"The Masque of the Red Death"

Imagine a party with a thousand people all dressed in costumes, an orchestra playing in the background, everyone dancing with laughter, it’s a grand masquerade. But all through the night you cannot help to think that something isn’t right, something or someone is out of place. This is the case exactly in “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allen Poe, as Prince Prospero gathers 1,000 of his subjects and attempts to escape the dreaded Red Death. Poe’s magnificent placement of symbols and exemplary details seen as the ironic mode is portrayed truly makes this story come alive.

The most stunning aspect of Poe’s brilliant irony is without question his outstanding placement of his many symbols. Almost immediately we meet Poe’s first symbolic reference, Prince Prospero; our lovely prince’s name should instantly give you some foreshadow to his personality as you see it look much like the word prosperity. And foreshadow it does as you see the prince in all of his arrogance display his richness and wealth as he attempts to delay the inevitable, the Red Death. Perhaps the only glimpse of hope or light comes next as you read of Prospero’s castled abbey, the location of his grand escape. But the thought of an abbey may be a chance given to the people to repent before their sticky end comes and they will face their judgment day.

Only within that castled abbey shall we see the best of the best, Poe’s prized jewel of symbolism. This room is different from all the rest in Prospero’s castled abbey, it is covered in black velvet cloth and trimmed with the scarlet red color of blood; the way Poe has designed this room has brought us to think of the deepest layers of hell and to feel the cold reality of death. But wait there’s more, if you noticed before I mentioned that this seventh room was also known as the west room. West, the direction of which the sun sets; an obvious symbol of downward, darkness, and even death. At last we come to the last element of the western room, the clock of ebony; a mysterious symbol of darkness as it represents the time winding down until the death of the people shall come, a most vivid reminder of death.

These wonderful symbols would not be quite so vivid if not for the carefully planned events in the plot of the ironic mode of literature. Chaos is the obvious state of the world as the dreaded Red Death spreads through the land causing misery and death to whomever it touches. As the 1,000 people try to evade the inevitable by hiding in Prospero’s safe house you see them figuratively struggle for life as the ebony clock winds down to their untimely death. And the end comes as the Red Death in human form is de-masked and the devastating power touches all and swiftly takes the life of each of the 1,000 and as the ebony clock rang for the last time, the last of the partiers fell to their horrible death.

The vivid symbols and brilliant plot line portrayed by Poe makes this grand masquerade of a story truly take flight. Prince Prospero attempted to evade the inevitable, the Red Death; but he has failed to learn that death has no limits and reigns in every crevice and every inch of the world; he has failed to learn that “the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all”(pg.390).