The gruesome description of the Red Death gives the color a ghastly connotation, especially in light of the red window panes contained in the death room at the far western end of the imperial suite. Red - The most obvious color symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death” is in its title. Color SymbolismĬolors play an important role in The Masque of the Red Death symbolism. The Masqueraders symbolize all humans and gives credence to the interpretation that the seven rooms represent the seven ages of man (covered further in the next section). The Seven Rooms represent the stages of life. The revelers could neither stop its pendulum from swinging nor could they prevent its ominous tones from dampening their enthusiasm. The Ebony Clock is a constant reminder of death and symbolizes the inevitability of it. It is not coincidental that the Black Death, which reduced the number of workers, led to a demand for labor and played an important role in ending feudalism in Europe.

Prospero’s inviting only wealthy knights and ladies to his castle at the expense of peasants and commoners represents the socioeconomic divide between landowners and peasants that existed during the feudalistic period. Prince Prospero symbolizes the end of feudalism.

Regardless of wealth, social position, or popularity, death arrives as an uninvited guest. The Castle represents man’s efforts to prevent death. It also brings forth memories of the Black Death which depopulated much of Europe during the Middle Ages. Although there is no specific disease with the exact symptoms described in the story, critics believe the disease’s description has elements of tuberculosis, a disease which killed many of those close to Poe. The Red Death symbolizes the inevitability of death. You can find the full text of the short story here. In order to understand the story allegorically, one needs a firm understanding of The Masque of the Red Death symbolism. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” should be studied at many levels: (1) the literal level - the literal level is a study of the events that actually take place in the story (2) an allegorical level - an allegory is a story in which the objects, characters, and events are symbolic of something grander in scale.

The masque of the red death story