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The Masque of the Red Death

by Edgar Allan Poe

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Allegory and Symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death"

Summary:

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is an allegorical tale illustrating the inevitability of death. Prince Prospero symbolizes the wealthy attempting to escape mortality by secluding themselves in a fortress. The story's symbolic elements include the seven rooms representing life's stages, with the black and red room symbolizing death. The ebony clock signifies the passage of time and mortality, while the masquerading figure embodies the inescapable Red Death, highlighting that no wealth can shield against death's certainty.

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How is "The Masque of the Red Death" an allegory?

The allegorical nature of Poe's short story is apparent with the symbolically named Prince Prospero, who is the only character that is named; further, the conflict of this protagonist is also symbolic as Prospero battles death in a conflict that produces a moral lesson.

When Prospero learns of the plague, he gathers together his noblemen and their ladies into an abbey-fortress in a willful effort to establish a bastion against death.

With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself.

Within the fortress, are seven rooms, symbolic, perhaps, of the seven stages of man. In a hall, the presence of time is marked by a large clock that menacingly tolls the hour. While each of the rooms is a different color with windows stained to match and no one room can look into another. They are described as representative of life:

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Within the fortress, are seven rooms, symbolic, perhaps, of the seven stages of man. In a hall, the presence of time is marked by a large clock that menacingly tolls the hour. While each of the rooms is a different color with windows stained to match and no one room can look into another. They are described as representative of life:

There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. 

The last room is the most forbidding and moribund as it is "shrouded" in black tapestries of heavy velvet cloth, not only on the wall, but on the ceiling, as well. Clearly, this room is the room of death,

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. 

It is into this room of darkness and death that an intruder enters. Incensed that someone of such audacity should force his way into his magnificent revel, the Prospero, who symbolizes the wealthy and powerful, accosts the intruder in order to eject him from his fortress. Instead, this messenger of the red death embraces the prince, who succumbs to a power that no wall can deter. 

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In "The Masque of The Red Death", what are the literal and symbolic meanings of the allegory?

On the literal level, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is a tale of terror that has as its setting a terrible plague that leaves red stains on its victims.  The very wealthy and influential Prince Prospero, like the other residents of the area, fears the deadly disease.  So, he and members of his court sequester themselves in one of his old castles that is a "strong and lofty structure" where they remain for several months.  Finally, the prince decides to have a masquerade ball, a fete popular for his times.

Each room is decorated in different colors.  Thus, each room represents a stage of a person's life. There are arabesque figures, representing the delusionary aspect of the room. The last room is decorated with black tapestries with red staining the windows. Recognizing the significance of the colors, the guests are afraid to enter the black room. This final chamber has another haunting aspect:  a huge ebony clock strikes on the hour, causing the celebratory guests to pause. When this clock sounds twelve strokes, an unwanted guest enters this room himself, disguised with a heavy cape.  Incensed that such a guest as the hideous one in the black cape should have the effrontery to enter his castle, Prince Prospero accosts him with his sword raised.  Suddenly, the weapon falls to the ground, as Prospero has entered the room of death.  He falls victim to the Red Death that he has sought to barricade from his and his guests' revelries.

As an allegory, Poe's story demonstrates how people react to their own mortality.  The prince certainly feels that his wealth and material possessions can protect him while the guests seem to embrace the Roman motto of "Eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we will die"  as their revelrie only ceases as long as the clock chimes.

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Literally, the story is about a man who comes into a party with a contagious disease that spreads and causes everyone in the party to die after one hour of exposure.

The story may have been inspired by the plague in Europe, during which splotches would appear on the bodies of the afflicted. in "Masque of the Red Death" splotches of red appear on the faces of the victims.

Color symbolism is also used in the story. The black and red room is the room where everyone dies, meaning that black and red are the colors that symbolize death, while the other colors may symbolize different aspects of life.

I think your interpretation of being unable to escape death as a theme or symbolic meaning is a valid one.

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What are the allegorical symbols in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”?

In Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," the first, most obvious symbol seems to be the clock made of ebony, which is a black wood.

Ebony is described as...

a hard, heavy, durable wood, most highly prized when black, from various tropical …of southern India and Sri Lanka

It is important to realize that while the wood may be found in other colors (e.g., deep olive), we can assume this clock is black. (Black—in many cultures—is symbolic of death and/or mourning.) As the time passed, and...

...the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical...

The sounding of the clock is so loud and so unusual, that it makes all of those shut within the house pause, as they contemplate what they hear. For some, the sound is frightening (foreshadowing).

Another symbol is that of the masquerading figure:

The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. 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.

The costume this person has chosen to don is inappropriate—and the guests are appalled. This person's appearance closely resembles a dead body. It would appear that this person represents death. In fact, the figure seems to personify the Red Death—the disease that is obliterating the population outside the walls of the building.

Perhaps the third symbol is that of the building, but especially the gates, described at the start of the story, to where Prince Prospero "hides" with the others. They went into...

...the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.

It is an abbey constructed like a castle—according to the Prince's taste. Once everyone was inside:

A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers...brought...massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress...

The plan, then, is to keep everyone locked inside the walls of the abbey—but not just locked...the doors' bolts are welded shut. No one may enter or leave. It would seem that all possible measures have been taken to protect the occupants from the Red Death—and that nothing can harm the people.

However, with the appearance of the "mummer" in this particular costume, the Prince is enraged (and the others are terrified); he goes to stab the intruder...and falls to the floor dead. The guests realize there is no human being among the folds of the fallen costume—or the "mask." The guests now understand that this has been, in fact, a visit by the Red Death.

For all of Prospero's precautions, he has been unable to fend of the plague. The allegorical message seems to be that no matter how one tries, when his or her time has come, nothing can stop death. The clock has simply been counting down the time remaining for those about to die—the ticking of the minute hand has simply been measuring how little time in life remains for all those in this abbey.

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