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Symbolism in masque of the red death
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Symbolism in masque of the red death
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The Masque of the Red Death In the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar uses many examples of symbolism and imagery throughout the story that helps the reader understand the story more and gives the reader an image in their head. This story is about a Prince, Prince Prospero and many men and women in his country that are hiding in his castle from the plague. Then something unexpected happens after the echoes from the clock disappears into the silence. The clock is a very important piece of imagery in this story. Every time the clock struck, it told how many minutes or hours all the humans of royalty had to live, but unfortunately they didn't know that. “But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell
of the clock….There were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before.”(Poe 459) Another, example of imagery is the rooms that the unidentified figure walks through. It moves through a purple room. Purple symbolizes royalty, and power, kind of like Prince Prospero. The last example of imagery is another room the figure walks through, which was the white room.This room symbolizes light, goodness, and perfection. All of the rooms together symbolize the walk of life. All of the people were then killed by the masked figure, the plague killed them out of revenge. Edgar uses these pieces of imagery to help the reader understand the message of the story. He was saying that revenge will always take place.
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.
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
the countenances of those who enter it that there are few…bold enough to set foot within it".
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 author, Edgar Allan Poe, using illusion or misdirection keeps the reader is suspense throughout this story called "The Masque of the Red Death". Symbolism such as the colored rooms, the impressive clock, the feeling of celebration being at a party all makes this story feel like a fairytale. Poe used this fairytale style and converts it into a nightmare in disguise.
Zimmerman, Brett. “Allegoria and Clock Architecture in Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.” Essaysin Arts and Sciences 29 (Oct. 2000): P 1-16. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 April 2012.
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
“The Masque of the Red Death” is a short tale about a king who rules a dominion plagued with a disease called the red death. The Prince decides to build a fortress that will hold many of his closest friends and relatives and keep the disease out. The castle in which the Prince and all of his closest friends are inside of, is a magnificent fortress that is lavish and decorated with a variety of colors for each apartment. Poe explains, “That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows.” In this quote, the use of imagery describes the first of seven apartments that hold guests for balls and entertainment. In addition, the last of the seven apartments described is a black room that in itself symbolizes the red death. In this room stands a clock that clangs every hour and when the clock begins to clang. Everything in the fortress seems to stop while the clock clangs. Poe describes the clocks clang very vividly, to set the mood of the seventh room and what it is like. Poe states “Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang.” This example of imagery uses the hearing sense, and it helps the reader understand the mood of the room. Poe wants this room to be creepy, dark, and scary and conveys that clearly through the use of
"The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death,'" (209). As Edgar Allen Poe set the scene for his story, he also created an ominous mood and a sense of suspense supported by the setting. He details the fun and amusement inside the prince's abbey, in contrast to the horror and doom outside, and the reader's curiosity is piqued, because such bliss cannot be maintained for long. Throughout the story Poe explicates and changes elaborate environments to build the suspenseful energy and create a strong structure. In "The Masque of the Red Death," setting is employed to organize motives and action, and to focus the reader on the climax. Poe targets the culminating point of his story using rich descriptions of the abbey, the masquerade, and the clock.
In the story, “Masque of the Red Death” it covers six months during the Red Death.It takes place in a castle which has seven different colored rooms.In the beginning of the story it describes the main character prince Prospero as happy,fearless and wise. Towards the end of the story a new guest appears to the party and everyone is scared and Prospero goes from being happy to mad and in the end the new guest kills Prospero and everyone dies because he was the Red Death. The message in this analogy ,”The Masque of the Red Death “ by Poe is life passes by so quick that you don't realize what's going on until it's your time to die.
Poe uses major themes that are shown throughout the whole story in multiple different stories. In The Tell-Tale Heart and The Masque Of the Red Death we see themes that appear largely in both stories such as time and versions of reality. In The Tell-Tale Heart we see three different perspectives of reality that basically can be three different stories that are told depending on the person who’s story you view from. In The Masque of the Red Death there are several different types of reality that range from the poor sick and dying of the kingdom that are locked out of the castle to the rich members of the kingdom who are in a dream like atmosphere and which even includes the prince 's version of reality as well where he believes he can simply just close the door on the disease. The realities in the story even range all the way to the reality of the the Red Death itself who does not see social classes or status but just goes after anyone for no reasons, but just cause chaos and suffering. The other theme also includes how time ties both of the stories together. In The Tell-Tale Heart the unnamed main character and narrator is completely obsessed with time. For several nights in a row he goes into the old man 's room precisely at the same time and and he does the same exact procedure every single night. He then after the murder he commits hears the heart of the dead man that resembles a ticking clock. Next, in The Masque of the Red Death we see time being represented in the orientation of the rooms from east to east, the colors of the rooms and what they represent of stages of life, and finally the clock in the black room that is counting down the time until the death of everyone at the party. Edgar Allen Poe writes his stories with similar themes , but finds a way to have the theme have a different representation in every story and how the
Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is an elaborate allegory that combines
By the end of the story the reader already has a good grasp on what is going to happen next, but Poe sneaks in one more symbol into the end, the clock, which is located in the seventh room and was mentioned earlier. This big,black clock is a clock that whenever it chimes the hour, everyone freezes. Also, once the clock strikes the hour, it seems that, everyone who is at the party, gets older, but do not notice it. “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that last of the gay,” (Poe, 88). After Poe writes this sentence he is telling the reader that the Red Death had won. It won because nobody can run away from their own fate and even if they tried Death would always find them. When the clock stops working after the last of the guests
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his masterful writing on all aspects of mortality, but his famous short story “The Masque of the Red Death” proves to be more than a simple story about death. While it is about death, Poe’s short story can be read and applied as a cautionary tale whose purpose is to illustrate a worthy way to live and die by portraying the opposite of both. This interpretation comes about when the story is viewed through the lens of New Criticism. This viewpoint shows how the story uses its formal elements converge to create one complex theme. Poe’s short story develops its theme through the use of paradox, tension, irony and ambiguity, all of which come together to identify