Much of the color and life in the writing comes from his word choice.

(7) Here, Poe's sentences are not only short, they're practically identical in their simple structure, beginning 'there were' or 'there were much.' Poe then infuses that clear structure with life by filling in the color. There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. As in this paragraph: There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm -much of what has been since seen in 'Hernani.' There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. Sometimes the sentences just form something like a 'list' of details. They're like little atoms, each with just one or two details, which build up the larger whole. The paragraphs in turn are usually put together from lots of fairly short sentences that are structurally simple. Most of Poe's paragraphs are very short or very long, and each of the long ones describes a single thing: the first describes the Red Death, the second Prospero's castle retreat, the fourth (the third is short) describes the suite, the fifth describes the clock, and so on. We say that because of how neatly the story divides on both the paragraph and the sentence level. It's composed: it's 'put together' from lots of individual units, which unite to build a larger whole. Structurally, everything's clearly defined and logical. Think of Poe's writing in this story as having two parts: lines, or structure, and color. The story was first published in May 1842 in Graham’s Magazine.Meticulously Composed, Colorful, and always Elegant Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the titular disease.

The story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, as do the guests. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. The story follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. From Wikipedia: “The Masque of the Red Death”, originally published as “The Mask of the Red Death” (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.

The masque of the red death text