Cameron Rogers
February 18, 2013
AP ENGLISH III
3rd Block
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
The MASQUE of the Red Death

The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory about life, death and the inability of humans to evade the grip of death. Written by Edgar Allen Poe, this allegory is set upon a disease known as the Red Death plagues, the fictional country where this tale is set and it causes its victims to die quickly and gruesomely. The main character is introduced as Prospero, a prince who decides to lock the gates of his palace in order to fend of the plague, ignoring the illness ravaging the land. This shows the selfishness of the prince to ignore the entire country and decides to live his life as if the illness is nonexistent. After several months he locked the gates and held a masquerade ball where he invites numerous people to his palace. For this festivity, he decorates the rooms of his house in single colors. The eastern room garnished in a deep blue shade and matching blue stained windows. This sequence is symbolically suggestive because the representation of the life cycle of a day as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In addition, night symbolizes death. The ensuing room is purple with the same matching color, stained-glass window pattern. The rooms continue westward; according, to the design, in the following color arrangement: green, orange, white, and violet. The seventh room is black, red tinted windows and the room stands an ebony clock. Edgar