1. mazelike arrangement of the rooms 2. ebony clock 3. masked ball 4. wildness and feverish gaity of the ball 5. 12 strokes of the clock 6. the seven rooms

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Answers

The palace disguises its limitations as a trap by the illusion of infinity and control over time. The maze gives the illusion of infinite space, the rooms the wholeness of life(or all the seven deadlies, your pleasure which)with the last room and the clock containing the measuremtn and progression of time to death. The wildness and feverish gaity of the phonies trying to escape reality within and illusion is due to the knowledge of implacable reality which is even imaged forth inevitability within their refuge. The final stroke of the final hour and the chasing of the Red Death into the forbidden last room of Black brings the party to a close. An ingenious rendition of the Dance of Death(the medieval plague)within a typically claustrophobic, manaical Poe house-tomb.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

1. The mazelike arrangement of the rooms. The rooms are arranged from east to west, with the first in the east and the last in the west. The sun rises from east to west 2. The Ebony clock. When the giant clock of ebony rings, everyone stops and pauses. They acknowledge that death has come. Everytime the clock tolls, death has come for someone. 4. The ball was so extravagant because he was locked up for a long time trying to escape from the Red Death, so to have some fun, he threw a party for people who hadn't come in contact with the Red Death. 5. The 12 strokes of the clock. When the bell tolls 12 times, death has come for the prince. Midnight to me signifies the end of one day but the beginning of another, like New Year's Eve. I interpret that it was an end of one life, but the beginning of another. 6. The seven rooms. The number seven can symbolize alot of things. Seven is associated with time, seven stages of the world, seven stages of life, seven days of the week...Also, there are seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues, and for Catholics like myself there are seven sacrements(baptism, first communion,reconciliation, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, and last rites)seven books in the Torah, and it took 7 days for God to make the Universe(on the seventh day he rested). Universities used to be based on 7 kinds of learning, there are seven wonders of the world, and seven continents.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002