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This also signifies that there is life on the outside and soon to be less on the inside. Poe sets up dramatic irony in this image is set up in the last room which is black, and this is the last stage of life. The scarlet pains in the black room also mean blood, and fear, then death. In this last room is where Prospero dies by the hands of the Red Death, showing that no one can escape death, no matter how rich, or smart they are. Another image is that the rooms are set up from east to west, east meaning the beginning of life and the rise of the sun, and west the end of life, also the sunsets in the west. This suggests that they came into the abbey with life, and by the time the sunsets they will have possibly faced their death. Another symbol is the big black clock that sets in the black room. This clock is counting down time “the time that flies” until they die and symbolizes
