Preview

How Does His Name Prince Prospero Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
321 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does His Name Prince Prospero Symbolize In The Masque Of The Red Death
“The Masque of the Red Death”

Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Masque of the Red Death contains many forms of symbolism and refers to The Bubonic Black on different occasions throughout the story. Poe creates an intriguing world of illness and death. Therefore try and cheat their way out of dying. The moral of The masque of the Red Death is to never try to hide from death. In this world, Poe creates a story that only the wealthy and important shall escape death and the weak and poor will wither away until their time comes. In this tale of destruction of the wealthy. It captures an image about how cheating death might just be the worst thing you could do. His name Prince Prospero symbolizes that his prosperous because of his wealth. Poe tells

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Both influential writers in the time of early American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe explored the dark motives of the human psyche. In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, a short story by Hawthorne, the town’s minister, Mr. Hooper steps out into the street one day wearing a black veil that covers his face. His clergymen cannot bear to see him plainly profess his sins and instead separate themselves in an attempt to deny the truth that all people are flawed, but are eventually forced to accept it. In Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prince Prospero and his merrymakers lock themselves within a castellated abbey in an attempt to escape the horrible “Red Death” that ravages the lives of the…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Another scene of supernatural manifests onto the screen when the “Red Death” removes the mask and the Prince Prospero was chocked by the fact that the “Red Death” is a precise mirror image of his face. This is presented in the end of the story as follows: “and the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (ibid, 18). This shows the duality of the divine and the evil. While Prospero tortured the people and kept the richness for himself, death on other hand shows mercy for the people and delivered them from their suffering and showed fairness by taking the life of Prospero and his nobles. That’s why Prospero and the Red Death have the same face in the…

    • 131 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poe who wrote the “The Masque of the Red” 200 year ago been talking about the modern day disease Ebola. Poe probably was talking about Ebola cause he sad that everyone that got it bled out. Ebola is like a flu virus; but way worse cause you bleed for you pores , eyes, nose, and mouth.”The Masgue of the red death” said when you go the virus you die in thirty minutes. Africa was the place where Ebola is from in Africa In the 1976 is where Ebola started it killed 280 of the 318 people stricken. “ the masque of the red death” is a short story that talked about a disease that kills people in thirty minutes . Ebola is a disease that makes you bleed from almost every part of your body. Both of the story talk about a disease that makes…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Masque of the Red Death” story response Throughout “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe , he shares his ideals on the inevitability of death through the main character in the story, Prince Prospero. Prince Prospero embodies three of the deadly sins such as, pride, greed, and sloth. In the story Prince Prospero says “Who dares” -- he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him -- “who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him.”…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal- the redness and the horror of blood" (1). Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the macabre; his very stories injecting fear into the hearts of his readers. Poe's life was filled with tragedy, as several of the important women in his life, including his wife and daughter died at a young age. He utilized poems and books to express that tragedy. The short stories, "The Black Cat," and, "The Masque of the Red Death," both written by Poe, enhance the theme of fear. "The Black Cat," was about a narrator who had gone crazy and was so overcome by guilt that he went to extreme measures including…

