The Inevitability of Death - Masque of the Red Death (edgar Allen Poe)

“The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allen Poe, tells how even the most valuable and honored of all people cannot escape death. Poe shows the allegory between the Red Death and death itself. His allegory helps to connect the rooms of the house and the characters’ names. Poe uses a symbolic setting and characterization that shows the characters the inevitable journey to death.

The story describes the deeper meaning of the main characters of the story, Prospero and the stranger masque as the Red Death. The name has a deeper meaning than just being the character’s, in latin it means “Fortunate”. He is one of the lucky ones of the story rich, a prince, and hasn't been affected by the Red Death yet. Death is just not something that Prospero likes to talk about or wants to face anytime soon. The stranger masked as Red Death is a symbol for death itself. When the narrator described this horror he stated how he resembled the Red Death so vividly, “His venture was dabbled in blood-and his broad brow, with all the features of his face, was besprinkled with scarlet horror.” (pg.373). In the end they find the that the stranger was not even a person, but the Red Death itself. It killed all of those in the Palace.

Poe’s setting is rather odd and confusing. Before the Masquerade, Prospero sets up his castle in a very unusual way, “There were seven-an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long, straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was different; as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time” (pg.370). Each of those seven rooms had a different color assigned to it. The first was blue, the second purple, third green, fourth orange, fifth white, sixth violet, and the last didn't seem to match the others. It was a dark room matched black and red walls and furniture. These rooms could symbolize more.

Seven is a symbolic number in the Bible and life itself. These seven rooms could symbolize the stages