What Does The Seventh Room Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death

At the end of the first paragraph Poe uses foreshadowing when he writes “And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour” (1). I see this as foreshadowing the event that ends the party and the lives of all those present. The entire thousand assembled die when the Red Death came. The “last chime had utterly sunk” (3) also foreshadows the end where each individual “died in the despairing posture of his fall” (4). Combining both these instances together shows that the whole situation or incident, from the “presence of a masked figure” (3) to “one by one dropped” (4), ended before the clock chimed the next passing hour. The “seventh apartment” (1) also foreshadow the presence of the Red Death. The entire apartment was “shrouded in black velvet tapestries” and the window “panes here

In the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe expresses the theme that death is inescapable or inevitable. He expresses this theme through rhetorical devices such as symbolism and allegory. For example, Prince Prospero’s chambers were allegorical because of the rooms’ arrangement which was from east to west. The east represents the beginning of life, while the west represents the end of life. The Darkroom, which was at the end of the hall, symbolized death. It was the room that the guests didn’t want to go in and eventually was the place that they were killed by the Black Death. Another example of symbolism is the clock which as a symbol of the time-lapse of life as a human being. It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall a gigantic clock of ebony...and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily (Poe 374). This sentence expresses how compelling the clock is and how it attracts the attention of the masqueraders. The author also uses imagery to build suspense upon the reader. An example would be how the author describes the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood-and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror (Poe 378). This describes the dreadful

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.

Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism to show the transition leading to death by using each of the seven rooms in the castle to represent a stage of life. The

The fires in each of the suite rooms serve as a representation of death. Poe depicts

Edgar Allan Poe is not like other writers in Early American Gothic Literature. In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Poe, he uses very precise word choices to deliver a new perspective on short stories. Poe skillfully gives a new definition to short stories by masterfully using literary devices, which ultimately lead to the theme that death is inevitable.

In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allen Poe describes how people fear death even though it is inevitable. Fear is a strong emotion where he taps into those feelings through his powerful creation of suspense. This short story took place in Medieval times. The author describes how Prince Prospero encounters death and thinks he can win the fight. His thoughts were concerned with death and show how metaphorically it’s inescapable, but people continues to behave as if they are immortal. Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” reveals fear and terror and demonstrates how time never stops, and no one can escape death.

Ben Franklin once said, “Death takes no bribes.” Death is the only thing guaranteed by life, yet the mortal man continues to attempt to elude it and always fails. This theme is prominent in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death.” In this short story, a fictitious disease called the Red Death plagues the world; however, the wealthy endeavor to escape the epidemic plague. Poe uses gothic diction, foreshadowing, and symbolizes a large ebony clock to convey his overall message that death is inevitable despite futile attempts to escape it.

Through using the deathly symbolism in this story skillfully, Poe alluded 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 rooms were represented to seven parts of life the blue room, which is located the east, represents birth. The next room is purple, 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 of the age of old . Violet is a shadowy color, the color represents people who were near the death . And the last room, the black room, is death. Otherwise, seven rooms were set up East to West like the position of the Sun. That means that no matter who you are you have to go through every single part of life and can not escape any

Edgar Allan Poe, to many, is the father of modern day horror. His famous “The Masque of the Red Death” tells a story of death itself invading the safety of one's home. “The Cask of Amontillado” shares the tale of a man's grudge against a former friend who had insulted him, and the punishment that ensues. In another tale, “The Black Cat”, a story of a kind man turned brutal due to alcoholism is told. In many of his stories, including the three previously stated, the use of various literary tools is present. Such appearance of these literary terms has enhanced his writings, allowing his horrific stories to become what he is remembered for. Out of all of the terms in his works, however, figurative language best represents Poe’s themes of murder, cruelty,

Edgar Allan Poe created a macabre atmosphere in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” that can be seen throughout the entire plot of the story. The story centers around the Red Death, a devastating disease that causes sharp pains, dizziness, and then profuse bleeding from the pores. This is the basis of the plot in the story, through which Edgar Allan Poe creates a macabre atmosphere. This in turn strengthens the theme of the story, which is that no one, no matter how hard they try, cannot escape death.

To begin I would like to state that this is the first time I have had the experience of reading Poe and as such the reading process was greatly intriguing. The short story I chose was the Masque of the Red Death, which I found to be very dark and vile. From the beginning of the story to the end I found great concentration on the issues of life and death, among other things, which made the story very dynamic for its size. Another point of interest I found in the story was Poe’s concentration on historical accuracy as he successfully attempts to illustrate the feudal system at its best. However, two aspects of Poe’s writing that I did not exactly enjoy was the use of obscure words and seemingly long sentence which can some times take away

“When we consider Poe's belief in a transcendent realm beyond this material universe, the association of blue with the infinite and the immortal may easily be seen to relate to the first room” (Zimmerman 63). It is here that there are possible conclusions that can be extrapolated based on Poe’s internal beliefs. Zimmerman proposes several different views on the meanings of the colors from the correlation between the colors and the stages of life, to the colors signifying a parallel to people’s place within

Perhaps the most vague and broadly interpreted of the symbols in Poe’s story are the seven rooms, with their abstract arrangement and bizarre usage of color. Many guesses have been made, and papers written, as to why Poe decided to arrange seven rooms in Prospero’s abbey the way he did.

Within "The Masque of the Red Death" Poe uses a variety of colors to form an indirect message that developed a theme that their are different stages in life we face and how for some of those stages we mange to give up, rather than face our fears. Arranged in a row from east to west, the seven color-coded rooms in the abbey are considered to have an symbolic meaning representing the progression of life. Each color has a stage that they represent. Blue represents birth,