring , orange is the summer and autumn of life is the age of adult . White, the next color, suggests age with white hair, and bones the age of old . Violet is a shadowy color, the color represents people were near the death . And black is death. Otherwise, 7 rooms were set up East to West like the position of the Sun. That means that no matter who you are you

When first introduced, the clock already induces a sense of fear and discomfort. Every hour, the “dancers and musicians alternate between maintaining their pose of light laughter and gaiety and, when the doleful, deep-voiced clock chimes, becoming pale, uneasy, and thoughtful” (Wheat). The clock strikes fear into the hearts of the party-goers and serves as a brief but haunting “reminder of death, the enemy, and time, his companion” (Wheat). This omen of death comes with a reminder of the limited time before the plague kills everyone. As the clock strikes midnight, the guests “become aware of the presence of the stranger who has haunted the abbey from the beginning … [and] the unfeeling gaiety must give way to feelings ‘of terror, of horror, and of disgust’ ” (Wheat). By chiming at the exact moment the Red Death enters, the clock hints at approaching destruction, thus symbolizing the imminent death of every person at the masquerade. After chasing the Red Death through the suite, Prospero then dies in the seventh room, almost exactly next to the ebony clock. Therefore,

The black clock is also a symbolic element in Poe's story. "Its pendulum swung to and

Edgar Allan Poe was a brilliant poet who endured an incredibly harrowing life. It seemed as if everyone he became close to would decease before his eyes. His grim life served as inspiration for his work which take on eerie, nightmarish tones and themes, likely because those disturbing subjects are what he knew best. One of his poems greatly influenced by his life was “The Masque of the Red Death”. Some parts of the poem influenced by his life are Prince Prospero, the red death, and the theme of the inevitability of death.

Michael Ruiz once said, “Everyone dies. There’s no point in fighting it.” In Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, there is a disease that kills almost everyone in a country so the king brings all survivors into a castle to prevent it from killing anyone else, although it still ends up getting in from a ghost, and wipes everyone else out. In Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe uses gothic elements such as a gloom setting, supernatural beings, curses, and air of mystery and suspense.

In ‘’the Masque of the Red Death’’ the feeling the author Edgar Allan Poe is trying to give is he wants the readers to feel scared. In the story there are multiple places that Poe is trying to show that it is scary. For example, ‘’ there were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” This shows that Poe is trying to make it scary because hearing that this sickness could make you bleed at the pores just puts this awful scary image in the readers head. The Red Death is portraying tuberculosis so when people read this they know that this is a real disease and people actually get it so it makes them worry about if they can get it or not. Another example would be “there were twelve strokes to

One of the most apparent symbols in the text are the bizarre colored rooms. The rooms represent the cycle of life, blue is birth, purple childhood, green adolescence, orange adulthood, white is the elderly years, violet is dying, and finally black is death. The rooms are arranged like the sun rise and set with the blue room all the way in the east and the black at the west end. Furthermore, the rooms have similar styles, all one color with the decor and windows matching said color. However, the black room is different with black velvet curtains, and the windows a blood red color. The light from the hall isn’t able to enter the room so a candelabra was placed behind each window so that it “projected its rays through the tinted glass… And produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered” (2) The

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

When it comes to reading literature the most challenging yet important task is to understand the purpose of the author's writing. In Romantic era literature understanding the emotions and thoughts that are created in the reader's mind are essential to gaining a clear message that the writer is trying to send. In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” the narrator immediately introduces the “Red Death”; a disease that has been spreading throughout Prince Prospero’s country; killing his people within half an hour of contracting the disease. Throughout the story the author continuously uses diction and syntax to create suspense and evoke a grim tone to the reader. In the “Masque of The Red Death” Poe produces fearful imagery in the reader's mind through creating a supernatural presence in the setting.

At the end of the story, The Masque of the Red Death, written by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe wanted to give readers the feeling of terror. The story states, “Whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in corpse-like mask.” This statement gives the reader the feeling of fear because it describing how someone would see an object or figure that is scary. It would also make them feel uneasy since the figure is just standing still and isn’t moving. The story also states, “He had come like a thief in the night…and Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”

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

Edgar Allan Poe used imagery and symbolism is his story “The Masque of the Red Death” to create feelings of fear and disgust throughout the story. These feelings are introduced in the beginning and go all the way through the story to give a bitter ending similar to how Poe pictured Consumption. Poe describes the Red Death by writing “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” As to give the reader a sense of what Poe was trying to say about that disease, and uses details such as “Blood was its avatar and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood.” ,as a means of describing what he knew about the pestilence. Both lines describe consumption also known as tuberculosis which Poe had witnessed many succumb to the disease primarily

There is a “…gigantic clock of ebony” in the black room, its sound is described as “…clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis” (421). This suggests that the clock has importance, as it is a physical reminder of death. If the story did not use imagery, the reader’s interpretation of it would be completely different.

Edgar Allen Poe was an American poet and short story writer, who specialized in the genres of horror and gothic writing. Poe’s work became so influential that he is “…credited with refining the short story form and inventing the modern detective story” (Slova ). In eighteen forty, Poe released one of his more well-known gothic short stories, “The Masque of the Red Death.” In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe relies heavily upon the use literary devices such as allegories, symbolism, and narration to convey his overall theme of how death and mortality are inevitable.