People dont really have that much in common, but they do have one big thing in common, that is death. Death is the one thing that no one can stop. The short story “The Masque of Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe shows how that statement is true. Poe was a man who had had many experiences with a disease that killed many people in his life, in his story “The Masque of Red Death,” he uses a lot of symbolic messages to express his views and feelings on that disease. Edger Allan Poe stated out with a home life that wasnt very stable.
His blood father left when Poe was about one. His mother was an actress that moved Poes sister, brother , and himself around a lot. Then when he was three she died of tuberculoses. After his mothers death Poe was separated from his sister and brother. Poe was sent to the Allen family. Then when Poe was in his early twenties Mrs. Allen also died of tuberculoses. At the age of twenty-six Poe married his cousin Virginia. She later died of tuberculoses. His brother died of tuberculoses also. In “The Masque of Red Death,” Poe uses color as a symbol.
He used the colors red, blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. In the story red stand for the death that comes over everyone in the story. In Poes life it stands for the diseases that has killed everyone important to him, tuberculoses. Blue is the color of the first room, in Poes life it is supposed to be him. The second room in the story is the color purple, this color is for Poes mother. Then there is a green room, this room is for his brother. There was also an orange room for Poes foster mother, Mrs. Allan.
The white room was for his wife Virginia, and the violet room for her death. Last there was the black room, which was for Poes death. What is time? Is time something that people just made up ? Poe seems to think that it means life. In the story a clock symbolizes life. In the story every time the clock would time the hour the party would stop, because everyone wanted to make sure that there time was not yet over. Another thing that Poe uses to show life is east and west. He had all the rooms start in the east and end in the west.
When you where in the east you were very much alive and the closer you got to the west the closer to death you were until you finally got to the west where you would die when you reached it. One more thing is the Prince, in the story the Prince tries to save everyone, but in the end they all died. This is much like Poe, Poe tried to protect everyone so much but they still all died. The last thing is that the party the Prince was having was a masquerade. Which is just like life according to Poe. He was saying that everyone is always wearing a mask through life, but that we really shouldnt, because we are all have the same fait, death!