Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Description and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe
Description and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Description and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death Essay Symbolism, as used in many of Edgar Allen Poe’s allegories (a short story or poem that has hidden meaning), means to represent something. Throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death the color of the rooms and the ebony clock were key types of symbolism that were used to help develop the theme that death is inevitable. For example, no matter how much money or protection from the plague Prospero had, he and his friends inevitably died. The colors of each room represent a different stage of life starting in the east and ending in the west. The room farthest to the east is the blue room which represents birth. This is the room that Prospero begins chasing the masked man in. The second room is purple which represents the beginning of growth. The third room is green, which means adolescence or youth. The next room is orange, which represents adulthood. The fifth room, which is white, represents age. The sixth room, violet, means imminent death. Finally the last room, being black, represents actual death. In addition, the black room had a deep red stained window. This deep red represents blood, which, when put together represent a bloody death. This is accurate because in the end Prosper was stabbed while standing …show more content…
As they made their way to the black room they all avoided entering it. This implies that they all feared death. In addition, when the man in the mask first appears Prospero chases him, starting in the blue room and ending inevitabley in the black room. This chase symbolizes prospero’s life starting at birth in the blue room, and running through all the rooms making his way to his inevitable death. After that, as Prospero chases the masked man through the rooms into the black one, the people hesitated to enter which backs up the idea that they were afraid of
By providing symbolism, the setting of each story coerces the reader to think and reflect on the story, its impact, and its deeper meanings. For example the setting of “Hop Frog” provides deeper insights on Hop Frog’s perspective. “In less than half a minute the whole eight orang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below . . . without the power to render them the slightest assistance” (Poe). Though describing the conflagration of the king and his ministers, this setting can also easily describe the hardships faced by Hop Frog every day while in captivity. Unable to escape the fiery wrath of the king, Hop Frog is forced to suffer while Tripetta is rendered powerless, unable to do anything to assist her friend. While the setting in “Hop Frog” can be used to symbolize the pain and suffering Hop Frog is forced to endure, symbolism can also be seen in the setting of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Focused on the idea that no man can escape death, Poe uses symbolism to entice the reader to subconsciously make connections to discover this idea for his or herself. Many symbols are used throughout “The Masque of the Red Death”, one of them being “a gigantic clock of ebony . . . while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale” (Poe). Though it is never specifically indicated that there is more significance to the clock than illustrated in the given information, one could extrapolate that the clock is a representation of time itself. Time is more or less ignored; however, as time goes on and the end draws near, people pay more attention to it, and are terrified by the reminder that they will all perish in the end. This example is one of many of the symbols used in “The Masque of the Red Death”; like in that of “Hop Frog”, the setting of “The Masque of the Red Death” leaves clues for the reader, encouraging him
inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape death. The prince's name, Prospero,
In many stories, authors use symbolism, which is using symbols to represent something, to show a moral. “The Masque of the Red Death,” is a fictionalized story about a deadly disease that pervades through a country, killing many people. A young prince, in an effort to save himself and his elite friends and family, he withholds them all in his grand castle. The castle is unique in that it has seven very distinct rooms, that all seem to represent something important. In the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, the seven colored chambers symbolize the cycle of human life, from birth to death.
“The scarlet stains upon the body, and especially upon the face of the victim, caused terror in those watching the afflicted” (7). The story starts off with the prince getting away to a castle with his healthy friends. They were going to throw a masque party, and all was going well until the masker showed up. Everyone was scared including the knights. As the masker made its way from the blue room to the black room, nobody moved. The prince felt like it was his job to get up and take control. He entered the black room with the Masker and that’s when everyone heard a scream, the prince was dead. Eventually, all his friends dropped dead too. In “The Masque of the Red Death” the seven rooms represent the seven stages of life; infancy, childhood,
The characters in “The Mask of the Red Death” include Prince Prospero (who is the only person that speaks in the story), a multitude (a thousand) of the Prince’s wealthy friends, and the masked figure, which doesn’t appear until the end of the story. Prince Prospero’s name signifies happiness and good-fortune. Ironically, this is not the tone of the story. The prince is an unusual man with strange tastes. “His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric luster". After half of his dominions were killed by the disease is...
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about the red death, terror, and death. Within the story, there are many ways symbolism is shown. One of the main ways this story shows symbolism is the ebony clock. The ebony clock is located in the black room, meaning that the clock could symbolize death, as well as life because of the chimes that happen every hour.
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
The seven rooms and their corresponding colors represent the seven stages of life. The rooms are placed starting in the east and ending in the west, this is more symbolism for the stages of life because the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
In the selection of the different color rooms I picked the white room for the first explanation. The white room represents purity. In this story everyone wants to escape the red death, the disease going on at the time period. They are afraid of it so into the fact of exaggeration of saying you'll die immediately, but truly it is in thirty minutes. The white in the room is the symbol of the people in they believing they are pure, clean from disease. It is the place they desire to be in. To be pure in such a level and live. Just the purity of the white color is out of reach in such a time period, because of the disease. It is the place where they feel the calmest in. For such
Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is based on the supernatural and the unknown. In The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero invites the revelers to come to the castle to party until the danger of pestilence is gone. The party was interrupted by an intruder who was dressed in all black (like the Grim Reaper) and was associated with the plague of the "red death." The reaper killed everyone one by one in the end. The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory. An allegory is symbols that are presented in the story that have two levels of meaning. An example can be the clock in the story. The clock told time and represented the time they had left before they died. There were seven chambers that were different colors, and the last chamber was black, which was the last chamber that represented death. I think the seven rooms symbolized the days until you die and the clock symbolized the time until you died.
Throughout the short story The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe uses various symbols to convey the idea that death is inevitable. Prince Prospero uses his wealth and status to attempt to elude death by secluding himself and others in his castle. The prince himself represents mankind and its inability to handle the realities of death. Therefore, Prince Prospero throws a magnificent masquerade since “the external world could take care of itself. In the meantime, it was folly to grieve, or to think” (Poe 37).
Death is something everyone is familiar with unfortunately. It may be hard to accept but you are going to die one day. It inevitable. However some people try to run from it, like in the story “The Masque of the Red Death”. Poe uses symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death” to develop the theme that no matter how hard one tries, no one can escape death.
Another reason is the colored rooms. They symbolize the 7 stages of life. It starts off from birth to death. The room colors are blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The rooms change the moods of the guest.
The rooms in “The Masque of the Red Death” are symbolic and correlates to the progression of the story. The seven rooms in Prince Prospero’s castle symbolizes “The Seven Ages of Man” which is a poem written by William Shakespeare. This poem is about “one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being seven ages.”(Shakespeare, 3-4) Each of these stages are symbolized by the rooms. Each of the rooms has its individual color to correspond with the ages. The rooms that goes from east to west is blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and lastly scarlet. In the same order, these colors represents infantry, childhood, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone, and old age. An illustration of these ages is when Prince Prospero was chasing after
Symbolism is a literary device that is used when symbols are used to represent something, like an object, that has a deeper understanding or meaning. Poe uses symbolism by using the eye of a vulture as a symbol. The eye of the vulture made the narrator feel all types of feelings and the guilt and fear inside of him starting controlling him. The eye of the vulture represents the eye of the old man. It’s called the Evil Eye. It has a film over the pale blue eye. In paragraph 2, the text states “He had the eye of a vulture -- a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” (Poe par. 2). The eye is being symbolized because the eye represents the old man’s Evil Eye and that the eye is blue. The eye is the reason why he is so scared and has so much fear in him. Poe also uses irony and metaphors to support his argument. Symbolism develops Poe’s argument because it’s the reason the narrator murders the old man, in order to get rid of the