Masque of the Red Death

Essay by juliaperez0698High School, 11th grade November 2014

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Julia J Perez

10/23/14

American Honors Lit AB3/4

Mr. Kautz

Edgar Allan Poe uses setting, characterization, and metaphor in "the Masque of the Red Death" to show death cannot be escaped no matter on how slick you may try to be.

The setting in the story is told to be in Prince Prospero's luxurious mansion but within it are 7 rooms that are all different shades of color. While in many suites the rooms formed a long and straight line, Prospero's rooms aligned from east to west. The rooms had windows that were of stained glass which depended in the color accordance with the decorations of the room. These rooms were fairly different from any rooms in a regular mansion. But the last one, specifically, was the room that was mostly in contrast with the others. While the others matched in correspondence with the color of its decorations, this one did not.

This last room was black velvet, with tapestries hanging along the walls. In the text it states, "The panes here were scarlet - a deep blood color" (Poe 1). The significance of the window panes being scarlet is the comparison to a red blood color. When you think of death, you think of blood. While all the other rooms are in color, this room is dark and red. Prince Prospero was trying to prevent this "Red Death" coming into his party with his very own strategy but yet it still entered.

Prince Prospero is the main character in this short story. He's a man that's wealthy, owner of the mansion that the party is held within. He invited guests to his wealthy mansion just to celebrate and keep this "Red Death" out of the party. Shown in the text, "The prince had provided all the appliances...