G.R. Thomas suggests that that “one of the favourite pastimes of critics is trying to identify the symbolic meaning of the colours of the seven rooms” in The Masque of the Red Death (Zimmerman, 2009, p. 60). But when authorial intentions are ambiguous, but we insist on creating meaning out of certain features of a text, are we really doing justice to it? Is literary criticism a truer testament to our own beliefs, values and biases rather than the author’s? How many authorial choices are deliberate and at what point do we draw the line between conscientious lexical choices and mere syntactical coincidences? I’ve dedicated my entire undergraduate career to this discipline, and I love it, but sometimes I truly wonder if l’analyse de texte is a fruitless exercise that has somewhat compromised my ability to look at subject matters objectively.
Looking at extracts in isolation from their context forces you to pay attention to minute details and the effectiveness of certain linguistic and rhetorical features – but it would be wrong to deviate so far from ‘true meanings’ that works are ripped out of their author’s clutches. As an author, if my work resonated with others for reasons apart from what I’d intended to communicate, I’m not sure if it would be appropriate to feel flattered or devastated; especially if the heart of what I was trying to express was overshadowed by the aesthetics of eloquent language and universally relatable images. Recently, I wrote a sonnet as a part of an assessment where I had to reflect upon my own writing. I used the image of an unripe date in the first stanza and depicted its violet nectar. However, in my reflection I had to go out of my way to say: ‘My use of the colour ‘violet’ has no symbolic value – it is the literal colour of the unripe dates in my garden.’ Granted, it’s seldom that authors leave us with intricate roadmaps that guide us through the nuances of every image and technique used in their works – which is what makes decrypting ambiguous literature an enjoyable and stimulating challenge. But there are some days where I really wish they did, Poe with his array of colours being no exception.
Nicholas Ruddick insists that the chromatic imagery has no symbolic meaning whatsoever and that Poe employs to emulate Prospero’s insanity because the colours are discordant (Ibid., p. 60). Edward William Pitcher suggests that the colour scheme is tripartite representation of different aspects of life (blue and purple are associated with ‘divine truths’, green, orange and white for spring and violet with black unveiling the ‘facility in belief’ or death) (Ibid., p. 61). Patrick Cheney correlates the colour scheme with the Catholic liturgy, paralleling it with a ‘reversal of the Christian drama of resurrection’ and a ‘triumph’ over death by subverting theological doctrine (Ibid. p. 61) – which seems quite incongruous with the denouement in my opinion. As of now, I stand firmly behind Ruddick’s interpretation and will abstain from over-analysing the colours in The Masque of the Red Death.
Bibliography
Poe, E. A., 1842. The Masque of the Red Death – The Poe Museum. [Online]
Available at: https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death
[Accessed 2021].
Zimmerman, B., 2009. The Puzzle of the Color Symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death”: Solved at Last?. The Edgar Allan Poe Review, 10(No. 2), pp. 60-73.