Symbolism In Masque Of The Red Death

In “Masque of the Red Death” Prince Prospero is running a country that is undergoing an epidemic of the Red Death and instead of protecting his people, the prince secludes himself in his castle with other high ranking members of society. He eventually faces the red death figure at his masquerade party and ultimately falls into death’s hands.
Poe makes the party a masquerade, to symbolize that the Prince and his guests are hiding things, more specifically from themselves. The symbolism of the masquerade also serves as an important setting as it is where the conflict with the red death figure happened. The red death’s appearance justifies itself in showing up at the party as “the mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resembles

the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat” which made the figure seem like another guest at the party. The masquerade itself has to do with masks which symbolizes in hiding. The guests and Prospero are both hiding the fact that they do not feel comfortable in the castle as they know they are still not safe in the castle from the red death yet, instead the group tries to see what they want to see instead of the harsh realities and the prince does that by setting up a masquerade in his castle. Parties are places where people often go if they want to go to another world and escape their problems “But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies), there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before” (Poe 113). Despite the party guests trying to forget about the outside world, they cannot help but feel the waves of fear every hour but at the same time, they want to run away from the truth that they dislike and instead they continue to accept the blissful lie. The black clock represents fear as the guests freeze every single time it rings and it is merely a symbol because no physical clock can ring loud enough for an entire orchestra and dance to stop. The people keep saying that they will not stop when the clock rings but fear cannot be controlled.
Prince Prospero has a conflict with himself in the story in which he tries to avoid the truth about death.

When confronted with the red death “the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all” (Poe 116). Feeling shame, the prince realizes that he could not escape from death no matter what he did. People in rage tend to do things hurriedly and for Prospero this triggers a flight or fight reaction. Before he would flight as he ran away from the red death by hiding in his castle but now he decided to fight it instead, therefore the conflict in Prospero gets resolved once he made a decision. It was only after the Prince’s death did the guests fight the figure as well “Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revelers at once threw themselves into the black apartment ,” (Poe 116) and ended up dying as well. Unanimously they all joined at once to kill the red death and it shows that the revelers having a conflict with the red death as they only go after the Prince is dead because of how afraid they were before. This was the last straw before the guests finally realized the truth about , and it also initiates a fight or flight reaction like Prospero and they decide to fight which ends with their

demise.
The conflicts and symbols used in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” show that humans have great difficulty in accepting the truth in many things and instead decide to dwell on sweet lies.