Color Symbolism ~~ The Masque of the Red Death ~~

I recently wrote an essay on the symbolism of the colors in “The Masque of the Red Death”:

In “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the colors of the chambers are symbolic as a spectrum, and some of the individual colors are also symbolic. Some of the meanings are more obvious, while others have to be connected with the story and the placement of the rooms to make sense.

For example, black symbolizes death and evil, and scarlet can symbolize blood. Black is often worn to funerals to represent the recent death, and red is the color of blood. Black combined with red, as in the seventh chamber, represents death, and since blood is the “Red Death’s” avatar and seal, it represents death from, specifically, the “Red Death” in “The Masque of the Red Death”. Because of this, the revelers who tried to escape the “Red Death” confront the “Red Death” in this chamber and are all killed by the “Red Death”, as the colors of the chambers suggest.

As a spectrum, the colors—blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and black—represent the beginning of the day to midnight. Blue and purple represent the darkness of the night before the sun rises, and green flashes can sometimes be observed during sunrises. Sunrises are often orange, and white could represent the blinding sunlight at noon. Violet can represent sunset, and black represents midnight. The rooms also progress from east to west, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. According to this interpretation of the colors, the “Red Death” led the prince from dawn to midnight before killing him. Since the Red Death appears at midnight, this might connect death with midnight.

Finally, blue can represent birth and black can symbolize death, the spectrum of colors representing life. The blue room can be associated with birth because it is the westernmost room, where the sun rises, and the easternmost room, where the sun sets, is associated with death and endings. The colors of the black room can also be associated with death. The prince and the other revelers were killed in the black-and-red room, and the prince started chasing the “Red Death” in the blue room, which could suggest birth. Because the party-goers were trying to avoid death, they avoided the black room, which reminded them of death, the thing they were trying to avoid.

The colors and their placements are symbolical. The blue room represents beginnings—birth and the beginning of the day—while the black-and-red room represents endings—death and the end of the day. In the story, Poe showed that death is unavoidable, even though Prince Prospero and his friends went to such measures to achieve it.

[I’ve noticed that some of my coding doesn’t work for some browsers, so if the font size looks unusually large or something like that, I’m sorry. I’m still working on my coding skills.]

Book Review ~~ The Masque of the Red Death ~~

A short while ago, I read the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s an allegory about death, but the story itself also has a wonderful plot, though it is horrifying, as is customary with Poe’s stories. In the story, Prince Prospero tried to escape from the “Red Death”, a plague that caused an extreme pain and then killed the victim in half an hour, by gathering a thousand of his friends and then secluding them in an abbey of his, providing provisions and all kinds of pleasures, from ballerinas and musicians to buffoons and wine. He parties and ignores the problem of the “Red Death”. However, during one of his parties, the party-goers realize that someone dressed like the “Red Death” is with them, and though his clothing is distinctive, he is not noticed until after midnight, hours after the party starts, in the blue, easternmost room. A commotion is created, all of the revelers trying their best to escape the person, and though the prince commands his courtiers to seize him, they are frightened of him, and do not, so that the prince himself chases the person through the seven chambers of the party. The person then turns to confront and kill the prince, but when the party-goers attempt to unmask him, it turns out that he is a shapeless form, and is in fact the “Red Death”. The “Red Death” is the personification of death, and the story shows that it is impossible to run from death forever. Though horrifying, the story was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading it. I would rate this story 9.7/10 and recommend it to anyone who likes Poe, horror stories, allegorical stories or is simply looking for an interesting short story.

Book Review ~~ The Big Deal ~~

Recently, I read “The Big Deal”, by Jamie Brindle. I found this story very intriguing because it continued in an endless loop — fitting, because time and space did not exist in the beginning, where the story took place. Quincy is a salesman, quite a good one, who sells lives to Poor Souls. In fact, he is such a good salesman that the first life he shows a Poor Soul is successfully sold — until a Poor Soul decides that the life Quincy shows him is not the right life for him. Instead, he shows an interest in a life that Quincy himself feels a degree of recognition for. Quincy shoves another life at him, but soon enough, the Poor Soul returns because the life, according to him, “wasn’t really my cup of tea”. Quincy is shocked and tries to conceal the familiar life, but is unsuccessful, and as a result, they both get thrown into the same life. The life progresses quickly, fast-forwarding, but afterwards, there is trouble because there are two souls in the same life. Quincy gets sent back to the Beginning and the cycle repeats infinitely. I enjoyed reading this story and thought that the idea was very creative and original, much like the riddle about whether the chicken or the egg came first. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys reading science fiction, fantasy, or simply a book that makes you think and rate it 9.7/10.

Book Review ~~ The Bet ~~

Recently, I read the short story “The Bet,” by Anton Chekhov. I found it a very interesting story about a bet between a lawyer and a banker who are arguing about life imprisonment and the death sentence. The lawyer, who would prefer life imprisonment to the death sentence, because at least the imprisoned does not die, agrees to spend fifteen years trapped in a small cabin located in the banker’s garden. The banker, a reckless young millionaire, agrees to pay him two million dollars if he can do so successfully, since he believes that life imprisonment is merely a slow form of death. When the lawyer comes out greatly changed, the author shows that life imprisonment is, truly, worse than death — the lawyer no longer cares for the two million dollars he staked fifteen years of his life on, and a large majority of his opinions about the world were completely changed during his fifteen years of study. I found the storyline, as well as the message behind the story, engaging because of the large stakes in the story. I would rate it 9.8/10 and recommend it to anyone interested in the debate between the death sentence and life imprisonment or simply looking for an interesting book to read.