Sarah Laney
Coach Black
1st Period
2 November 2017
“The Masque of the Red Death” Prompt 2
Symbolism is a type of figurative language that many authors use to portray their theme and keep the reader engaged throughout the story. Edgar Allen Poe is known for often putting hidden meanings in his works and he does not disappoint with his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” with his use of figurative language. Poe uses his writing to get his point across to the audience, all the while entertaining them with an amazing story. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allen Poe uses the symbolism of different colors, seven rooms, and the location of the rooms to convey that death is inevitable. Edgar Allen Poe uses the colors of the rooms to show the transition from birth to death. In the short story, Poe uses the colors of the rooms in a certain order to show the progression from birth to death. “...at the eastern extremity was hung... in blue… 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…” The first room was blue, the color of water, the beginning of life. The second was purple, symbolising childhood and royalty, children get weighed on hand and foot and are treated like prince and princesses. The third room was green, plants during the summer when they are at full bloom, the peak of life. Orange was the fourth, meaning autumn and fall, when leaves start to fall off of trees and start to die and decline. The fifth room was white, symbolising old age, when people age their hair turns white. The sixth room was violet, another shade of purple, people start to weigh on you again because you have become dependent on others again and you have become rich in other things such as experiences. The very last room was black, the color for funerals, the black meant death. Joseph Rosenblum agrees with the most widely known interpretation of the colors of the rooms. In an essay about the symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death,” he writes about the meaning behind the colors of the rooms. “blue is the dawning of life. Purple represents
For instance, the panes were scarlet, a deep blood colour. The "bloody" red room thus becomes a place of ending not only due to the westward location, but also because of its color. Poe describes the last, black room as the dreadful endpoint, the room the guests fear just as they fear death. The room is feared by the guests because it reminds them of death, which is why no one enters the room. The room is involved in all of the main scenes throughout the course ofthe story. For example, this is the room Prince Prospero and his guests die from the Red Death and also where the clock is located. The reader sees how important the rooms are throughout the story and its main contribution to the theme.
Uses of light symbolism in stories is typically used to depict signs of pureness and life. Poe utilizes this literary element in his description of the rooms. When Poe describes the first of the seven rooms he says “ at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue and vividly blue were its windows.” Poe uses the color blue to represent the beginning of life, along with the room being on the eastern side, since the sun rises on the east. Another example
In the story there are seven rooms. The last room symbolises the last stage of life, death. In the story it says “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” (Poe).
In "Masque of the Red Death", there are several differently colored rooms, which at first glance are simply several disparate pigments. After looking at the story as a whole, it is clear that these specific room colors each mean something other than itself. Spoken in "Masque of the Red Death" about two of the seven rooms is, "That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue...The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black..." (Masque 5). The author, between discussing these opposing rooms, mentions the other rooms and their colors, also. Each of these rooms symbolizes the seven stages of life. The blue room represents birth and new life, as it is at the east where the sun rises beginning each new day. Meanwhile, the black room is the farthest west where the sun sets, ending the day. This black room embodies death, which is uncoincidentally where everyone dies in "Masque of the Red
“The Masque of the Red Death” has a symbolic expression to the story. It featured a set of familiar symbols whose meanings combined to send a message. This allegory operated on two levels of meaning: 1) the literal elements of the plot; for example the color of the room and 2) their symbolic counterparts that involved philosophical concepts for example life and death. The story could have been read by the reader as an allegory
Edgar Allan Poe was known for his mystery and macabre poetry and short stories, and there is one story that fits this genre perfectly. It is about a prince and his people hiding from a disease, the red death, but they find themselves trapped inside the abbey with it. Edgar Allan Poe wanted to send a message through an interesting plot with a hidden theme. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, the theme that trying to avoid death will make life go by quickly is developed by the colored rooms, monotonous clock, and the masked red death. To create an interesting theme, the author used symbolism to develop the theme, and the first one he used were the colored rooms.
