The Masque of the Red Death (1845)

Summary

A disease known as the Red Death plagues the fictional country where this
tale is set, and it causes its victims to die quickly and gruesomely. Even
though this disease is spreading rampantly, the prince, Prospero, feels happy
and hopeful. He decides to lock the gates of his palace in order to fend off the
plague, ignoring the illness ravaging the land. After several months, he throws
a fancy masquerade ball. For this celebration, he decorates the rooms of his
house in single colors. The easternmost room is decorated in blue, with blue
stained-glass windows. The next room is purple with the same stained-glass
window pattern. The rooms continue westward, according to this design, in the
following color arrangement: green, orange, white, and violet. The seventh
room is black, with red windows. Also in this room stands an ebony clock.
When the clock rings each hour, its sound is so loud and distracting that
everyone stops talking and the orchestra stops playing. When the clock is not
sounding, though, the rooms are so beautiful and strange that they seem to
be filled with dreams, swirling among the revelers. Most guests, however,
avoid the final, black-and-red room because it contains both the clock and an
ominous ambience.

At midnight, a new guest appears, dressed more ghoulishly than his

counterparts. His mask looks like the face of a corpse, his garments resemble
a funeral shroud, and his face reveals spots of blood suggesting that he is a
victim of the Red Death. Prospero becomes angry that someone with so little
humor and levity would join his party. The other guests, however, are so afraid
of this masked man that they fail to prevent him from walking through each
room. Prospero finally catches up to the new guest in the black-and-red room.
As soon as he confronts the figure, Prospero dies. When other party-goers
enter the room to attack the cloaked man, they find that there is nobody
beneath the costume. Everyone then dies, for the Red Death has infiltrated
the castle. Darkness and Decay and the Red Death have at last triumphed.

Analysis

The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory. It features a set of recognizable

symbols whose meanings combine to convey a message. An allegory always
operates on two levels of meaning: the literal elements of the plot (the colors
of the rooms, for example) and their symbolic counterparts, which often
involve large philosophical concepts (such as life and death). We can read
this story as an allegory about life and death and the powerlessness of
humans to evade the grip of death. The Red Death thus represents, both
literally and allegorically, death. No matter how beautiful the castle, how
luxuriant the clothing, or how rich the food, no mortal, not even a prince, can
escape death. In another sense, though, the story also means to punish
Prosperos arrogant belief that he can use his wealth to fend off the natural,
tragic progress of life. Prosperos arrogance combines with a grievous
insensitivity to the plight of his less fortunate countrymen. Although he
possesses the wealth to assist those in need, he turns his wealth into a mode
of self-defense and decadent self-indulgence. His decadence in throwing the
masquerade ball, however, unwittingly positions him as a caged animal, with
no possible escape.

The rooms of the palace, lined up in a series, allegorically represent the

stages of life. Poe makes it a point to arrange the rooms running from east to
west. This progression is symbolically significant because it represents the life
cycle of a day: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, with night
symbolizing death. What transforms this set of symbols into an allegory,
however, is the further symbolic treatment of the twenty-four hour life cycle: it
translates to the realm of human beings. This progression from east to west,
performed by both Prospero and the mysterious guest, symbolizes the human
journey from birth to death. Poe crafts the last, black room as the ominous
endpoint, the room the guests fear just as they fear death. The clock that
presides over that room also reminds the guests of deaths final judgment.
The hourly ringing of the bells is a reminder of the passing of time, inexorable
and ultimately personal.

As in many Poe stories, the use of names contributes to the symbolic

economic context of the story and suggests another set of allegorical
interpretations. For example, Prospero, whose name suggests financial
prosperity, exploits his own wealth to stave off the infiltration of the Red Death.
His retreat to the protection of an aristocratic palace may also allegorize a
type of economic system that Poe suggests is doomed to failure. In the
hierarchical relationship between Prospero and the peasantry, Poe portrays
the unfairness of a feudal system, where wealth lies in the hands of the
aristocracy while the peasantry suffers. This use of feudal imagery is
historically accurate, in that feudalism was prevalent when the actual Bubonic
Plague devastated Europe in the fourteenth century. The Red Death, then,
embodies a type of radical egalitarianism, or monetary equality, because it
attacks the rich and poor alike.

