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Samuel Lopez
Ms. Woelke
Pre-AP English 9A
5 November 2018
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” literally, a wealthy
Prince Prospero holds a masquerade shielded away from an ongoing plague infecting and
killing millions just outside of his castle walls. However it is interrupted by an intruder that seems
to be the plague personified. Upon attempting to attack it, Prince Prospero and the revellers all
drop to the ground, killed by the disease they were attempting to survive. Allegorically however,
this story is meant to symbolize how human folly can never escape death, no matter what they
attempt. This is revealed through some characters and objects in the story having a much
Being introduced at the start of the story, readers learn about the Prince Prospero, who
himself is a symbol of human folly and cowards who fear death, even though they can never
escape it. An example of this is when he summons “a thousand hale and light-hearted friends”
to escape the disease by “ [retiring] into the seclusion of one of his castellated abbey,” (Poe 1).
On a literal level, this is used to show how the Prince Prospero plans on escaping this disease
of mass destruction. However, through deeper analysis of the text, this would be used to show
how humans foolishly try to hide away from death behind money, like antibiotics, medicine and
different medications to prolong the inevitable. Towards the end of the story, Prince Prospero
attempts to attack the intruder, however, all of a sudden the “dagger dropped gleaming upon the
sable carpet” then, after a few seconds, “[Prince Prospero] fell prostrate in death,” (Poe 4). On
the surface, this shows how the Prince Prospero wants to vanquish the uninvited guest, only for
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he himself to get infected by the disease he had tried desperately tried to escape from. If read
allegorically, however, Edgar Allen Poe is using the Prince Prospero to show how, no matter
what humanity attempts to ward off death, by attacking it, as Prince Prospero tried, and
defending against the inevitable, just as the courtiers sought out, mankind can never run, or
hide from death. Through the deeper analysis of this short story, Prince Prospero is clearly used
Being used as the very thing that keeps the deadly plague away from the skin of the
revellers, the welded locks are symbolic of the false sense of protection humanity uses against
death. For example, guests enter the castle with “furnaces and massy hammers” in order to
“[weld] the bolts” (Poe 1). On surface level analysis, this is interpreted as how the prince and his
guests protect against the deadly illness that kills millions just outside of his castle. The symbolic
interpretation, however, uses the welded bolts as an analogy of how humanity seeks everlasting
life by protecting itself using multiple medications and treatments, which in this story, come in
the form of welded bolts and locks. Another example of the welded locks serving as a symbol is
when the clock strikes and the dancers suddenly “became aware of the presence” of an intruder
who had “arrested the attention of no single individual before,” (Poe 3). Literally, this quote
shows how the seemingly secure “welded locks” have failed to keep an intruder outside of the
castle walls, and has now invaded the masquerade. This ties back to the theme, because, this
symbolically shows how humanity may try to use external things to keep themselves healthy,
however, no matter what they do, they will still die because no one can escape death. If
analyzed more carefully, the locks can clearly be shown as a symbol of the protections people
The final, and arguably one of the most important, symbol is the seventh room, the
representation of death itself. The first example to show this is when the room itself is described
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to be “shrouded in black velvet tapestries” covering the “carpet of the same material,” and the
windows that were a “scarlet- deep blood color,” (Poe 2). Upon using surface level analysis, the
seventh room is merely a room that is colored oddly and that this quote only exists to describe
the most westward room of the castle. However, when using a deeper analysis, readers will see
that the peculiar colors of this room were chosen for a reason, to resemble the colors of death,
as black is symbolic of death and the end of light, and red is symbolic of blood and death.
Another sample is brought about when Poe mentions that few revellers were “bold enough to
set foot within the precincts” of the ghastly colored room (Poe 2). When reviewed without
significant thought, this would be used to give readers a description of the room through the
perspectives of the revellers, that it looks so horrid that everybody fears to even step into the
room. This relates to the theme, because it symbolically shows how human fear death, and will
do anything to stay away from it, which is foolish, because, eventually, everyone will die..
Through the text, readers learn that the seventh room is symbolic of death through
allegorical-level analysis.
This short-story called “The Masque of the Red Death” can be literally assessed a story
about a Prince who holds a masquerade shielded against an ongoing plague occurring just
outside of the castle walls. However, as the hour hand strikes twelve, a masked figure enters
the scene, seeming to be the disease itself personified, who ends up infecting everyone of the
deadly illness consequently after the Prince attacks the intruder. Through this short horror story
about a Prince who hosts a masquerade protected against a raging disease spread just outside
his castle, readers learn, by use of deep investigation, that death will inevitably overpower
mankind through the use of three symbols; the Prince Prospero, the welded locks and the
seventh room. Edgar Allan Poe writes this dark theme in order to tell readers that no one on
earth can escape death, that you should live life however you wish to, because death comes
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swiftly, striking without warning, just as it had ended the magnificent masquerade in the blink of
an eye.