Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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

of the orchestra were constrained to pause... and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company.” When the black clock hit each hour, it made a boom so deep and loud that every guest had to stop and stare at the spectacle. Despite the clock’s dark and brash nature, it is only noticed by the party guests when important; the time it strikes is always inconvenient to the party goers, and is met with displeasure and uncertainty. Just like how the clock’s hourly BONG made itself heard at inconvenient moments, time was treated the same by the masquerade patrons: humans only acknowledge time when the end of theirs comes. The Party goers, as well as the reader, learns that ignoring time never stops it from entering our live; and thus, the ebony clock represents time station in man’s life.
In the same fashion that the ebony clock symbolizes time, so does the uninvited guest symbolize the tie between life and death. As Poe describes, after twelve hits of the clock, the guests begin to notice a disturbing figure, and, “...The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ...the type of the Red Death.” After midnight, the cheerful, if not inebriated, guests of the ball notice a lone standing being with a mask that resembles a victim of the Red Death. The figure, dressed as death itself, was noticed at midnight, the death of the day. It makes sense, then, that the uninvited guest actually represents death. Although the wealthy and statused had barricaded themselves in the castle to avoid the plague that damned the common man, they were still greeted by the plague in the form of an ethereal spectre. Just as the Red Death killed the meek, the masked being eventually killed the opulent. Paralleling the way that the being was uninvited to the party, death is often uninvited in our lives, making us all equal in the end.
On a more philosophical note, the prosperous Prince Prospero’s seven technicolor party rooms symbolize the seven stages of man’s life, from birth to death.

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

death.
Ultimately, the use of symbols in, “The Masque of the Red Death,” tell an allegory of how death is always at the end of one’s life, regardless of affluence. The clock represents time; the uninvited guest represents death; and the seven rooms represent the life the makes the former relevant. In other words, one should know the value of life beyond riches because you can’t take it with you.