Question

How does the description of the clock contribute to the development of the story’s theme(s)? Cite evidence in your answer.

Answer 1

Answer: As the very theme of the story is the absurdity of trying to escape death, the clock serves as a reminder that death is inevitable. It symbolizes the passage of time.

Explanation:

"The Masque of the Red Death" is Edgar Allan Poe's short story, in which a group of thousand people, including Prince Prospero, lock themselves down in an abbey. They want to be safe during the deadly pestilence (Red Death).

In the story, The Seven Rooms of the abbey represent seven stages of life. In the Seventh Room, "against the western wall", there is "a gigantic clock of ebony." The Ebony Clock serves as a symbol of death and its inevitability, while its swinging pendulum symbolizes the passage of time. When an hour passes by, the clock chimes, and everyone listens to it, aware that they have lost an hour of their life and that death is approaching. Prince and his people could not stop the pendulum from swinging - similarly, they cannot escape death.