The portrayal of the masquerade ball foreshadows the similar setting of the
carnival in The Cask of Amontillado, which appeared less than a year after
The Masque of the Red Death. Whereas the carnival in The Cask of
Amontillado associates drunken revelry with an open-air Italian celebration,
the masquerade functions in this story as a celebratory retreat from the air
itself, which has become infected by the plague. The masquerade, however,
dispels the sense of claustrophobia within the palace by liberating the inner
demons of the guests. These demons are then embodied by the grotesque
costumes. Like the carnival, the masquerade urges the abandonment of social
conventions and rigid senses of personal identity. However, the mysterious
guest illuminates the extent to which Prospero and his guests police the limits
of social convention. When the mysterious guest uses his costume to portray
the fears that the masquerade is designed to counteract, Prospero responds
antagonistically. As he knows, the prosperity of the party relies upon the
psychological transformation of fear about the Red Death into revelry. When
the mysterious guest dramatizes his own version of revelry as the fear that
cannot be spoken, he violates an implicit social rule of the masquerade. The
fall of Prospero and the subsequent deaths of his guests follow from this logic
of the masquerade: when revelry is unmasked as a defense mechanism
against fear, then the raw exposure of what lies beneath is enough to kill.

The theme in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death" is the inevitability
of death.

The theme in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death" is the inevitability of
death. Life ends regardless of how hard people try to evade it.

Prince Prospero goes through great pains to try to escape death. He surrounds his castle with
iron gates and his property is "amply provisioned" to prevent any disease or infection from living
within the area. While Prospero tried to prevent death from living inside his fortress, death
lingered outside. What was once a lovely place to enjoy lavish parties became a prison for the
prince and his guests. Essentially, Prospero created a tomb for himself and his guests. In short,
Prospero's hard work to create the perfect environment was futile. The seven rooms in the
castle represent "seven stages of one's life, from birth to death," according to Martha Womack
of The Poe Decoder. This notion makes sense, as everyone present will find their fate
somewhere in the castle. The prince's name suggests happiness, but his life ends as all life
ends. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore points out how Poe hints that death always
wins by making death the narrator in the story. This contributes to the irony of the story because
Prospero believes he is in control, but in reality he is simply handing himself and his guests over
to the Red Death.
Poe's Short Stories Summary and Analysis of The
Masque of the Red Death
The "Red Death" of the title is described as a particularly lethal disease
whose symptoms include sharp pains, dizziness, profuse bleeding, and red
stains on the bodies and faces of the victims. The contagion causes death
within thirty minutes of infection, and consequently any sign of the red stain
on a man causes him to be shunned by the populace. Although the disease is
running rampant through his country, Prince Prospero remains oddly happy
and carefree and invites a thousand of his healthy noble friends to join him in
hiding from the disease in his abbey, which he then locks away from the
outside world. He stocks the abbey with enough food to survive and leaves
the surrounding country to its fate while holding wild parties within the
building.

After five or six months, Prospero decides to hold a grand masked ball, which
he holds in the seven rooms of an imperial suite. Instead of having the suite
form one long hall, Prospero has the apartments segregated by sharp turns,
and tall stained glass windows on each side of the room look out into the
surrounding corridor. Each room features a different color, which matches the
color of the window: the first room is blue, the second purple, the third green,
the fourth orange, the fifth white, and the sixth violet.

The seventh room, however, is slightly different in that although the

dominant color is black, the windows are blood red. The lights shining
through the window from the corridors creates such a ghastly effect in this
room that most of the guests avoid the room altogether. In this apartment is
also a giant ebony clock, whose pendulum swings ominously and whose
hourly ringing is so disturbing that it invariably disconcerts the musicians,
dancers, and other revelers, causing everyone to pause until the chimes fade
away, at which point everyone nervously resumes their actions.

Other than the unnerving seventh room, the ball is boldly and wildly
decorated in a way that hints at Prospero's potential madness. The
masqueraders' costumes are similarly wild, almost to the point of
grotesqueness, and the party is described as "a multitude of dreams,"
despite the regular interruption of the gaiety by the ebony clock. All the
apartments are crowded except for the seventh, and the ball continues
until the stroke of midnight.
At midnight, when the clock strikes twelve times, a masked figure
appears whose costume arouses emotions in the crowd that range
from surprise and disapproval to terror. He stands out even in the
gaudily dressed crowd because he is dressed as the Red Death. The
tall, thin figure wears funeral garments marked with blood and a mask
that resembles a corpse with the disease's characteristic red stains.
Despite their debauchery, the crowd is stunned rather than amused by
the costume, and, from the blue room, Prospero angrily demands into
the silence that the figure be seized, unmasked, and hanged.