In the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe expresses the theme that death is inescapable or inevitable. He expresses this theme through rhetorical devices such as symbolism and allegory. For example, Prince Prospero’s chambers were allegorical because of the rooms’ arrangement which was from east to west. The east represents the beginning of life, while the west represents the end of life. The Darkroom, which was at the end of the hall, symbolized death. It was the room that the guests didn’t want to go in and eventually was the place that they were killed by the Black Death. Another example of symbolism is the clock which as a symbol of the time-lapse of life as a human being. It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall a gigantic clock of ebony...and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, 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, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily (Poe 374). This sentence expresses how compelling the clock is and how it attracts the attention of the masqueraders. The author also uses imagery to build suspense upon the reader. An example would be how the author describes the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood-and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror (Poe 378). This describes the dreadful
Through using the deathly symbolism in this story skillfully, Poe allude to people to the part of life that people have to go through without the controled by people . First he described seven chambers ( seven rooms in the palace ), “In blue…….. falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue” ( Poe 43) . Seven room were represent to 7 part of life : the blue room, which is farthest to the east, represents birth.. The next room is purple, a combination of blue (birth) and red suggests the beginnings of growth. Green, the next color, suggests the young of life the age of spring , orange is the summer and autumn of life is the age of adult . White, the next color, suggests age with white hair, and bones the age of old . Violet is a shadowy color, the color represents people were near the death . And black is death. Otherwise, 7 rooms were set up East to West like the position of the Sun. That means that no matter who you are you
In “Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, many symbols are used in the story to function in the work and to reveal the characters and themes of the story. Symbols serve many purposes in this story. Poe uses symbols all throughout the story to represent death. Poe’s use of the seven rooms, the clock, and the stranger helps to teach the reader that nothing can escape death. By using these symbols, Poe portray the idea that death can’t be escaped.
"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 the carpet of the same material and hue. ... The panes were scarlet—a deep blood color.... There was no light of any kind... but in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme,” (“The Masque” 342). Poe brilliantly uses color to achieve the desired mood. The color black often represents melancholy or death. Scarlet, of course, exhibits the color of blood. Poe exploits the use of these two colors, black and scarlet, to create a feeling of macabre.
Poe’s use of symbolism is very evident throughout the story of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Much has been made about the meaning of the rooms that fill Prince Prospero’s lavish getaway. One such critique, Brett Zimmerman writes, “It is difficult to believe that a symbolist such as Poe would refuse to assign significance to the hues in a tale otherwise loaded with symbolic and allegorical suggestiveness” (Zimmerman 60). Many agree that the seven rooms represent the seven stages of human existence. The first, blue, signifying the beginnings of life. Keeping in mind Poe’s Neo-Platonism and Transcendentalism stance, the significance of blue is taken a step further. Not only does blue symbolize the beginning of life, but the idea of immortality is apparent when considering these ideas. “Perhaps ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ then, is not quite the bleak existential vision we have long thought it to be”, expounds Zimmerman (Zimmerman 70). Poe’s use of each color is significant to the seven stages
Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the “Red Death”. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses
There is a terrible sickness spreading throughout their town. “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous.” (Poe 78 ) In the story “The Masque of the Red Death” fear is the main theme. Prince Prospero invites a thousand of his friends to his castle. There are seven different colored rooms in the castle. The guests fill all the different
The seven rooms in the house also conveyed stages in life ending with death. These rooms were set up from east to west. This meaning that the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west, and death comes in the darkness. "In this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet--a deep blood color." The guest's avoided this room because it was a sign of death.
In "The Masque Of The Red Death", Edgar Allan Poe uses words and phrases to create an effect. He uses bold and dark words to help his readers be able to picture a very good image of the story and the mood that he wants to set. When he claiming that, "no pestilence had ever been so fatal ", that let the readers know that is was probably a very strong and gruesome disease that killed many of the town people. When Poe starts the story he starts by describing "The Red Death" and its symptoms. He described it as, "sharp pains, sudden dizziness, profuse bleeding at the pores with dissolution", "seizure process and termination of the disease were the incident of half and hour", he lists the symptoms as if it were a recipe, he is very straightforward and uses words that give an image to every symptom, he completely lets the reads know that "the red death" was a very nasty painful disease and you could imagine how much it made the characters suffer all in half