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Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death

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Symbolism In The Masque Of The Red Death
You have to know that even though you are wealthy it does not mean you can escape death. In the short story "The Masque of the Red Death", written by Edgar Allan Poe, is about a masquerade party that is hosted by a man named Prince Prospero. During the plague, Prince Prospero invites his light-hearted friends to come to his castle and have fun while people are dying outside. In the middle of the party, it was interrupted by a guest dressed in garments related with the plague of the "Red Death". All of the guests began to die as they touch or recognized the Red Death. The allegory is sending a message of how "Death is inevitable and you can't escape it even if you are wealthy.” In Edgar Allan Poe's story, he uses symbolism throughout the story. He used Prince Prospero, the seven rooms, and the clock.
First, the character Prince Prospero is an example of how no one can escape death even though you are wealthy. He is wealthy, rich and an upper-class person. “Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated…”(373). He was so happy of how the Red Death had killed half the population which makes him dauntless and wicked. His name Prospero conveys happiness. He
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“Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull...when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face...the hour was to be stricken...the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause”(374). The clock is in the seventh room, once again representing death. Every time the clock strikes an hour, the musicians stop playing and all the guests stop celebrating as well. Each hour is to be struck upon as their nearness of death. As the clock struck midnight it represented the end of the day meaning the end of life. This corresponds to the theme of how death is inevitable. Edgar Allan Poe symbolizes or represents the passing of life which can represent

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