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
Prospero: He represents the wealthy, or prosperous. He symbolizes the people who have everything they will ever need. He is so proud, he thinks he can escape death. He symbolizes man's lack of control over fate.
the 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. It is a countdown til death.
east and west: These are the directions in which the rooms are layed out. It starts from blue and goes to purple, to green, to orange, to white, to violet, then to black.In a way, these colors seem to resemble a rising to a setting sun because the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Also, the colors correspond to to same colors in which the sun rises and sets. It starts out as a blue sky, gets lighter for day, then darkens when the sun starts to go down all the way until it turns into a black sky. The movement from birth to death.
the abbey: It is a house of God or a church in which most people come to to worship God and separate themselves from the world. They get away from their worldly life and push all their worries aside. This is similar to the way Prospero sees his abbey. He gets away from the outside world and attempts to only keep the good in by partying. It symbolizes Prospero's fear of death (his salvation is twisted; he only wants to save himself) and his sins.
room colors: They can represent two different things. They resemble the seven deadly sins and a point in life. Each time someone enters a room, a sin controls the life of that person who enters it. Blue represents sloth (laziness), purple represents gluttony (consumption of more than you need), green represents envy (resentful awareness of an advantage that someone else has combined with a deisire to possess the same advantage), orange represents greed (wanting more than you need), white represnts lust (wanting something that you shouldn't have), violet represents wrath (violent, vengeful anger), and black represents pride (excessive self-esteem). Blue is morning, purple is early day, green is youth and summer, orange is fall or autumn, white is winter, violet is second childhood or twilight, and black is death.
Irony
Prospero locks himself in an abbey: If Prince Prospero is so wealthy, why doesn't he want to share his fortune in the outside world. An abbey is supposed to be free for anyone to enter, but the author creates irony when others enter the abbey.
The narrator's description of Prospero as "happy and dauntless and sagacious": At the beginning of the story, this is the description given to Prospero. It is considered ironic by the end because he is fearfull and unwise. The red death causes these feelings.
Prospero's name: 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.
Characterization
Prospero: By the end, he becomes just the opposite: greedy, fearfull, and full of pride.wealthy ruler but his kingdom is dying, he is excentrice. He has an old taste in things and is selfish. He is also nieve, and prideful. He is fearful because he doesn't want to die, but he also thinks he is above death all together.
Prospero's friends: His friends don't care that all the others are dying but they do care about the world in which they think belongs to themself.