Because "The Masque of the Red Death" is an allegory, there are many examples of symbolism and allusions in Poe's work of Romanticism. The colors and positions of the rooms in Prospero's palace represent a sunset. The colors of the room from east to west are blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and lastly black with red windows. The positions in which the rooms are set up symbolize the direction and phases of colors a sunset goes through on a daily basis. The aspect of the sunset can also represent the beginning and ending of each day, which also suggests the allusion of life and death; life being the very first blue room, and death being the very last black room.
Throughout the night, the party guests move from room to room. The movement of the guests can be related to the spread of a disease through the organs in the body. Just like the "Red Death", the end result in the spreading disease is death.
The ebony clock in the seventh room, the black and red room, symbolizes time. The clock strikes each hour, terrifying all of the party guests. The guests stop dancing and celebrating every time the clock sounds. The reader may not realize, but the party guests are dancing and celebrating their lives, and the joy of being alive. They stop because the striking of the clock represents death. The ticking and sounding of the clock symbolizes the minutes in a person's life, showing that death is unstoppable, unavoidable, and always on its way. Everyone's time eventually runs out.
"In the Masque of the Red Death," Poe includes a clear message, which stands as the theme; death is inescapable. Prince Prospero secludes himself from the rest of his kingdom in order to ensure the safety of his own life. However he does not realize that throwing a party celebrating life will be his own downfall. Prospero is clueless to the fact that death defeats everyone, no matter how powerful or wealthy someone may be. Death does not care about a person's social status or "value" on earth; in the end everyone suffers the same fate. Prince Prospero's largest flaw is that he believes that he can escape death, when in reality, no one can.
The colors and positions of the rooms in Prospero's palace represent a sunset. The colors of the room from east to west are blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and lastly black with red windows. The positions in which the rooms are set up symbolize the direction and phases of colors a sunset goes through on a daily basis. The aspect of the sunset can also represent the beginning and ending of each day, which also suggests the allusion of life and death; life being the very first blue room, and death being the very last black room.
Throughout the night, the party guests move from room to room. The movement of the guests can be related to the spread of a disease through the organs in the body. Just like the "Red Death", the end result in the spreading disease is death.
The ebony clock in the seventh room, the black and red room, symbolizes time. The clock strikes each hour, terrifying all of the party guests. The guests stop dancing and celebrating every time the clock sounds. The reader may not realize, but the party guests are dancing and celebrating their lives, and the joy of being alive. They stop because the striking of the clock represents death. The ticking and sounding of the clock symbolizes the minutes in a person's life, showing that death is unstoppable, unavoidable, and always on its way. Everyone's time eventually runs out.
"In the Masque of the Red Death," Poe includes a clear message, which stands as the theme; death is inescapable. Prince Prospero secludes himself from the rest of his kingdom in order to ensure the safety of his own life. However he does not realize that throwing a party celebrating life will be his own downfall. Prospero is clueless to the fact that death defeats everyone, no matter how powerful or wealthy someone may be. Death does not care about a person's social status or "value" on earth; in the end everyone suffers the same fate. Prince Prospero's largest flaw is that he believes that he can escape death, when in reality, no one can.
“For death begins with life's first breath and life begins at touch of death”
-John Oxenham