ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Every hour the clock would chime and everyone would stop what they are doing and watch the clock chime every hour. The dancers, attendants, and servers would stop and wait. The next item Poe uses to symbolize something is the rooms.…

Detailed explanation-2: -Most guests, however, avoid the final, black-and-red room because it contains both the clock and an ominous ambience. At midnight, a new guest appears, dressed more ghoulishly than his counterparts.

Detailed explanation-3: -In “The Masque of the Red Death, ” the ebony clock symbolizes the inescapable passage of time leading up to death. In literature, the color black is often connected to the idea of death. Further, the people are made uneasy as the clock strikes each hour, showing the passage of time.

Detailed explanation-4: -In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose “costume” proves to contain nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn.

Detailed explanation-5: -Poe’s most prolific use of color in the story is his use of both red, which to him symbolized terror, horror, an ending of life; and black, which symbolized death and destruction. The final room, the red and black room, faces west, which represents the setting sun.