Beginning of Essay
"The Masque of the Red Death" conjures up thoughts of mortality, rapture, and social hierarchies. The most accurate reading produces an allegory for the mortality of humanity, and more importantly the absoluteness of this mortality. Poe is careful not to preach a ....

Middle of Essay
.... candlesticks, seals, angels, plagues, and stars among others. The tone of Revelations enforces the strength and uncontrollable certainty of mortality at the end of the tale, as well as implying the presence of a divine power of judgment without explicitly stating it. The interpretation of the seven rooms contributes to Poe's allegory of man's absolute mortality, and also offers a prime example of the ambiguity one finds in Poe's work. The omnipresent clock in the story is a clear representation of the power and presence of time. A more interesting point of notice in Poe's emphasis is on the fact that the clock consists of only the colors "ebony" an ....