• The symbolic meaning of time

The Masque of The Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The Masque of the Red Death

"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death" (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. 

Poe first published the story in the May 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine as "The Mask of the Red Death“  It has since been adapted in many different forms, including the 1964 film starring Vincent Price. A revised version was published in the July 19, 1845 edition of the Broadway Journal under the now-standard title "The Masque of the Red Death“.  This first publication earned him $12.

Plot summary

• The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero

• The plague, or Red Death, devastates the region with a real slaughter among the population. 

• Prince Prospero invites friends for a masked ball, thinking they would all be safe from the sickness. 

• Eventually, a ghost symbolizing the Red Death appears in the

crowd, killing all of the revelers.

How time is represented

• The most impressive room is the seventh and last one. There's no light in this room, but there's a massive clock of ebony that patiently rings each hour. It is "dull, heavy, monotonous," creating an inexpressible feeling of fear among the Prince's guests:

"(…) there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all."

The window panes are painted in red, as if stained with blood. That is where Prince Prospero will be stalked by the Red Death and will die. That is also where the ebony clock is.

• "Then, after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the time that flies) came yet another chiming of the clock(…)“

Rich or poor, time flies for all of us, making death the last justice, one that money can't buy

"The other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat the heart of life."

The others rooms

• Each of the first six rooms is decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet.

• One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball to entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey.

The black room

• The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a scarlet light, "a deep blood color“.

• The only element found in the black room is the clock

• The window panes are painted in red, as if stained with blood.