Masque of the Red Death Symbols The Rooms

Masque of the Red Death Symbols

The Rooms: Symbolic Meaning #1 The suite of rooms could be an allegory of human life. Each room corresponds to a different "stage" of human life, which its color suggests.

• BLUE Beginnings; birth; the "unknown" from which a human being comes into the world. • PURPLE a combination of blue (birth) and red (associated with life, intensity) suggests the beginnings of growth.

• GREEN suggests the "spring" of life (youth) • ORANGE the summer and autumn of life. (adulthood)

• WHITE suggests age – think white hair, and bones. • VIOLET (a combination of purple and blue, or purple and grey) is a shadowy color, and represents darkness and approaching death.

• BLACK Death • The color RED • in this story: association with blood, fear, and death.

The Rooms – Symbolic Meaning #2 The first clue that this may be true is that the rooms are arranged from east to west. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The birth to death of a day.

• BLUE The beginning of the morning (6: 00 am) when it is still dark out, before the sun rises. The sky is dark blue.

• PURPLE sunrise (7: 00) • GREEN morning, the flowers open their petals, birds are chirping (8: 00 -noon)

• ORANGE sunny part of the day when the sun is high in the sky (noon-3: 00) • WHITE the hottest part of the day, when the bright sun is beating down on you (3: 00 -5: 00)

• VIOLET sunset (6: 00 -8: 00) • BLACK night and death of the day

The Clock A symbol of the passing of "the Time that flies", and the inevitability of death. Its eerie chiming on the hour is a regular reminder to the revelers that their lives are drifting away with the time, and that death is approaching.

Other Symbols The pestilence called “the Red Death” = death that eventually comes to all people The locked gates = mankind’s attempts to slow down or prevent death The masquerade party = mankind’s attempts to avoid the reality of death The pausing of the music/stopping of partying when clock chimes = mankind’s fear of death The masked visitor = death The ending of the story = the inevitability of death