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Jack Meredith

Mrs. Woelke

Pre-AP English 9A

11 November 2018

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” he expresses allegory

to give the story multiple meanings. The author uses symbolism of objects like the flame, Prince

Prospero, and the clock.

Prince Prospero represents foolishness, or the denial of inevitable death. To try to distract

himself from the spreading plague, “he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and

light-hearted friends,” to divert his thoughts from the fact that, “his dominions were half

depopulated,”(Poe 1). This shows that he is too ignorant to focus on surviving that he focuses on

happiness. This proves that Prince Prospero symbolizes foolishness and human folly, because of

his lack of awareness on important situations. Later, when the masked visitor enters the party,

Prince Prospero angrily yells, “Who dares?” toward the visitor, then yells, “Who dares insult us

with blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him,”(Poe 4). Prince Prospero is

overconfident in his powers to stop the visitor quickly because he doesn't know how powerful

the visitor is. Because the visitor represents death, Prince Prospero is basically denying death.

Prince prospero symbolizes denial of death and foolishness.

The fire of the tripod represents life. In the story, the author described that, “there stood,

opposite each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire,” which has its own significance

which is exposed subtly through the way it, “projected its rays through the tinted glass and so
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glaringly lit the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic

appearances,”(Poe 2). The light emitted from the tripod reveals “gaudy and fantastic

appearances,” which are happy and full of life. The tripod shines brightest at the beginning

because that’s when everybody is currently alive, the tripod brightens correspondingly to the

amount of living people in the castle. Later in the story, after everyone has died, “the flames of

the tripods expired,” because of how the flame in the tripod is dampened when less people in the

castle are alive, and now, “Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion

over all,”(Poe 5). The flame has now expired because of how the flame’s radiance is dependant

on the lives of the partygoers. The flame in the tripod represents life because of how the author

expresses the way the tripod is brightest while no one is dead, and how it is exterminated along

with the unfortunate revellers. The tripod’s lively flame symbolizes life.

The ebony clock symbolizes mortality, and is a reminder that death is coming closer and

closer. In the story, while the partiers are partying, the chimes of the clock ring, “while the

chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale,” all the dancing ended,

it seems like they realized something they didn’t want to believe, time was running out until

death, “and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused

reverie or meditation,”(Poe 2 ). The clock spreads silence across the crowd, as if the crowd had

remembered the plague could strike at any moment. They are all reminded of their mortality.

Also in the story, It came the time that, “there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of

the clock;” everyone had stopped dancing again, “and thus it happened… before the last echoes

of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many people in the crowd who had

found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the
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attention of no single individual before,” the chimes of the clock reveal death itself (Poe 4). The

clock’s ringing symbolize that time is almost up for the revellers. Death is standing in the crowd,

and the people are vulnerable. The ebony clock is a symbol of mortality and time running out..

The symbolism In “The Masque of the Red Death” add a huge aspect to the story which

can only be found in very few works of writing. This short story can be found to be full of

symbolism when analyzed. Prince prospero, the flame in the tripod, and the clock greatly

contribute to a significance found in no other works of writing.