masque or red death Poe, a master of illusion, uses this talent to keep his audience in suspense throughout the story. He uses symbols such as the seven colored rooms and the clock, to portray to his readers what appears to be a fairytale. However, Poe takes this fairytale and transforms it into "The Masque of the Red Death," a nightmare in disguise. The theme of this story is the inevitability of death. Prince Prospero …showed first 75 words of 1080 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1080 total…the "Red Death." This party was the Prince's pride, and the death of the kingdom is the fall. Poe punishes Prince Prospero by letting him die a shameless, cowardly death. Poe does this, because Prospero thinks he can hide from death by using the people and the walls to surround himself. In the end, Prince Prospero finds that he is only human and cannot in fact, run or hide from death. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** red death