"Mask of the Red Death" Essay

Symbolism of Purple in “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe

           

            In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, purple, the color of the second room, symbolizes fun, youth, playfulness, and childhood.  The colors in the story all stand for something.  They represent the seven stages of life.  Blue is birth, purple is youth, green is adolescence, orange is adulthood, white is the process of aging, violet is elderly, and black is death.  There are characteristics of each other that correspond with their meaning in the stages of life.  The color purple is associated with youth- which can be interpreted in many ways in the story and in the real world.  The Prince wanted to escape the lethality of the “red death” in England, so he lived in seclusion in his palace.  One could interpret this secluded lifestyle as an attempt to maintain youth.  Prince Prospero did not want to die; he wanted to live a fun life with his friends in his palace.  However, because one is unable to avoid any stage of life, the Prince’s plan of living ultimately failed in the end.

            Again, purple symbolizes the youthful stage of life.  Blue, which is associated with birth, precedes purple in the order of apartments and in the stages of life.  Green succeeds purple in the story and in the stages of life.  This makes sense because green stands for adolescence.  One experiences adolescence after the childhood/youthful years.  Alone, purple represents one stage of life, but in comparison to the other colors of the story, it directly relates to all the stages of life.  In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the ebony clock in the black room relates to the meaning of the color black in the story.  Black symbolizes death – the end of life altogether.  The ebony clock symbolized that the end was near.  It kept the time up until the death of Prince Prospero.  The ebony clock had a direct meaning to all of the colors in the story.  It was constantly keeping time, marking each of the stages of life (the colors).

            Purple relates to my life now in a number of ways.  Purple symbolizes youth and childhood, which I am moving out of as an adolescent.  I am thinking and acting more maturely than I did when I was a child.  I am becoming more aware of my community and those around me.  Although I am no longer a young child, I still have my youth; however, it is a matter of maturity.  As a fourteen year old, I am most certainly still considered young.  As a teenager, I stand for youth.  Purple represents me as an adolescent and as a person.  Purple is very significant in “The Masque of the Red Death”, as are all of the colors.  It represented the near beginning of life, before the “red death” entered the party.  Not only does purple represent youth and fun in the story, it represents the time before death finally reached Prince Prospero and his palace.  Symbolism is a key tool used in “The Masque of the Red Death.”  The meaning of the colors goes so much deeper than simply their appearance.  All of the colors, particularly purple in this case, were essential in understanding the story completely, as well as the meaning of each room and its color.