The Inevitability of Immortality- Poe Analysis

  10 October, 2019

The Inevitability of Immortality

In his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe illustrates mortality and the looming presence of death. The story describes how after half the kingdom falls victim to the "Red Plague", Prince Prospero invited his friends of the court to live within an alleged sanctuary filled with elaborate parties. During the most elaborate of the parties, filled with seven rooms of different colors, the Red Plague joins them at last and unleashes itself upon all. Throughout the party, there is a clock that chimes regularly as a reminder of their inevitable demise and the continuous passing of time. Through the regularity of the clock’s chimes, as well as the ominous sound that it makes, Poe demonstrates that there is no escape from death and that death is an ever-present part of life that demands acknowledgment. 

The significance of the clock begins with its location. Within the masquerade, there are seven rooms going from east to west. The rooms go from blue to purple, green, orange, white, violet, to black. The rooms represent the stages of life beginning in blue, the eastmost room signifying beginnings and ending in black, and the dark, blood-lit westmost room, signifying ends. As one progresses throughout the rooms, they grow and age closer to death. Many people avoid the black room, which is representative of the party being an attempted escape from death. The “gigantic clock of ebony" resides in the black room, although its chimes can be heard throughout the party (Poe, 3). 

Every hour, the clock emits an eerie chime that caused “the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedated passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation”(3). The cock’s sound caused everyone to pause and feel uneasy because of its bleak reminder of inevitable death. The sound of the clock is so present in the ball that as the clock chimes, the music and the dancers stop. The clock represents the passing of time and of mortality. Regardless of where the guests are situated, there is no escape from the sound, as there is no escape from time or death. Just as time cannot be changed, death cannot be escaped. 

Death is inevitable even in one’s dreams. Within the ball, there was described to be a “multitude of dreams” stalking about, “taking hue from the rooms” and causing the orchestra to “mirror their step” (3). The dreams mirror the wishes for the everlasting life of the guests of the balls and their foolish ideas that death can be escaped in dreams. However, once the clock strikes. The “dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand” showing that time and mortality are ever-present. The fear of death drives the guests to try to escape into dreams and folly. While they persuade themselves that “life and death are equally jests”, “there are matters of which no jest can be made” (4). There is no escape from death in dreams or laughter, and while you can ease the fear, it is omnipresent. 

The final display of mortality comes from the arrival of the Red Death. While the guests of the party had been ignoring death, “now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death” (5). The Red Death worked its way from the black room to meet Prince Prospero and lay his final grasp on all the people of the kingdom. The Red Death is personified as a “thief in the night: because, despite the regular reminders of mortality presented by the clock, the guests at the party had tried to escape into their dreams, ignoring death and time. The Red Death is even dressed and masked similarly to the guests, but more extravagant demonstrating that it is one's own behavior which death draws from, and there is no escape in anything. As the Red Death was concluding its work on the kingdom, “the life of the ebony clock went out”, ending time for them by ending life (5). 

The clock is present throughout the story and demonstrates the passing of time which it represents. As the number of chimes grows, so does the hour. The chimes of the clock bring the guests closer to the arrival of the Red Death and remind them of their own mortality. Mortality is universal. While there have been many cases in history in which man has searched for a cure for death or for eternal life, death is inevitable. Just as the black death is one of the colored rooms, death is a final stage in life that we progress towards. As the clock was created by man, so was time, despite them being facilities to remind us and move us towards death. With the image of the clock, Poe illustrates the omnipresence of time and reminds us of our own mortality.