1. Masque of the Red Death
Symbols

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

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

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

7. 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.

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

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

10. 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)

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

12. 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.

13. 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