Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

“There is no beauty without some strangeness” (Ligeia). Edgar Allan Poe is a very famous gothic horror writer. He used many popular elements of gothic horror that other authors included in their stories. He wrote about death and disease, like in his short story “The Masque of The Red Death” he used the elements of setting and paranormal occurrences to add the scary to his story. He uses these to support the theme that nobody can escape death, no matter how powerful or protected.
Setting as an important part of the story in gothic horror. In Poe’s story, he uses the setting of the prince's castle to aid the theme. Inside the castle, Prince Prospero hides from the death that plagues his kingdom, “This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts” (Poe 1). Prince Prospero hides in his castle to avoid his own people. The tall walls and the gates of iron keep out any unwanted people from the grounds. While he hides inside the walls and gates of his palace his people are dying of a horrible

disease. If he had left his castle and helped his people it could have helped him avoid his own death.
Another characteristic that many gothic horror authors use is supernatural or paranormal experiences.

In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses this characteristic to bring in a new character. “[The] mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat.” (Poe 5). The ghostly figure is seen throughout the castle by the party goers and stuns them with fear. Since Prince Prospero was hiding in his castle from his people and the death that plagued them, the figure resembled the red death and the dead people of his kingdom. The figure seeked vengeance from the people to the prince, it came to give Prospero and the others at the party the horrible red

death.
Gothic horror authors used a lot of the same characteristics and themes in their stories. They used settings and paranormal occurrences to add the element of horror into their stories. Edgar Allan Poe was a very famous author in the world of gothic horror. He often used a similar theme in his stories, nobody can escape death, no matter how powerful or protected.