Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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Have you ever wondered what was the one thing that everyone has in common? It’s that death is inevitable for all of us. In The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allen Poe, the characters believe that they will somehow escape the disease plaguing the country. While reading the story, speculation of the ending starts to occur because the symbolism is providing further insight and knowledge of the unfortunate ending The three major symbols that helped support the story are the following: the seven rooms, the ebony clock, and the castle. The seven rooms symbolize all the stages of life based off of the colors they contain. When Prince Prospero chases the masked figure, they travel through of variety of oddly decorated rooms where the “windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened”. The rooms they travel through are colors such as blue and green that represent birth, nature, and growth. As they keep going through the rooms, the colors go in accordance with the steps of life. In the end, they reach the black room, “the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color”. The colors black and red are widely known for representing death. This shows that the rooms, oddly…show more content…
As the clock rings out at the beginning of each hour, “the musicians of the orchestra constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale”. Prince Prospero’s guests are frightened by the fact that they may not survive the plague. This shows that they don’t believe that they are safe from the plague in the castle and are uncertain about what is to
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