The Pendulum Vs. the Red Death

The Pendulum vs. The Red Death

Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the father of short stories. Two of his most famous stories would be "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Masque of the Red Death". While both of the aspects of these stories exercise the use of symbolism, they differ in their interpretations, their effects, and the author's purpose for creating them.

In Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death", the masked mystery that terrorizes Prince Prospero and his guests is symbolizing tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that killed a substantial amount of people that Poe cared a great deal about, one of these people being the love of his life, Virginia Clemm. Poe writes about the masked figure, "his vesture was dabbled in blood- and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror" ("The Masque" 3). One of the symptoms of tuberculosis was the coughing up of bloody mucus. The mention of blood in the figure's description provides a subtle hint towards his real identity. Alternatively, in "The Pit and the Pendulum", the pendulum simply represents time. To display this relationship, Poe states "it was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum such as we see on antique clocks" ("The Pit" 6). Poe doesn't go to much trouble to hide this symbol in anything too complex or mind-boggling. It is obvious that he wants his audience to know that the pendulum mirrors the concept of the time we (as humans) have before death. In addition, the narrator's struggle to break free of the pendulum's descending blade exemplifies people's yearning to escape death. Similarly, in "The Masque of The Red Death", Prince Prospero's gates to his abbey also symbolize human's craving to fall short of death's presence. The gates were executed to keep the diseased and infected away from the Prince and his beloved acquiantences.

The main symbol of "The Masque of the Red Death" is the disguised figure known as "Red Death". The figure's initial effect on the guests of the Prince's was that he frightened them! He was masqueraded in what looked like a "stiffened corpse" ("The Masque" 3). This would shock anyone; let alone people that are already paranoid about a disease that is literally killing everyone that crosses its path. Even the Prince was afraid of the figure in "habiliments of the grave" ("The Masque" 3). A masquerade ball is supposed to be an event that people attend to parade around in luxurious and elaborate costumes. This uninvited guest was shrugging around in a mask of a dead person, wearing grave-like garments. The unexpected scene would put anyone into a state of awe. Likewise,