Masque of the Red Death Paper

Masque of the Red Death

                In the story “Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the color violet has a symbolic meaning beyond the story. The meaning of the color goes beyond the story to explain a stage in a person’s life.  In Poe’s story, there were seven rooms in the hallway. Each room was a different color to symbolize a different stage in a person’s life. The first room was the color blue to symbolize new life. The second room was the color purple to symbolize youth. The third room was green to symbolize being energetic. The fourth room was the color orange to represent the middle of a person’s life. The fifth color was white to represent aging and wisdom. The sixth color was violet to represent pain, royalty, and a start to the end of life. The seventh color was black to represent death and the end of life. Focusing on the color violet, the color means the start to the end of life.  

            The violet room was the second to last room in the castle and was close to the black room. In the last room in the story, the black and red room, there was an ebony clock. The ebony clock rung once every hour.  Every person in the story stopped what they were doing when the clock rang. The reason for this was that every time the clock rang, the clock was symbolizing that there was less and less time for the people to live. The ebony clock basically represents the clock of a person’s life and how much life that a person has left to live. If the clock had colors on the face of the clock the colors would be in order, blue first. Purple would be the second color. Orange would be the forth color. The fifth color would be white. Violet is the sixth color on the ebony clock. Black is the seventh and final color on the ebony clock at the end of the hall in the castle. Violet symbolizes a late time in a person’s life a time from 61 years old to 85 years old. The color violet symbolizes a start of decline in life. The violet room was th second to lat room in the west end of the castle. The color, violet, also symbolizes a fragileness and people who are older get fragile. The color violet is also associated with royalty. People who are from royalty are very much respected. Also older people are respected, so that makes them like royalty.

            This color relates to my life in a few ways. First, the color violet represents older people. It represents a close to the end of life. The color violet is a mix between two colors, purple and red. The color red represents death and the end of life so, when it is mixed with purple, it represents the closeness to the end.  This color relates to my life because I have a lot of people in my family who know a lot because they are close to the end of their lives. They can pass on their knowledge of life to me.  This is how the color violet relates to me.