haller
...ngs through the blood tinted panes was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who enter it that there are few…bold enough to set foot within it". ... which have excited disgust" Another arabesque pattern of concentric circles is mirrored in Propero walling himself in with Death--no way out. Poe was trying to evoke the reader into a heightened appreciation of mystery. He says: "Harmony can be the result of the imagination transmuting the elements of either beauty or deformity. When Fantasy seeks not merely disproportionate but incongruous or antagonistical elements, the effect is rendered more pleasurable from its greater positiveness. Into this kind of fantasy ...truth makes a merry effort to enter and we recognize true humor". Theme No one escapes death. Human happiness (as represented by Prince Prospero) seeks to wall out the threat of death; however, the Biblical reference (I Thessalonians 5:2-3) at the end of the story reminds us that death comes "like a thief in the night," and even those who seek "peace and safety...shall not escape." Plot, characters, setting, symbol, irony, style and language, point of view, theme Poe uses heavy symbolism throughout the story to convey his underlying theme: the inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape death. The prince's name, Prospero, generally den...