“Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe Rabinowitz, Daniel
Theme Essay: Character, Setting, and Symbolism English 8 Period 3
CA Standard: Literary Response and Analysis 3.5 January 12 2013

Inevitable Faith In “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, the theme is that nobody, no matter how rich you are, can cheat death. The main character of this story is a greedy, vein, egregious prince names Prospero. In the story, a devastating plague is going around the kingdom dropping bodies at the blink of an eye. Instead of trying to help his people, prince Prospero decides to hide in his abbey with approximately 1,000 other rich, uninfected nobles. The characters, the setting, and the symbolism create the theme in Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death.” Prince Prospero and the courtiers represent the people who try to cheat death in the story. They all hide inside the prince’s abbey, hoping to escape from the Red Death. When the murmur is seen in the abbey, all of the nobles and courtiers get extremely frustrated because they were trying to run away this plague, but here it is staring into their souls’. All the nobles and courtiers in this story remind me of all the snotty, rich people we have on this planet. If I were able to help make a difference in the world, I honestly would.
The story’s setting in the abbey also contributes to the horror and disgust of the story. The most memorable detail of the suite, of course, is that each room has a different "color theme." The wall hangings, the decorations, and even the windows of a given room are all one color. The first room in the suite – the farthest room to the east – is blue, the second is purple, the third is green, the fourth is orange, the fifth is white, and the sixth is violet. The seventh room – the room farthest to the west – is special. It's hung in all black, but its windows are a