Masque of Red Death Explication
Gabe Overman
Mr. Westhoff
Blue 4
April 25, 2014
Explication of 'The Masque of the Red Death' "The Masque of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe begins with the introduction of Prospero and his kingdom which has been stricken by the Red Death. Prospero took a large amount of his healthy friends and locked them into his castle with him to protect them from the Red Death. Prospero holds a ball with his friends however, it is unexpectedly interrupted by a mysterious ghoul-like figure. Prospero attempts to remove the figure by attacking it himself which only leads to his demsie. When the people attacked the figure out of fear of what happened to Prospero they came to find it wasn't a human under the costume at all, it was the Red Death itself. In Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Masque of the Red Death," he used many different literary devices however, three he used more than others. Edgar used a great amount symbolism, the most important being the colored rooms, he also uses irony within his characters to bring about the death, and finally a main theme of death to tie everything together. Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories that incorporated many different kinds of symbols, they are especially prominent in "The Masque of the Red Death." Out of the many uses of symbolism the best use of it in this story is with the different colored rooms. Though what may seem like a minor detail at first the colored rooms yield a greater significance in the story. The rooms have been arranged in a specific color order starting with the blue room in the east working its way to the black room to the west. Through these rooms Edgar was able to symbolize the human life cycle and link it with the sun's cycle. Each of the rooms symbolized a different time period in human life, it began with the blue room which stood for birth and led up to the black room which stood for death:
Each room, in other words, corresponds to a different "stage" of human life, which its color suggests. The first
Mr. Westhoff
Blue 4
April 25, 2014
Explication of 'The Masque of the Red Death' "The Masque of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe begins with the introduction of Prospero and his kingdom which has been stricken by the Red Death. Prospero took a large amount of his healthy friends and locked them into his castle with him to protect them from the Red Death. Prospero holds a ball with his friends however, it is unexpectedly interrupted by a mysterious ghoul-like figure. Prospero attempts to remove the figure by attacking it himself which only leads to his demsie. When the people attacked the figure out of fear of what happened to Prospero they came to find it wasn't a human under the costume at all, it was the Red Death itself. In Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Masque of the Red Death," he used many different literary devices however, three he used more than others. Edgar used a great amount symbolism, the most important being the colored rooms, he also uses irony within his characters to bring about the death, and finally a main theme of death to tie everything together. Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories that incorporated many different kinds of symbols, they are especially prominent in "The Masque of the Red Death." Out of the many uses of symbolism the best use of it in this story is with the different colored rooms. Though what may seem like a minor detail at first the colored rooms yield a greater significance in the story. The rooms have been arranged in a specific color order starting with the blue room in the east working its way to the black room to the west. Through these rooms Edgar was able to symbolize the human life cycle and link it with the sun's cycle. Each of the rooms symbolized a different time period in human life, it began with the blue room which stood for birth and led up to the black room which stood for death:
Each room, in other words, corresponds to a different "stage" of human life, which its color suggests. The first