Review Of The Masque Of The Red Death, By Edgar Allan Poe
Darkness is all around the world
The darkness is thick and black, hanging anonymously from the sky. Edgar Allan Poe wrote another Gothic horror tale, The Masque of the Red Death in 1842. It describes the darkness that is ever present. This short story tells the tale of Prince Prospero who, with his friends, locks himself in Prospero’s palace to escape an epidemic. In order to forget this disease, the guests throw a lavish party. But, as they dance in the ballroom a visitor unexpectedly appears. This guest represents the illness from which Prospero attempts to escape. Poe uses symbolism to create a macabre atmosphere filled with darkness, stench and death. The symbols are the rooms, clock and uninvited guests.
Poe reflects this feeling in his metaphors. In the Masque Of The Red Death, the world is awash with a plague that threatens everyone who enters. Prince Prospero hides himself to avoid a tragic end. He performs in a castle that is even grander. There are seven different colored rooms inside the labyrinth. The first one is all blue. As the partygoers walk from room to room and explore each one, the color scheme of every room changes. The final room is the only one that does not allow any light in. The color of the window panes did not match the decoration in “this room only”. The windows were a deep red color. The rooms are decorated in the colors of blue and birth and then black and bloodred as universal symbols for death. The rooms show the progression from life to death. The windows are all dark, as you can’t see the future. The journey through life is in complete darkness. The pendulum is located on the opposite side to the winding hallways that lead from life to the end. This clock swings as it counts down each day. The clock is the very symbol for death. It ticks, counting down the days, minutes and seconds to the end of life. A massive clock with a pendulum swings in Prospero’s Castle. The guests will stop celebrating every hour to hear the clock chime. As soon as the clock stops chiming, people go on with their nonsense. When the sounds of midnight cease, “individuals who were in the crowd found the leisure to become aware that a masked person was present which had never attracted the attention of anyone before” (3). The end of the night is marked by midnight. This is the witching hours, where hideous creatures emerge from their crevices. The mysterious man is seen at the end of the celebrations. The cloth covering their eyes reveals a death waiting for you to be dragged down by it.
Death is always present in the world, in various forms. Prospero tries to protect himself from the horror and death that lurks outside his castle. Death breaks his bones and creeps into Prospero’s world to steal his life. Death appeared to them as a person infected with their most feared disease, the Red Death. The Red Death is a person who appears in a ballroom. “His vesture was drenched in blood, and his broad eyebrow, along with all the features on his face, was sprinkled with scarlet horror.” (3). The figure appears first in the blue-colored room, which is the birth room. Death is always present, even at the start of life. Prospero, in his journey through life’s stages, follows Death from room to room. Prospero died when the figure stopped at the blackroom. Death is inevitable. Death is always present in your life. It only appears when you are ready to lose it.
Edgar Allan Poe used items and people to create a gruesome and horrifying atmosphere. The maze-like corridors in Prospero’s Mansion lead to darkness. As the time passes, the clock rings until death comes to seize its prize. Death is a constant, intangible presence until it adopts a personality and begins to creep out of the shadows. The darkness of death is thickening as the veil becomes darker. A light appears, but it is snuffed out by the darkness carried on the black horse.
