The Masque of the Red Death Symbolism

“The Masque of the Red Death” Symbolism

When you hear the word black, what do you think of? Do you think of the ending of something, like death? Black is the symbol of death, it also means darkness. Death is the last stage in life. Death will always be here. People may think that it is possible to buy there way out of death; the truth is it is not possible to run, hide, or stop death.

            In the story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, there is a prince who believes he can buy his way out of the red death. So he walls him and his friends in and all the villagers out, who have the red death. While they are walled in the prince has a ball. The ball takes place in seven rooms. Each room has a different color, blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. These seven colors symbolize the stages of life. The very last room, the black room, is a very dark place that no one dares to go in because it reminds them of the red death. In the black room there is also a ebony clock and every time it clangs the people stop for a minute like something bad is coming and when they realize everything is ok they go back to what they were doing. The clock’s clangs symbolize that one stage of life is over and the next one is beginning. The clock clangs seven times and on the seventh clang, that means death. Right before the seventh clang “death” comes in the form of a person. The prince tried to kill “death” for invading his ball, but one look at “death” and he dies, as did all the others, on the seventh clang of the clock, while trying to catch the murder of their king.

            Death is sad but everyone experiences a death at one point in their life. I have experienced numerous deaths in my life. Deaths make people very sad, it makes them cry, lose control of themselves, and sometimes feel lost. One death I have experienced shows that you cannot buy your way out of death, like the prince in the story thought. This death was the death of my great grandmother. Most people have never met their great grandparents, but I have met both, my great grandfather and great grandmother on my father’s side. When my great grandfather died I was upset but not that upset because I was younger at the time and never really knew him. When my great grandmother died I was so upset. I could not stop crying (That is what happens to most people who experience a death, they usually cry a lot like I did.) Her death was so unexpected because she was doing so well and was very healthy. We all go to the doctor to get checked up on to see if we are healthy and well but that does not stop us from dying. This shows that you cannot run, hide, or buy your way out of death.