Essay On Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

Poe’s Use of Symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe is the story of Price Prospero’s attempt to quarantine himself and his courtiers from the deadly disease, the Red Death. One of the major themes in the short story is: No one can escape death, not even the rich and powerful. To convey this message, Poe used symbols to express the images of wealth, power, control, vanity, the stages of life, and the inevitability of death. Two of these symbols are explained below. First Poe uses the seven rooms of Prince Prospero’s imperial suite to represent the stages of life. No matter how a person goes through life they will experience struggles, conflict, and outrage, but they will also have their share
Whatever an individual chooses to do with their time whether they use it productively or waste it, the time they used to do said activities they cannot regain that time. The novel acknowledges this symbol in a many instances. One of these is “there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company”. This quote explains that whenever the party goers heard the sound of the clock they were reminded that they were trapped in the abbey, not helping anyone or doing anything productive. Often in real life people will use their times in ways that they wished they did was more productive and time often holds a shadow on a person’s life.
Poe’s effective use of symbols adds to the understanding and the eeriness of The Masque of the Red Death. The concept of going through life and having different stages is an idea that can be understood by even the simplest of people. Trying to use time efficiently and productively is something everyone does and the use of the ebony clock in the Masque of the Red Death is an interesting way of showing this. Ultimately though the stages of life end and time runs out and this was the case for Prince Prospero and his