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, the color of the most eastern and most western chamber are significance to the message of the story. In Roppolo’s Literary Criticism, he explains, “To Blair, as to many others, there is ‘allegorical signification’ in the seven rooms, which, ‘progressing from east to west—from blue to black—connote the seven ages of man from the blue of the dawn of life to the black of its night.’” The message Poe presents is that no living thing can avoid its fate of death no matter how it tries to protect itself or escape it. The blue most eastern chamber represents the birth of dawn and the black velvet and red most western chamber depicts death and night, demonstrating that as Prince Prospero and the guest run through…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death“ is a very gothic laced story resembling humanity. Poe uses the allegory of a Masquerade Ball in a castle and all of its attendees as a sample to represent a broad hidden statement about the grimness and blindness of man under all of their face level of partying and bliss. This being the case, results in an unfortunate and untimely demise for them as they are visited by an enigmatic figure. The hidden message in Edgar Allan Poe’s allegory, “Masque of the Red Death,” is that no matter what circumstance that comes at man, he will always be the embodiment of sin awaiting death at the end of his road.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Masque Of Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe, Poe uses imagery and symbolism to create an allegory that communicates to the reader the idea that nobody is able to escape death. In the story, Prince Prospero and his royal friends seclude themselves away from a plague called red death that is killing every poor soul it comes in contact with. As the royals entertain themselves with a masquerade, red death himself arrives at the party, finishing up of what's left of human civilization. Now the first thing that is found that creates imagery and symbolism is a line in the story that says,”While the chimes of the clock yet ran, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale”.(Poe pg.5) This shows a symbol of a black grandfather…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The introduction of Poe's famous short story, "The Masque of the Red Death" illustrates the disease that is gruesomely killing it's victims. There was sudden dizziness, sharp pains, and then profuse bleeding from the pores, lasting about half an hour until killing it's victim. As The Red Death is rapidly spreading throughout the country, Prince Prospero is optimistic and derives a plan. He decides to lock the gates of his palace inviting only a thousand of his peers to be spared from the disease. After five months the Prince throws an elaborate masquerade ball, decorating each room in a certain color. The first chamber was vividly blue, the second was purple along with it's tapestry. The third was green and the fourth chamber was orange, the fifth was white and the sixth was violet. The seventh apartment was the most grotesque of all, decorated in black with velvet curtains. It is the only chamber that the window hue did not correspond with the walls, the window was a scarlet red symbolizing blood. "Death cannot be barred from the palace...it is in the blood, part and parcel of our humanity, not an external invader." (Kennedy 111-133.) At midnight an unknown guest appears, dressed as…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who believed every single word contained meaning and in his own words expressed this idea in brevity only he is capable, "…there should be no word written, of which tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." (Poe 244). To this effect, Poe drenches his works in symbolism and allegory. Especially in shorter works, Poe assigns meaning to the smallest object, explicitly deriving exurbanite significance within concise descriptions. "The Masque of the Red Death" tells the story of a Prince Prospero who along with his one thousand friends sought a haven from the plague that was ravishing their country. They lived together in the prince 's luxurious abbey with all the amenities and securities imaginable. In the sixth month of isolation masquerader 's party is held. At the party, a tall gaunt figure dressed in "habiliments of the grave and a corpse-like mask" enters (Poe 241). Everyone is offended, but to frightened to apprehend the figure. When the "revellers" find courage to attack him, there is nothing tangible within the ghastly cerements. In Edgar Allan Poe 's short story, colors and numbers symbolically and metaphorically add depth to the story. Numbers, more specifically, six and seven, appear in the short story, not with specific purpose, but with an overall effect related to the passage of time and the morality of the described situation.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe is the story of Price Prospero’s attempt to quarantine himself and his courtiers from the deadly disease, the Red Death. One of the major themes in the short story is: No one can escape death, not even the rich and powerful. To convey this message, Poe used symbols to express the images of wealth, power, control, vanity, the stages of life, and the inevitability of death. Two of these symbols are explained below.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Masque of the Red Death is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. A horrible disease…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I never want to die” a phrase uttered by one man, but a thought nearly universal. Edgar Allen Poe’s allegorical short story The Masque of the Red Death is an unflawed demonstration of mankind’s unwillingness to face demise. In the story, a hideous plague is prevalent in the kingdom of Prince Prospero. In a selfish act to save himself and many of his light-hearted friends from the terrible pestilence, he abandons his people and shuts himself in his opulent abbey. With his only concern being to have a luxurious and enjoyable experience. The prince has a voluptuous masked ball despite the misery of his lands. Yet, the prince’s attempt to escape and forget death ultimately fails. The theme of this story is that death is inevitable and impossible to ignore. The ebony clock represents the theme, which is evident through its chime’s powerful ability to produce unwanted sentiments in Prince Prospero’s guest and the clock itself shows the progression of life.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Masquerade Symbolism

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Poe makes the party a masquerade, to symbolize that the Prince and his guests are hiding things, more specifically from themselves. The symbolism of the masquerade also serves as an important setting as it is where the conflict with the red death figure happened. The red death’s appearance justifies itself in showing up at the party as “the mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resembles the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat” which made the figure seem like another guest at the party. The masquerade itself has to do with masks which symbolizes in hiding. The guests and Prospero are both hiding the fact that they do not feel comfortable in the castle as…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The story symbolizes the inevitability of death, and brings to reality the quote “you can run, but you can’t hide”. The colors presented in “Masque of the Red Death” play a huge role in this symbolism. They create the mood of the story, they represent the stages of life, and they highlight the horror of the last night of happiness. Overall, Edgar Allan Poe carefully depicts the use of colors in his story, and they will forever be recognized as allegorical genius in this iconic tale of greediness, power, and fate. Symbolism can be found in places high and low. Be sure to look closely, and one can reveal a meaning of something they never would have thought…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays