Exposition: Poe uses the beginning of the story to offer important background information; Prospero's kingdom is under attack from the Red Death, and Prospero locks his friends and himself into his castle to escape the plague.
Inciting Incident: Prospero's decision to hold a masquerade ball starts the main conflict between he and the Red Death in motion.
Rising Action: The description of the rooms, the chiming of the clocks, and details of the party increase the tone of anxiety and fear in the story. The conflict intensifies when the mummer (mummy) dressed as the Red Death appears and angers Prospero. Prospero's decision to chase him when the other knights in the castle back away from the unexpected guest in fear leads to the climax.
Climax: Prospero has reached the point of no return when he falls dead while attempting to kill the mummy.
Falling Action: The knights must react to Prospero's death in the climax of of the story and they pull the sheet off the mummy only to find nothing there. They all fall dead.
Resolution: With all the knights and Prince Prospero dead, the conflict is resolved as the Red Death takes complete control of the kingdom.
Symbols
The ebony clock: The clock symbolizes the passage of time, the onset of death, and the life of the party goers (revellers). Poe builds the symbol by giving details on how the party stops and the partiers get nervous every time they hear the clock chime, and he finishes the meaning of the symbol when he states "And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay." The clock stops when life stops.
Room colors: day - night is the same as life - death.
Abbey: monks pray for people's salvation. Prospero parties in the Abbey while his kingdom is dying.
Irony
Prospero: Prospero's name is an obvious allusion to the word Prosperity or Prosperous: the condition of being successful or thriving; especially : economic well-being. While Prospero is thriving at the beginning of the story, Poe creates irony when the Red Death is able to sneak into the party and kill the "most prosperous" man in the kingdom. Although Prospero thinks he is wealthy enough to escape death, he isn't
Abbey: Abbey were build so that Monks could gray for human salvation, yet Prospero retreats to the Abbey to escape death and throw a party.
Happy, dauntless, and sagacious: dauntless is fearless and sagacious are wise. Prospero cannot allways be happy, as he cannot escape death. At first he fears the Munner, and his decision to try to escape death turns into asitaton where he chases death and death kill him.
Characterization
Prospero: He is scared and trying to hide from death and locks himself inside the abbey.
The People: Prospero locked himself and the people in the Abbey and didn't let the people leave. This made the people very sad.
Death: Death comes to to visit the them because they all have the bubonic plaque and Prospero tries to kill him. When death falls to the ground after killing Prospero, the people die from looking under death's cloths and there is nothing there. They die after that.