How Does Poe Use Sensory Details In The Masque Of The Red Death

Sensory details are an important aspect of writing. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allen Poe, many sensory details are used to enhance the mood and tone of the story. Sensory details are when an author uses our senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound, to make us feel as if we are beside the characters. In this essay, we will examine, “The Masque of the Red Death,” to see if we can pick out sensory details in the abbey, the rooms, and in the Red Death.

First, let us examine the abbey. In the passage, Prince Prospero decides to throw a party, in the midst of a plague that is killing all of his subjects. The abbey is similar to a church that is used for religious practices. So, the abbey is large and mostly empty. Additionally, it is far away from any civilization which gives you an eerie feeling as you are reading. When the prince and all his invitees enter the abbey, he barricades off the doors so that they are locked inside. This strange and frightening twist to the story

There are seven colored rooms, first blue, then purple, green, orange, white, violet, and finally black. This gives the reader an odd feeling, because the walls, floors, windows, curtains, and furniture in those rooms are all the same color. The most eerie being the black room which contains a ticking clock. When you think of the sound of a ticking clock, it is monotonous and shows us the moving of time. However, in this story it is used to show us how time is running out for the guests, and the fate that no one can avoid--- death. Actually, each room has a corresponding meaning. Light blue meaning birth, purple meaning early childhood, green meaning adolescence and late childhood, orange meaning adulthood, white meaning mid-life, violet meaning old age, and black meaning death. Knowing this and connecting it with our sensory details only make us more uncomfortable, because we can tell what is coming in the