Symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Some people would stop reading a cruel story if the writer does not cover his story using symbolic language. In this essay, I intend to illustrate various instances of symbolism portrayed in Allan’s “The Masque of the Red Death”. A reader of Poe story would ponder about the symbolic language from the time that he or she reads the title of the story. “The Masque of Red Death”, this title illustrate that Poe has used color to symbolize events in his story. In addition, the name used in the title has a symbolic meaning to reader. Since this is the title of the story and the reader is yet to explore the content of the story. He or she will develop great interest in the story in order to know the deeper meaning of the story and the symbols used by the writer of the story. Poe’s story has three distinct instances in which applications of symbolism appear. The main occurrences are name, number, and color. Poe used color to symbolize emotions, attitude, or feelings of the occurrences in the story. For example, in the story the writer talks of black chamber, which symbolizes death. The writer mentions six other chambers which he gives various colors to illustrate various meaning to the story. ...
The red color frightened many characters in the story. The characters tried their best to keep off from the red color because they felt they would bleed to death. It is also important to note that Poe symbolism of color illustrated different moods and meaning to the story. Prince, the chief character in Poe’s story ran through the six chambers at different instances. Notably, each of the six chambers had different colors. This illustrated different moods, which the prince acquired in the story. Human emotions in the story appear to the reader using color. When the prince entered each room, he changed his emotions. It is arguable that in the story, Poe successfully used color to illustrate various stages in life. Red color portrayed a terminal disease, which would eventually lead to the death of the prince as illustrated in the black room. Characters in the story feared red color because they knew it represented a terminal illness that would wipe them from earth. Poe uses number in the story to influence the emotions of the reader. Seven appears as a holy number associated with wonders of the world. Determination of evil in the story is clear as it struggles to destroy the holy number. Probably, the plague of red death occurred in the seventh chamber. In the story, characters are vigilant when it comes to observations of numbers because they knew that each number had a symbolic meaning. As the clock tickled, the characters in the story observed the number that the clock pointed. A change of emotions is evident in their faces in each number that the clock points. At 12 midnight, sad mood engulf the room because red death occurred at this hour. Evidently, life would be good for the characters, as long as the clock hand does not ...Download file to see next pagesRead More