The prince's courtiers begin to move towards the masked intruder, but
the figure begins to slowly walk towards Prospero, and everyone in
the crowd is too afraid to grab him. By the time he reaches the violet
room, Prospero becomes enraged and ashamed of his temporary lack
of courage, and he rushes through the six rooms towards the masked
intruder, wielding a dagger. At first the intruder retreats towards the
seventh apartment, but when Prospero approaches the figure at the
end of the violet room, the latter turns to face Prospero, who drops the
dagger as he falls dead to the floor on the black carpet of the seventh
room.

In despair, the crowd finally swarms around the unmoving figure of the
Red Death, but they realize to their horror that there is no tangible
body underneath the figure's mask and funeral garments. The revelers
realize that the Red Death has finally caught up with them "like a thief
in the night," and one by one, all of the partygoers fall, despairing and
dying, to the floor. As the last of the guests dies, the ebony clock
ceases to work, "and Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held
illimitable dominion over all."

Analysis

"The Masque of the Red Death" is in essence a story about the

human desire to avoid death and the ultimate futility of such
avoidance. Prince Prospero's name recalls both the term for wealth
and the Shakespearean magician of "The Tempest" whose duchy
was usurped, and he uses his wealth to give up his rule over his land
and to flee death by shutting himself away with a thousand of his
noblemen. Thus Poe shows him almost immediately to be fatally
flawed, as he remains happy and carefree despite the decimation of
his kingdom, showing a fundamental disconnect between his emotions
and the needs of his people. His happiness does not result from
innocence so much as a desperate fear of sadness and death, and
the apparent sinfulness of his actions is ironically underlined as he
shuts himself into a religious abbey, which Prospero has protected
with iron in the hopes of keeping away the consequences of his
wrongdoings.

We can easily view the Prince's masquerade ball as an allegory for the
inevitable procession of life into death. Prospero's seven rooms seem to
represent the seven decades of his life, as the first room is located on the
eastern side of the corridor, a direction that has commonly been associated
with the sun rising and hence with the beginning of life, and the seventh
room is located on the far west side of the corridor, in the direction of death
and of the setting sun. Furthermore, the seventh room is clearly associated
with death, both through its black color and through the red coloring of the
windows, which refer to blood and to the ever-present aura of the Red Death.
When faced with the figure of the Red Death, Prospero freezes at first in the
first room and then plunges towards the seventh room, where he dies,
caught at last by the Red Death.

The structure and contents of the rooms at the masked ball hint at the failure
of the revelers to entirely forget the presence of the Red Death, although
they attempt to defeat their fears by celebrating and engaging in various
forms of debauchery. As Poe notes, the stained-glass windows of the seven
rooms do not perform the usual task of showing the outside environs.
Instead, they merely look into the surrounding closed corridors, indicating
the willful ignorance of the partygoers, who have shut themselves away and
refuse to face the truth. However, the cheer of the masqueraders is regularly
and forcefully interrupted by the clock from the room of death, which tolls
every hour and reminds the courtiers not only of death but also of the
passage of time.

Just as the clock strikes midnight, indicating the end of the day and perhaps
consequently the end of a life, the figure of the Red Death appears as the
 final omen of death. Like the clock, he is able to disturb the courtiers
because of the reminder that their gaiety is merely a thin shield for their
fear, and he accordingly induces fear. Prospero's orders to seize, unmask,
and hang the figure merely emphasize three aspects of death that cannot be
altered. To seize death would be to prevent it from doing harm, to unmask it
would be to show its secrets, and to hang it would be to kill it. It is clearly
impossible to do any of these three, and accordingly, when the crowd does
overcome its fear and tried to grab hold of the mummer's figure, they find
nothing to grasp.

The title of the story, "The Masque of the Red Death," is in and of itself a play
on words. A masque is a costume ball such as that in which the events of the
tale take place. However, the fact that the Red Death appears masked in the
seventh room is of special significance beyond the fact that he is attending a
masquerade. The mask shows the image of a corpse that has recently been
stricken by the plague, but provides no hint of what lies under the mask. The
fear of the unknown is a common theme in many of Poe's works, and the
story suggests that humanity's ignorance of the nature of death is a major
contributor to its fear. In the case of the reveling courtiers, their ignorance
results as much from their disconnect with the common people who have
suffered from the Red Death as it does from the lack of human knowledge
concerning death. The masque is both a response to their fear and ignorance
as well as the cause of their destruction.

Symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death"

written by: Trent Lorcher edited by: SForsyth updated: 3/30/2015

Why are there seven rooms in "The Masque of the Red Death"? Learn all that and more with this guide
to 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. In order to understand the story allegorically, one needs a firm
understanding of symbols in "The Masque of the Red Death."

You can find the full text of the short story here.

Symbols & Analysis

 The Red Death symbolizes the inevitability of death. 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. It also
brings forth memories of the Black Death which depopulated much of Europe during the Middle Ages.

The Castle represents man's efforts to prevent death. Regardless of wealth, social position, or
popularity, death arrives as an uninvited guest.

Prince Prospero symbolizes the end of feudalism. 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. 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.

The Ebony Clock is a constant reminder of death and symbolizes the inevitability of it. The revelers
could neither stop its pendulum from swinging nor could they prevent its ominous tones from
dampering their enthusiasm.

The Seven Rooms represent the stages of life. More on this later.

The Masqueraders symbolize all humans and gives creedence to the interpretation that the seven
rooms represent the seven ages of man (covered further in the next section).

Color Symbolism

Colors play an important role in this story:

Red - The most obvious color symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death" is in its title. Red
symbolizes death and blood. 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.

Black/Ebony - The seventh room was "closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over
the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue"
(146). This seventh room contains "no light of any kind" and represents the darkness of death. In this
room stands the ebony clock. Upon hearing its chimes the guests were reminded of death: "the
giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in
confused reverie or meditation" (147).
 Blue/Purple/Green/Orange/White/Violet - These are the colors of the first six rooms in the imperial
suite. I will address them together insomuch that they represent a prism and therefore reflect a
progression, lending creedence to the interpretation that the story is an allegory for life. This
interpretation, however, is complicated by the fact that the color of Prospero's room do not occur in the
same sequence as they do in a prism, possibly reflective of Prospero's twisted sense of fairness or an
attempt by the author to associate particular colors with a specific period in life.

Why Seven Rooms in "The Masque of the Red Death"?

One interpretation is that the seven rooms represent Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" from As You
Like It: (bolding is from me).

"All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players: / They
have their exits and their entrances; / And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being
seven ages. At first the infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. / And then the whining
school-boy, with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail / Unwillingly to
school. And then the lover, / Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad / Made to his mistress'
eyebrow. Then a soldier, / Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, / Jealous in honour, sudden
and quick in quarrel, / Seeking the bubble reputation / Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the
justice, / In fair round belly with good capon lined, / With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, / Full of
wise saws and modern instances; / And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts / Into the lean and
slipper'd pantaloon, / With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, / His youthful hose, well saved, a
world too wide / For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, / Turning again toward childish treble,
pipes / And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, / That ends this strange eventful history, / Is
second childishness and mere oblivion, / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." (II, vii,
139-66).

Many consider "The Masque of the Red Death" an allegory. The seven rooms, therefore, represent the
life of all humans. It differs in respect to Shakespeare's monologue insomuch that death (symbolized
 by the sounding of the ebony clock) oft intervenes in the six rooms preceding death. The physical
arrangement of the seven rooms also lends itself to this allegorical interpretation:

(1) the first room lies furthest East, or where the sun rises;

(2) the last room lies furthest West, or where the sun sets;

(3) the rooms are arranged in such a manner "that vision embraced but little more than one at a time"
in the same way life only provides short glimpse into the future.

Another Interpetation

Others interpret the 7 rooms in "The Masque of the Red Death" as a symbol of
Prospero's indulgence in the seven deadly sins:

1. Pride/Vanity - Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities,

similar to vanity, which is setting one's heart on things of little value. Prospero's belief that he is
more powerful than death is a vivid demonstration of pride.
2. Envy - It is unclear who the Prince might envy, but he sure is trying
hard to impress someone.
3. Gluttony - Gluttony is the act of consuming more than one is required.
Instead of using his means to protect more people, something he is obligated to do as prince, he
lavishes his guests with "ample provisions" and "the appliances of pleasure."
4. Lust - Lust is an excessive craving for the pleasures of the body,
usually associated with sex. The era in which Poe wrote prohibited the explicit or implicit
description of sex, but what do you think was going on at an anything goes party?
5. Anger - The Prince becomes angry with the uninvited guest and
attacks it.
6. Greed - Although it is apparent Prince Prospero shares his wealth with
a thousand guests, he helps those who need it least and withholds his substance from those in
need.
7. Sloth - Sloth is the absence of work. The prince seems like a hard
worker; his work, however, is on the physical realm not the spiritual realm.

What do you think they mean? If you have an alternate interpretation, let me
know in the comments.