Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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Imagine a man with a castle full of riches such as money, gold, and expensive belongings just overflowing from room to room. Does it seem possible to use all of that to save himself and some friends from dissolution? This is the inquiry that sums up and provokes the reader on through the whole story of The Masque of the Red Death. In The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe develops the theme that death is inevitable no matter your wealth or power through symbolism, characterization, and plot.
The best place to start is with the multiple examples of symbolism used. The rooms lining a hallway were explained such “That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue-and vividly blue were its windows...The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over” (76-77). …show more content…
One way to look at this is in the rising action, when all the characters were enjoying their time in the Prince’s castle. They were at the ball and had seemingly put the thought that everyone outside is painfully dying in the back of their minds. This may have temporarily let them believe they safe, but every hour when the clock struck, they remembered death was near. Another indication of this is at the climax of the story, “There was a sharp cry-and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero” (81). Once Prospero was stabbed he realized that he wrong, he cannot run away from his demise. The rising action led up to the very test of the story, to live or not to live. The last place this can be seen is in the end when all the partygoers had died, including Prince Prospero, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (81). It is short, sweet, and to the point that through all the careful procedures and planning, death had swept over the entire castle just as quick as it had outside the
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