1. Allegory and Symbols
1. Party guests
What it represents: They represent humanity/ human beings.
How it helps teach the lesson:
Although the party guests isolate themselves, they still die from the Red Death, thus showing no one can escape death.

2. 2. Prince Prospero’s abbey
What it represents: the abbey is a physical barrier to the disease, an escape from the disease
How it helps teach the lesson: Even though Prince Prospero thinks he can build a castle strong enough to keep death out, death still penetrates the castle walls.

3. Allegory and Symbols
3. The black room
What it represents: It represents the grave, a coffin, forebodes of death (the red symbolizes blood)
How it helps teach the lesson: It shows that death is the final resting place for all.

4. Allegory and Symbol
4. The tripods with the flames:
What is represents: They represent light, heat, life.
How it helps teach the lesson:
Like the party goers, the tripods are snuffed out at the end by death.

5. “The Masque of Red Death” Analyzing Literature Worksheet Understanding Allegory
5. The masked visitor/uninvited guest
What it represents: It represents the Red Death, plague, death in general
How it helps teach the lesson(develops the theme): It shows us that we cannot escape death, no matter how hard we try. Death will come looking for us

6. Allegory and Symbols
6. Ebony clock
What it represents: The clock represents our time on earth.
How it helps teach the lesson: The chimes are a constant reminder of the time we have left on earth. Time is still ticking onwards (like the beating of a heart).

7. 7. The seven rooms What it represents: The stages of life
How it helps teach the lesson: The rooms begin in the east and end in the west. The seventh room represents death. No matter where our journey begins, it will always end with death.
1st room= blue 3rd=green 5th=white
2nd=purple 4th= orange 6th=violet
7th=black and red

8. 8. Prince Prospero
What it represents: The wealthy / privileged people /upper class How it helps teach the lesson: The wealthy think they can avoid suffering/death or think they are above the powers of mortality, but they are not.

9. 9. Masquerade ball
What it represents: An attempt to have fun/ avoid unpleasant things by pretending everything is okay.
How it helps teach the lesson: People have a hard time facing their mortality or a serious problem, so they simply ignore it.

10. Allegory and Symbol
3. The music
What is represents: It represents life or the tempo of life .
How it helps teach the lesson:
It gives us a sense of vulnerability; each time it is stilled by the chiming of the clock, we recognize life is fleeting.

11. Essay topic:
Discuss how Edgar Allen Poe uses symbols to develop his theme—no one can escape death.
Sample thesis: Edgar Allen Poe uses symbols in “The Masque of Red Death” to develop the theme that no matter how hard one tries, no one can escape death.

12. Topic sentence: Poe uses characters to show how pointless and vain it is to attempt to avoid death.
For example,
This shows that
This is important because

13. Topic sentence: Poe’s use of setting and its characteristics also illustrate the futility of trying to keep death away.
For instance,

14. Topic sentence: Poe’s use of symbolic objects helps to develop the theme that no one is safe from death.