MASK OF RED DEATH

Characterization: “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one
of his castellated abbeys”: Prince Prospero was happy, so he decided to take a cautios move to save his life. 

Symbol: "It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the
western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony" The clock is a symbol of the plauge.