Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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Master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe uses dramatic storytelling, as well as dark imagery, to share messages of mortality with readers. In Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death,” the realities of life and death are represented by such symbols as the looming ebony clock, the uninvited party guest, and the colors of the seven rooms at the party. The many symbols work together to make the story an allegory of man’s inability to best death. Initially, readers are made aware of the dark juxtaposition of the broad clock at the joyus party when Poe states, “...there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony... and the hour was to be stricken, there came... a sound which was clear and loud... at each lapse of an hour, the musicians …show more content…

Prospero took extreme care in decoration each of his rooms in an eccentric fashion, such that, “...at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple ...The third was green ...The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. 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 only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color.” Each of the rooms the party was held in followed, completely, a color scheme, except the final room, which was all black, but with red windows. Each of the seven rooms represents one of the seven stages of life. The most eastern room was blue, the color of water, the color of life; the room was the most eastern, which is the way the sun rises in the morning. The last and western-most room was black and red, which are the colors of death and blood; the west is where the sun sets and the day ends. As the prince ran through the seven rooms to stab the uninvited guest, he was running through the end of his life to the seventh room, where he met his

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