What Does The Castle Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death

Going to extreme measures to hide from something that is inevitable is futile. In the “Masque of the Red death,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe; the Red Death spreads across Europe from city to city leaving thousand dead. Prince Prospero doesn't want to die so he and some rich friends escape to a castle sealed off from the outside world. The only problem is that nobody can escape death. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses the symbolism of the castle, rooms 1-7, and the clock to show there is no way to hide from reality. It will always find a way back.

The castle is a safe hold from the world that high up people go to for protection. When the Red Death kills half of Prince Prospero's dominions, he takes his rich friends, and seals themselves away from the world in his castle. Poe writes, “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light hearted from among the knights, and dames of his court, and with these retired the the deep seclusions of one of his castellated alleys”(Poe 82) The castle

represents man’s attempts to escape reality. Prince Prospero used it to stay away from the red death, and survive even though in the end everyone dies. The castle further emphasis the extreme measures Prince Prospero took to escape death. Poe writes, “A strong and lofty wall girdled it. This wall had gates of iron”(Poe 82). This quote further supports the idea of the protective measures Propero took to evade death. The castle shows the theme of the story, because even though Prince Prospero went through all the trouble of locking himself in a castle; he bit the dust.
The rooms in the castle are the stages of life starting with birth, and ending in death. Each of the rooms at the masque are a symbol of a different stage of life. Poe writes, “That at the eastern assembly hung for example blue, second was purple, third was green, fourth was orange, fifth was white sixth was violet”(Poe 84). The rooms represent the cycle of life wich means ending in death. At a closer look the rooms are in line with the sun’s path. The room that symbolizes birth, is in the east which means the sun rises twords that room. The seventh, and last room as Poe states “was shrouded in black, but he panes were scarlet- a deep blood calor”(Poe 84), is on the western side; which is where the sun sets symbolizing the end of the day or in this case life. Even though the people went to the castle to hide from death they are again reminded that death is their ultimate fate. The rooms show that even though Prince Prospero, and friends, tried to escape death; life goes on, and they all end up dead.
Death was always following Prince Prospero even though he thought he was hiddine, and secure enough not to have such fate.

At the masque the clock rings a deep eerie ring each hour causing people to realize death is approaching, even if they don’t want it to. The quote, “While the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grw pale”(Poe 84), shows the people at the dance realizing in the back of their heads, that they knew death was bound to happen. The clock symbolizes death approaching the partiers. Even the happiest, care free of them all felt the effects of the sudden realization of the fate they ran away from. The seventh room holds the clock that tells the people death is approaching, this is showing that because the rings were coming from the black covered room facing west, death was on its way. With each ring of the clock the people realize it is impossible to hide from the

inevitable.
In The Mask of the Red Death the castle, rooms, and the clock symbolize the idea that death can’t be hidden from. The castle represents the measures people will go to escape in an attempt to escape from the inevitable. The seven rooms symbolize the stages of life. This would mean the cycle of life which always starts with birth, and ends in death further showing the reader the fate of the characters. The final symbol is the clock which shows death approaching the people in the castle. Even though Prince Prospero, and his friends escaped to the castle to escape the red death, and live; they ended up getting the red death, and dying within a half hour.