The Masque Of The Red Death Symbolism Essay

When a widespread disease conquers everyone throughout the country, one man hopes to escape the disease by locking himself and many of his wealthy friends in his abbey. “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story about a disease called the Red Death wiping out the country side. Prince Prospero believes he can escape the Red Death by locking himself in his abbey with a thousand of his wealthy friends. To celebrate escaping the deadly disease at the end of the fifth or sixth month, Prospero throws a masquerade ball. The ball takes place in seven different rooms; blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. When the party is in full swing, the ebony clock strikes twelve and everybody stops. Once everybody stops they
The first symbol in the mask is a purple diamond which represents Prince Prospero being wealthy and believing that he can escape death because of his status. Prospero believes that because of his wealth, he can escape the Red Death with a thousand of his friends. The diamond represents wealth and a higher status of most citizens that the Red Death impacted. The purple also, represents Prince Prospero’s wealth, luxury, and royalty. Next, the second symbol in the mask is a gate; the gate represents Prince Prospero trying to keep the Red Death out of his abbey. Prince Prospero believes that he can keep the Red Death out of his abbey and not get sick because he is wealthy and the wealthy can escape death. He wanted to keep death away from himself and his wealthy friends using a wall and a gate sealed shut: “A strong loft wall girdled it in. The wall had gates of iron. The courtiers having entered, brought furnaces and messy hammers and welded the bolts” (Poe 420). The gates are welded shut and made of iron because Prospero believed that he could keep the Red Death out. Despite Prince Prospero’s attempts to keep the Red Death out of his abbey, his effort was