"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet--a deep blood color."
~page 4 of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"
It was interesting how even the description of the room itself seemed to foreshadow what was to come. All of the other rooms were just described in passing, yet Poe decided to pay a lot of attention and detail to this seventh room--that in and of itself sends a signal that this room is significant in some way. The second signal is that this room is different. The two colors chosen also seem to be key indicators--the color black is often associated with darkness and the title of the story involves the words "red death," so the color scarlet is like a neon sign, especially since Poe continues on to indicate it was "a deep blood color." Without reading any further, the reader can already get a sense of what will happen later in the story.
Comments (1)
I agree. The quote you picked has many descriptively dark words that cannot foreshadow anything good. He could have simply used the word crimson to describe the 'deep blood color.'
Posted by Jessica Pierce | September 3, 2009 12:05 AM
Posted on September 3, 2009 00:05