Jeffrey Toth

Mrs. McDevitt/Mod. 8
10/2/14
Symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death
If you could, would you try to escape death? This is exactly what the ironically not-soprosperous Prince Prospero tried to do. He walled himself and a 1000 of his friends up in a great
abbey, where the extremely fatal and current disease, the Red Death, could not get to them.
Unfortunately, he and his chums learned the important lesson the death cannot be fooled, and not
even one as powerful as him could overcome it. Edgar Allen Poe, the author of this hair-raising
plot, uses many hidden symbols to convey a deeper meaning to the story, such as the ebony
clock, the Red Death, and the black room, to give us readers a dark and ghostly feeling.
To start, Poe uses the ebony clock in the story for more than just an eerie sounding time
keeper. The clock really symbolizes how time is running out, and that is what scares everyone at
the masquerade ball. Everyone was having a great time and their revelry seemed endless but, at
each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily
and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutionsand while the chimes of the clock yet
rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale(23). This means that even amidst all the
laughing, eating, and dancing, everyone heard that clock every hour and froze. That ominous
clang reminded everyone that their time alive was running out, and that the Red Death would
eventually come for them. This is only one of the dark, underlying symbols that Mr. Poe has in
store for us.

The next symbol is the Red Death itself, which could take your life in just 30 short
minutes. This fictitious disease (thank God) is really a symbol for the Black Plague, a horrible,
and very real, disease that killed millions in western Asia and Europe. Also it represents
Tuberculosis, which took the lives of several of Poes family members. This dual diseased
symbol combines the extreme death rate with the blood loss of tuberculosis to create a
pathogenic horror. Poe informs about the sickness that, there were sharp pains, and sudden
dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores...(22). This Red Death is truly the worst
disease that man has ever encountered. Though seemingly impossible, there is yet another hidden
meaning behind something else in the story.
The black room is the last symbol I will touch upon today. Each colored room in the
abbey was really representative of the stages in ones life, such as childhood and old age. The
black room is a symbol for death, the last stage of life. Poe describes this dark room as, ghastly
in the extremethere were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at
all. People at the ball feared this room above all others because it was creepy-looking and it
truly frightened them. Poe uses a tad of foreshadowing with this symbol as well. If you figured
out that the room meant death, then you could draw the conclusion that death would occur there.
That is true, because the Red Death killed Prince Prospero in that very place. The symbol
actually effected events in the story, making it a highly powerful representation.
These symbolic references of the ebony clock, the Red Death, and the black room add a
copious, but rather undetectable, amount of meaning to the story. The clocks symbol of time
running out joined with the Red Deaths real-world nature and the black rooms reference to
death reflect on Edgar Poes somewhat tragic life and world lessons. These are but three of the
many symbols Poe uses to really connect the story to life and the readers. Living forever? Yeah,

it sounds pretty good. But instead, follow Poes symbols and live a happy life, so that you will
not try to escape death, but greet it.