Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

Prince Prospero calls together “a thousand hale and light-hearted friends” to come to his castle for fun and to seclude themselves until the danger of the plague, known as the Red Death, has passed. During Poe’s lifetime a big wave of cholera and yellow fever attacked America and Europe. Poe associates the Red death to those outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever. The symptoms of the Red Death are horrible to observe: the victim is sweep by convulsive agony and sweats blood instead of water. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. To entertain his noble and wealthy friends while they are secluded in his “castellated abbeys”, Prince Prospero organizes a “masked ball of the most unusual magnificence”, while the plague kills thousands. The night of the ball comes; the guests arrive in their costumes and the festivities begin. The fun is interrupted by the arrival of an unknown guest, whose costume reflects the “Red Death”. As the “Red Death” continues to walk through the halls, he is confronted by Prince Prospero in the black
room. Without explanation, the Prince falls dead at the intruder’s feet and the revelers, noticing the intruder, find that the costume is "untenanted by any tangible form." At which point, the guests begin to die in their tracks as they acknowledge the presence of the Red Death. In “The Masque of The Red Death” Poe uses the power of symbolism to convey the idea that no one can evade the grip of death.
The Masquerade, which Prince Prospero organizes for his friends, is held in seven rooms.
The way the rooms are set up from east to west, blue at one end and black at the other, represents the cycle of a day from night to night, which can also symbolize that death is as inevitable as day and night. The room where the Prince dies is the black room, which is different from the other six, “in the black chamber … dark hangings through the blood-tinted pains was ghastly to the extreme and produced so wild a look… of those who entered”. Poe uses words such as “dark” which relates to fatality, “blood”, a word with a connotation of agony, and “ghastly” which strongly relates to fear; these words create a frightening image of this room. Like mention above, this frightening black room is where the Prince dies, making this room a symbol of death, which could be a reason why the guests feared this room. Poe emphasizes the significance of this room
by placing the gigantic ebony clock inside and also by locating the room to the west; it is also in this room that, “the revelers at once threw themselves into the black apartment”, this significance supports the idea that this black room symbolizes the end or death.
Another symbol that describes that death is inevitable is the gigantic clock of ebony which is located in the black room of Prince Prospero’s “castellated abbeys”. The clock patiently rings each hour; it is “dull, heavy, monotonous,” creating an overwhelming feeling of fear among the Prince's guests. Even though the clock of ebony is an object, Poe gives it a human aspect as having a face and lungs from which comes a sound that is "exceedingly musical" but "so peculiar" that the "dreams are stiff-frozen" as the guest pause and listen. This human aspect creates an affiliation between time and the “Red Death”, this relationship symbolizes that time and death go hand to hand. When the clock rings, all musicians “constrained to pause“to listen to the sound and the guests seem to feel uncomfortable and nervous, taking a pause in their fun as well. The clock of ebony symbolizes the awareness of mortality which reminds Prince Prospero and his friends every hour or three thousand and six hundred seconds it rings; their wealth and power will not save them from mortality, and their last hour will actually come, even after five or six months of seclusion from the plague. The relationship between “The Red Death” and time is reinforced when the “tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock” symbolizing that time passes by and death is always present making it inevitable. The big significance of the clock of ebony is manifested when the clock comes to an end “And the life of the clock went out with that of the last of the gay…decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all”. Poe portrays an image that time and death will always overcome life.
“The Masquerade” which Prince Prospero organizes for the enjoyment of his guests symbolizes the isolation from the rest of the suffering world. Trying to avoid the unavoidable, which is death, this isolation also, symbolizes the guests hiding from themselves by using masks. In The Masquerade Prospero mandates all of his guest’s costumes to be “grotesque”. The narrator unites the words “glare and glitter”; to give us an image of life, and “piquancy and phantasm”; which draws an image of death, by using this union of words the narrator describes The Masquerade; where the guests chose to be life or death according to their masks. The narrator also describes the costume of the “Red Death” using “countenance of a stiffened corpse”; which creates a feeling of disgust and “the face besprinkled with the scarlet horror”; which gives a feeling of horror, by using these words the narrator connects the costume of the “Red Death” to death it self. Poe makes a reference using picturesque qualities of “The Masquerade” to “The Red Death” who turns out to be exactly what his custom is, symbolizing that “The Masquerade” was the end for the masqueraders since the custom of “The Red Death” is actually death itself.
Overall, Prince Prospero and his guests, try to avoid death by walling it out, and by so doing, he creates a trap out of his palace. The name “Prince Prospero” becomes ironic because his name means to prosper, but at the end is the opposite. The symbolism that Poe uses in “The Masque of Red Death” makes us understand that people do not have a lot in common. The distinction among people can be social level, wealth, and power but they all share one essential thing in common. That is death.