symbolism in The Masque Of The Red Death

Hello everyone!I am working on the using of symbolism in The Masque Of The Red Death and being confused about one detail that when midnight comes the red death firstly appears in the eastern blue chamber but not the western one which indecating "death".Why does poe let the red death get through the chambers from the first one? :confused: Two importance:one,the seven chambers are interpreted as different steps of life time while the red death as "death" both literally and allegorily;two,while the whole text is filled with a lot of discription of the envirenment but very a little of charactors' action,it seems of very significance that the almost only one plot that the prince follows the red death through the chambers to the last one.According to these two points,it's wellworthy to look this detail as a symbol and to look for its counterpart.The parallelism of death and life in Poe's opinion seems to be straightened on the time line.Your advices and imformation about Poe's theory of death and life would be helpfuy for me!

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Im a little unclear on what you are asking for specifically but maybe this helps a little. Masque is my all time favorite Poe story. Red Death starts east and moves west, the prince follows him. Death occurs at the end of our individual timelines but Poe is pointing out that Death is always around and relevent to us no matter what age or how long we have to live. its a yin/yang sorta situation, we are living, but life is so unique and technically fragile that we could just as easily be dying.

as far as characterization goes- none of the people are thoroughly developed but the two main characters of the story are: the enviornment which represents Life, and the Red Death which represents, well, Death. those are the protagonists.

im not sure if that helps at all but I tried.

I find a great deal of symbolism in the Red Death's movement through the rooms east to west. Firstly, as the day begins with the sun rising in the east and concluding with the fall in the west, so too does the beginning of the party-goers death. I have noticed too that the first color that you can see as dawn approaches is blue, followed by each succeeding color to white (when the sun is fully in the sky), and then concluding with black again. It is also telling that the clock that tics relentlessly on with its portending chime is at the western most point in the black room. So I believe the symbolism refers to the dawn and sunset of life, the growing realization (seeing) what the Red Death actually means to humanity, and finally the last moments of each person's life clock. Its fun stuff!!