Death Is Only A Matter Of Time

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Death is only a matter of time
In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” he uses the descriptiveness and details of the story to tell about a plaque that is taking over a community and how the individuals try to hide and seclude themselves from this plaque to avoid its tragedy of death. In the “Masque of the Red Death,” Poe uses symbols to represent death in its grueling décor and that it takes precedence over no one, time is our only virtue that separates us from death.
In the beginning of the story, Poe describes the Red Death “Blood was its Avatar and its seal-the redness and the horror of blood. And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour” (302). This brought fear among the people, causing them to avoid contact with any other person with the hopes of not contracting this disease. This is about people doing anything they can to avoid something that would bring their ultimate death.
Prince Prospero a high ranked individual notices that the plaque was consuming thousands. With the hopes of keeping the plaque on the outside, he invites certain people of his court and higher standings to isolate themselves within his castle. This was an attempt to try to cheat Red Death with the thought of keeping everyone infected outside so that it would not breech the walls of the castle. Yet, not knowing that walls of iron or locked doors would never stop the fate of Red Death, they continued with their isolation.
After several months in the castle, the Prince assembles a Masquerade Ball. This could symbolize a celebration that they had cheated Red Death to that point in time. This Masquerade involved seven different rooms with each its own color. These rooms could symbolize the stages of life from beginning to end with the last room being death related to the color of black and red. Poe describes this ball very vivid; they dressed in grotesque costume...